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Morris: Florida delivers old-school beating
South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia is brought down by Florida linebacker Lerentee McCray during the fourth quarter.
Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thestate.com
Posted on 11.16.08
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GAINESVILLE, Fla.
STEVE SPURRIER MIGHT have experienced longer days on a coaching sideline, but none could have been more painful than Saturday’s at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Spurrier’s South Carolina offense was inept, unable to find the end zone on the same Florida Field where many of his Gator teams wore the grass out with touchdown celebrations. His team’s decorated defense was bludgeoned by a Florida offense that displayed the kind of fast-attack weapons Spurrier’s teams once did at Florida.
The 56-6 romp was the kind of whipping Spurrier often put on teams when he coached at Florida. It was the kind Spurrier administered on USC many times, the worst of which was a 63-7 decision against the Gamecocks in 1995.
Afterward, Spurrier attempted to diffuse the impact of such an embarrassing performance in his second return to the place he won a Heisman Trophy as a player and a national championship as a coach.
“A loss is a loss, one point, 50 points,” Spurrier said. “Sometimes when you get your butt beat real good, sometimes it is better than one or two points.”
That may be so, but it has to smart knowing Spurrier and USC had a chance to derail Florida’s quest for a national title. The Gamecocks nearly did just that two seasons ago in Gainesville, only to see a blocked field goal at the end preserve Florida’s win.
That one was close throughout. This one was never in doubt. Florida dominated both lines of scrimmage from the get-go. The Gators rolled up 517 yards of total offense. Versatile Florida receiver/running back Percy Harvin rushed for 167 yards, or 7 fewer yards than USC’s entire offense managed.
“Their lines were good. Their line of scrimmage was very good,” Spurrier said. “We got pushed around on offense, we couldn’t find a play. ... Our quarterback play struggled. You add it all up, and you get clobbered. So, we got clobbered this year.”
Maybe we should have expected such a performance from Florida against a USC defense considered among the best in the country. The USC defense fell in line with two others from the SEC. Like USC, both Kentucky and Vanderbilt entered their games against Florida ranked No. 1 in the league in total defense, having not allowed more than 24 points in a game.
Florida had 421 yards of offense — USC had been allowing 256 prior to Saturday — by the end of the third quarter when it pulled its starters. The Gators had 28 points by halftime.
“Uncharacteristic busted assignments,” said USC defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, by way of explaining Florida’s ability to score quickly. “Against another football team it’s 15 yards. Against them, it’s four touchdowns. ... You’ve almost got to play flawless against them.”
As a three-touchdown underdog going in, USC knew it needed a near-perfect performance to win — or maybe even to compete. That idea quickly went by the wayside late in the first quarter.
Florida has a way of piling on an opponent, swiftly and cleanly. Over a two-minute, 15-second flurry of the first quarter, Florida put USC to the mat and had the Gamecocks crying “uncle.”
In rapid-fire succession, a Chris Smelley pass was returned by Brandon Spikes 12 yards for a touchdown; his next pass was picked off by Ahmad Black and Harvin immediately ran 26 yards for a touchdown; and a botched lateral on a kickoff gave Florida the ball one foot from the goal line where Tim Tebow ran it in.
“I don’t know what we could have done differently,” Spurrier said of USC facing the early three-touchdown deficit, “except try to keep it close.”
The manner in which USC was delivered such an early knockout blow was reminiscent of a couple of other nightmarish games for Spurrier. In the fifth game of Spurrier’s USC career, his offense was inept and his defense was battered in a 48-7 loss at Auburn. He experienced the same helplessness in Florida’s 62-24 national championship loss against Nebraska after the 1995 season.
Still, never before in his coaching career had Spurrier experienced a 50-point beating, not with the Tampa Bay Bandits in the old USFL, not with Washington in the NFL, not with Duke, not with Florida and not with USC.
How bad was this day, which started gloomy with a steady drizzle and turned nightmarish for any USC supporter? Consider that Spurrier sent Ryan Succop out to kick a couple of meaningless field goals.
Neither of those Succop field goals mattered, except to say that USC scored. It was quite a statement for a coach who often poked fun at opponents that settled for field goals to counter his Florida team’s touchdowns.
It was the kind of decisions made by a coach suffering through one of the longest, most painful days of his coaching career.
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