Gators Own The Night

You know what the say. "Vanderbilt always plays us tough." Still, you would expect the Gators to have put on a little better of a show under the lights vs. the Dores. Tebow may have played one of his worst games in the Orange and Blue, despite what the stats say. Superman just looked a little lost out there last night. The running game was stagnant out there for most of the game. the Gators dd finally do a good job of limiting Chris Rainey's carries for once.

If anything, the game provided a good tune up for the home stretch for the Gators. The offense was a little vanilla, but that may be because Urb doesn't really feel the need to expand the playbook. Despite the lack of offensive ingenuity, the Gators did rack up just under 400 total yards.

The defense was stellar once again. Ryan Stamper and Dustin Doe filled in for Brandon Spikes quite nicely. The secondary was as dominant as it has been all season long. Janoris Jenkins and Joe Haden absolutely shut down Vandy's passing "attack." If I have one complaint about the defense, it was the lack of penetration in the backfield. Florida was held sackless, and they gave up quite a few long runs to Warren Norman.

In honor of the annoying ass Vanderbilt fan that sat behind me at the game. Here are the stats:

Passing

Tim Tebow 15-20 208 yds 1 td
John Brantley 3-3 19 yds

Rushing

Jeff Demps 7 rushes 57 yds 1 td
Emanuel Moody 8 rushes 34 yds
Tim Tebow 16 rushes 27 yds 1 td
Brandon James 2 rushes 18 yds
Chris Rainey 4 rushes 12 yds

Receiving

Aaron Hernandez 7 recs 120 yds
Brandon James 4 recs 44 yds
David Nelson 3 recs 28 yds 1 td
Deonte Thompson 1 rec 16 yds

Field Goals

Caleb Sturgis 2/2 long - 45 yds

Tackles

Dustin Doe 11 tckls
Ryan Stamper 6 tckls
Carlos Dunlap 5 tckls
Ahmad Black 5 tckls
Jon Bostic 5 tckls

Interceptions

Ryan Stamper 1 int


Player of The Game

Ryan Stamper - Linebacker, Interception Machine

Is there any linebacker in the nation that's better at finding the ball in the air and picking it off? Well, yeah. But Brandon Spikes sat this game out, and A.J. Jones didn't register an int. So the honor is Stamper's for now. Stamper was also one of the few players, along with Dustin Doe, to get consistent pressure on the Vanderbilt offense. It was nice to see Stamper really step up in the absence of Spikes. The linebacker unit will be back at full strength next week. That's bad news for Stephen Garcia.