Tebow's 7 TDs Lead Florida to 51-31 Win



COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Tim Tebow accounted for all seven of Florida's touchdowns, a school record five rushing and two passing, as the Gators kept alive their hopes of making the SEC title game with a 51-31 victory over South Carolina on Saturday night.

Tim Tebow was 22-for-32 for a career-best 304 yards and ran for 120 yards, accounting for more than three-quarters of the offense for the No. 17 Gators (7-3, 5-3).

No sophomore has won the Heisman Trophy, but Tim Tebow is making quite a case by carrying the defending national champions.

With Florida's dual-threat receiver Percy Harvin out with sinus problems, Tim Tebow took over, running things so efficiently the Gators didn't have a play lose yards until things were well in hand midway through the third quarter.

It was another terrible defensive outing for the Gamecocks (6-5, 3-5), who allowed 233 yards rushing and 537 yards total a week after giving up 651 yards, 542 of them on the ground, in a loss to Arkansas.

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier drops to 1-2 against Florida, the team he won a Heisman Trophy and coached to a national championship. It also is the first time a team has scored more than 50 on a Spurrier team since Florida's 62-24 loss to Nebraska in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl.

Spurrier has lost four in a row for only the second time in his college coaching career and finishes with a losing SEC record for a second straight season -- two things that never happened with the Gators.

The win keeps Florida in the hunt for the SEC title game. The Gators league schedule is done, making them big fans of Kentucky and Vanderbilt. They need the Wildcats to beat Georgia and they need Tennessee to lose to either the Wildcats or the Commodores to have a shot at playing LSU for the conference title Dec. 1.

The tone was set on the first play from scrimmage, when South Carolina lost the ball on a bad snap and the Gators scored on 5-yard run by Tim Tebow moments later. The Gamecocks did take a 14-13 lead late in the first quarter after stopping Florida for no gain on a fourth-and-one and recovering a fumble.

Then Tim Tebow took over either running or throwing the ball on 14 of Florida's next 16 plays, including scoring runs of 1 and 3 yards, to put the Gators back up 27-14.

Tim Tebow also added touchdown runs of 2 and 5 yards in the second half, and threw a 22-yard score to Jarred Fayson in the second quarter.

The records keep piling up for Tim Tebow. He now has 19 rushing touchdowns for the season, tying four others for the SEC record. He also has shattered the school-record of 14 running TDs held by Emmitt Smith in 1989 and Buford Long in 1952.

The sophomore has 42 total TDs running and passing, breaking fellow Florida QB Danny Wuerffel's SEC record of 41 set in 1996.

Andre Caldwell caught 11 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown with less than two minutes to go, while Brandon James ran for 49 yards for the Gators. John Curtis blocked a punt that led to Florida's second touchdown

Blake Mitchell was 26-of-42 for 316 yards. He has thrown for at least 290 yards in South Carolina's last three games, all losses.

With six wins, South Carolina is no lock for a bowl. The SEC has 10 teams bowl eligible and Vanderbilt just a win away with only eight bowl spots guaranteed. The Gamecocks end the season in two weeks against archrival No. 20 Clemson. Spurrier hasn't missed a bowl since his first Florida team was on probation in 1990 and hasn't had a non-winning season in college since going 5-6 his first year at Duke in 1987.

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