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Sweet revenge for Gators

Florida shuts out Mississippi State at home, holding the Bulldogs to 214 yards.

[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer] Florida's defense smothers MSU's Justin Jenkins.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 30, 2001

GAINESVILLE -- Consider the score evened.

On second thought, consider Florida one up on Mississippi State.

With the memory of last season's humiliating 47-35 loss to the Bulldogs thrown in its face all week, Florida took the high road, saying there was no revenge factor, no desire to make Mississippi State regret rushing for 351 yards on the Gators' defense.

Yeah, right.

With its best defensive effort of the season, Florida avenged last season with a 52-0 win over Mississippi State in front of 85,579 at Florida Field on Saturday.

It was Florida's first shutout of an SEC opponent since 1995, when the Gators beat Kentucky 65-0. The Bulldogs had not been shutout since 1997.

"What a difference a year makes," coach Steve Spurrier said. "We are a lot better team. We're better defensively, we know what we're doing more. It was a good victory."

If this was its first real test of the season, Florida has to be considered among the top in its class.

The Florida offense rolled up 640 yards, its fourth consecutive game with more than 500 yards. Quarterback Rex Grossman had another record-setting day, going 22-of-31 for 393 yards (five touchdowns), becoming the first Florida quarterback to have four consecutive games of more than 300 yards.

But most importantly, the defense got its revenge in the most impressive form -- a shutout. And they held the Bulldogs to 214 yards. Without starting tailback Dicenzo Miller, who was out with an ankle sprain, Mississippi State was held to 44 rushing yards.

"It was personal," said linebacker Andra Davis, who recovered a fumble. "We tried not to talk about revenge, but 351 yards (gained against them last season), it was personal." Last season, Florida's defense lined up against Mississippi State with two freshmen and a defensive lineman coming off knee surgery. So what the Gators wanted Saturday was an opportunity to prove their defense is much better than last season.

"When we got off the bus, Alex (Brown, defensive end) said to us that we need to show people we are a good defense," defensive tackle Ian Scott said. "He said everybody is talking about other people's defense, so we need to go show we have a good defense too."

So they did.

Florida held Mississippi State to 53 yards in the first half, including 19 yards on 19 carries. The Bulldogs passed for 34 yards in the first half. The Gators had four sacks, recovered a fumble and had one interception (by Matt Farrior).

"Hats off to Florida," said Madkin, who was 10-of-17 for 86 yards. "They came in here with a vengeance, so to speak, and they played A-plus football today."

The Gators scored on their opening drive with a 1-yard run by Grossman with 11:05 remaining, his first career rushing touchdown.

On Florida's second possession, Keiwan Ratliffe returned a punt 8 yards, then fumbled. The ball was recovered by Mississippi State's Ivan Billie, but the Bulldogs' drive stalled when John M. Marlin's 44-yard field-goal attempt fell short.

Florida scored six touchdowns on passes from Grossman and backup Brock Berlin (7-of-17 for 114 yards).

"Their pass defense was No. 1 in the nation coming in, but it won't be going out," Spurrier said.

Receiver Reche Caldwell, a former Jefferson High star, scored on passes of 20 yards and 14 yards in first and second quarters. Caldwell had 101 yards on five receptions.

"The Florida wide receivers are a tough group to cover real tough," Caldwell said. "We went out and just tried to run our routes the best we could and get open, and we did. We've played well this year, but this was an amazing effort."

Spurrier said the Bulldogs' penchant for blitzing was key to Florida's 29-of-49 for 507 yards passing peformance. Five receivers and nine different players caught passes Saturday. Many were wide open.

"We feel we can match up one-on-one with anybody," said receiver Jabar Gaffney, who had 159 yards on nine catches. "I got pretty open today. I don't know what their defense was doing."

The offensive players were quick to tip their hats to the defense.

"They knew they got embarrassed last year," defensive coordinator Jon Hoke said. "I wouldn't call it revenge, but we took it personal what they did to us last year defensively, especially running the football. So we wanted to make sure we came out and proved to them they could not run the ball on us, and our offense helped us immensely by scoring a lot of points."

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