#4 Florida has no trouble with The Citadel

That Florida would beat The Citadel—a Div. 1-AA/FCS team with a losing record—was a foregone conclusion.  Even so, the severity of the destruction that the Gators rained down upon the vastly overmatched Bulldogs was downright scary.  Despite pulling skill position starters in the 2nd quarter, playing numerous backups—even some not listed on the depth chart, and generally not trying to run up the score the Gators manhandled The Citadel 70-19.

No matter how you slice it up statistically, this was a beatdown of epic proportions.  Florida scored touchdowns on its first seven possessions and rolled up 512 yards in the first half alone.  QB Tim Tebow threw for 201 yards and 3 TDs, while running back Chris Rainey ran for 142 yards and a touchdown—not bad considering that both were removed for substitutes early in the 2nd quarter.  All told, eight different Gators would score touchdowns as the team finished with 705 yards of total offense—had they wanted to run up the score they could have doubled that yardage total and put triple digits on the scoreboard.

The game was “in the bag” so quickly that Florida Coach Urban Meyer could afford to facilitate a “feel good” story.  Early in the 3rd quarter with his team up 49-6, Meyer gave 5th year senior Javier Estopinan—who had suffered through three knee operations during his tenure in Gainesville—a carry near the goal line.  This allowed Estopinan to score his first—and most likely only—career touchdown in a Gator uniform.  Estopinan was surprised and thankful for his coach’s gesture:

"It was awesome. There's no better feeling.  Coach is stingy with his touchdowns. There's so many playmakers on offense you would never think you're going to get a touchdown."

Meyer demonstrated as much class as he could with his play calling and personnel management. By midway through the second half, the Gator side of the field was all third stringers and lower which allowed The Citadel to put a couple of TDs on the board.  After outscoring The Citadel 49-6 In the first half, the Gators only held a 21-14 margin in the second as Meyer did everything he good to get his bench in the game while trying not to score.

Of course Meyer had his own vested interest in minimizing the playing time of his starters as the Gators have two tough games left on the docket before bowl season.  They’ll travel to Tallahassee to play traditional rival Florida State next Saturday and while the Seminoles are “only” 8-3 on the season this sort of rivalry game is notorious for producing upsets.  On December 6th, Florida will meet Alabama in the SEC Title Game held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.