Florida rolls over Tennessee

Knoxville — Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, has made one thing very clear: His No. 1 goal in 2008 is not winning his second Heisman, but his first SEC championship.

Tebow and the rest of the Florida Gators sent a message to Georgia and the three other Top 10 teams from the SEC who also have designs on the conference title: To win it you’re going to have to go through us. And this season, going through the Gators will not be easy.

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AP

Florida’s Brandon James (25) returns a punt 78 yards for a touchdown as the Gators gutted Tennessee for the second year in a row.

Florida, the 2006 national champions, marched into Tennessee’s historic Neyland Stadium on Saturday and before a crowd of 106,138 dismantled and disheartened the Volunteers. The Gators jumped out to a 27-0 lead early in the third quarter and cruised to a 30-6 victory in their SEC opener.

How dominating were the Gators? Tebow was not a factor (15 yards rushing, 54 passing). He didn’t need to be.

“This game was a huge step,” said Tebow, who has now thrown 145 consecutive passes without an interception. “This team is playing with a lot of confidence.”

Of the five SEC teams (Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, LSU) ranked in this week’s Associated Press Top 10, the Gators appear to have the easiest road to the SEC championship game in Atlanta on Dec. 6. Florida plays only two of the other four Top 10 teams (Georgia, LSU at home on Oct. 11). Georgia and LSU play each of the other four. Florida only has three true SEC road games (Tennessee, Arkansas, Vanderbilt).

Florida (3-0, 1-0 SEC), which faces No. 3 Georgia in Jacksonville on Nov. 1, made it look ridiculously easy on Saturday with a combination of speed and athleticism that covered every phase of the game and left Tennessee with absolutely no answers.

For the second consecutive year Tennessee (1-2, 0-1) was tormented by turnovers and poor play on special teams. Brandon James returned the opening kickoff 55 yards to set up a touchdown and then returned a punt 78 yards for a score that gave Florida a 17-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We have found that the return game can really can take the crowd out of the game,” said Florida coach Urban Meyer, who is now 4-0 against Tennessee. “Our return game is pretty good right now.”

James, who had an 83-yard punt return in last season’s 59-20 win over Tennessee, said he was surprised that Tennessee kicked the ball to him.

“Once I made a couple of guys miss I thought I was going to go the distance,” said James, who had a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown in the opener against Hawaii. “That kind of set the tone for the entire day. After we went up (17-0) I knew it was going to be hard to catch us.”

Tennessee actually had more yards (258-243) than Florida but could not overcome two crucial mistakes deep in Florida territory.

Behind 17-0, Tennessee drove to the Florida 2-yard line in the second quarter and had a chance to get back into the game. But junior quarterback Jonathan Crompton fumbled the ball before he could hand it to Arian Foster. In the final seconds of the first half, Tennessee was on the Florida 1-yard line when Crompton threw an interception on fourth down.

“I told the team that this one was on me,” Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said. “But the fact is we never gave ourselves a chance to do what we wanted to do. Because of the mistakes on special teams and turnovers, we put ourselves in a hole and we couldn’t climb out.”

“We just shot ourselves in the foot,” said Crompton, who completed 18 of 28 passes for 162 yards.