Florida 27, Vanderbilt 3

GAINESVILLE-- Tim Tebow passed for 208 yards and a touchdown and ran for another 58 yards and score as Florida held off scrappy Vanderbilt, 27-3. The Commodores harassed Tebow throughout the night, sacking him four times but could get little done offensively.

Florida took the lead in the first quarter on 27-yard Caleb Sturgis field goal. Later in the second quarter, Jeffery Demps ran 25 yards to put the Gators up 10-0.

With 6 minutes remaining in the first half, Sturgis kicked his second field goal of the game, this time from 45 yards, to put the Gators up 13-0.

On its first drive, Vanderbilt drove to the Florida 35-yard-line but was forced to punt after the drive stalled.

Trailing 13-0 at the start of the second half, the Commodores held Florida to a three and out first drive, and then put together a rare SEC scoring drive. Vanderbilt marched 9 plays in 54 yards before they were forced to settle for a Ryan Fowler 32-yard field goal. That scoring drive featured a 30-yard run by Warren Norman.

However, Florida answered the drive with an 11 play, 64 scoring drive that was capped with a Tebow 1-yard run.

In the fourth quarter, Brett Upson was ruled down when he tried to field a low snap resulting in great field position for the Gators. Four plays later Tebow completed a 8-yard pass to David Nelson to put the Gators up 27-3.

Vanderbilt's offense was frustrated by the Gators throughout the second half and after the made field goal never penetrated further than the Commodore 40.

Mackenzi Adams finished with 100 yards passing while completing 13 of 29 passes with one interception. Warren Norman had 65 yards rushing and accumulated 176 all-purpose yards on the day, with 99 coming from kickoff returns. Norman became the reigning SEC single-season record holder in kickoff return yardage with 951. Norman also moved into second in Vanderbilt's all-time freshman rushers with 658 yards.

After the game Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson talked about Vandy's high intensity defense, “We weren’t going to sit back tonight. We had four sacks and that’s what we wanted to do. They had a very diverse offense and did a lot of stuff. We did a good job condensing their strengths and we executed well.”

Vanderbilt is now 2-8 (0-6 SEC) and will host Kentucky on Saturday. Florida improves to 9-0 and next travels to South Carolina.


Florida running back Emmanuel Moody (21) is tackled after a short gain by Vanderbilt cornerback Casey Hayward (19) during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Gainesville, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009. Florida won 27-3.(AP Photo/John Raoux)