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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- It was the kind of game where nothing
made sense, except the final score.
|  | | Florida lineman Thomas Moody caught a deflected pass and dove into the end zone for a TD in one of the Gators' bizarre plays Saturday. |
The left guard caught a touchdown pass. A punter glided his way
to the longest run of the day. A running back scored off a blocked
punt. So did a wide receiver.
Somewhere in all the madness Saturday, Florida (No. 4 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 AP) earned its
seventh trip to the Southeastern Conference title game with a 41-21
victory over No. 21 South Carolina.
"It was," Gators coach Steve Spurrier said, "a different-type
game."
So different, that long after Florida (9-1, 7-1) gets done
celebrating its SEC East title -- a ritual that has become almost
routine -- the Gators will surely remember this as one of the
weirdest, wackiest displays of football they've ever played.
"It was the wildest game I've ever been a part of," said
Gators quarterback Jesse Palmer, who came off the bench to lead the
Florida rally.
It left South Carolina (7-3, 5-3) bemoaning a 21-3 lead
squandered and a lost chance to continue Lou Holtz's impossible
journey, from 0-11 last season to SEC champions in 2000.
"We aren't good enough fundamentally," Holtz said. "They were
just too strong for us. Defensively, we played like we were in the
glare of the headlights. Offensively, they just dominated us up
front."
Still, the Gamecocks had their chance thanks to a pair of
blocked punts, one returned for a score by receiver Carlos Spikes,
the other by running back Derek Watson. It gave them a 21-3 lead in
the first quarter and left The Swamp in shock.
Of course, nobody has more big-play comeback potential than the
Gators.
"It kind of set us up to pitch it around a little bit,"
Spurrier said. "We get behind, and here, we're either going to get
way behind, or we're going to catch up."
The risk-taking began early when punter Alan Rhine, still
smarting from the two blocked kicks, ran around left end for 26
yards on fourth-and-2.
On the next play, Palmer boinked a pass off the back of
cornerback Sheldon Brown's helmet and into the hands of Jabar
Gaffney for a 40-yard gain to set up the first touchdown and trim
the deficit to 11.
On the next drive, Palmer hit Gaffney for a 70-yard score --
relatively routine for this day.
Then came the play that not even Spurrier could draw up.
On third-and-goal from the 6, Palmer came under heavy pressure
and unloaded a pass that deflected off a South Carolina defender
and bounded into the hands of left guard Thomas Moody.
Seeing the play unfold in front of him, Palmer nudged Moody
toward the end zone and Moody lumbered in, mobbed by teammates
after scoring the go-ahead points, and one of the strangest
touchdowns in memory.
"I got an early Christmas present," Moody said. "Offensive
linemen aren't supposed to do that. It happened today. It's one of
those dreams you have."
Holtz, a study in fist-pumping enthusiasm earlier, stood on the
sideline expressionless after that one, wondering how it could all
go so bad, so quickly.
The lead gone, Holtz seemingly lost his head for a moment, too,
electing to punt to Florida's explosive Lito Sheppard with 19
seconds remaining in the half.
Sheppard juked and slashed his way for a 57-yard touchdown
return, his second career score on a punt return, and the Gators
led 31-21 after a remarkable first half.
"That was critical," Holtz said. "That was what put the nail
in our players' hearts."
Lost in the commotion was another turn of Spurrier's quarterback
merry-go-round. He benched redshirt freshman Rex Grossman after a
few empty drives during the first quarter.
Palmer finished 15-for-27 for 250 yards and three touchdowns,
one more than the Gamecocks had surrendered all season.
Once again, the Gators have a quarterback issue to settle
heading into next week's huge game at No. 3 Florida State, although
Spurrier spoke as if the job is Palmer's to lose.
"It's a struggle for Rex," Spurrier said. "He's going to be
fine, I think. But he's a freshman, and it was time to put a senior
in the game."
South Carolina will prepare for its game next week against
Clemson, then a likely bowl berth in the Citrus, Outback or Peach --
not bad considering where the program was just a season ago.
But this one will sit hard for a while, especially considering
the Gamecocks briefly looked like they could do what no SEC East
team has done since the conference was split into divisions: Beat
Florida at the Swamp.
"You can't do what we did at the end of the first half,"
linebacker Marco Hutchinson said. "I think that's when the reality
set in. We saw we were up for a fight, a long fight. I don't think
we responded to the pressure as well as we usually do."
The Gators clinched the win with a pair of goal-line stands,
stopping South Carolina twice inside the 2 as the Gamecocks tried
to trim the 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
With his score, Gaffney has 13 touchdowns this season, the most
in major college history for a freshman wide receiver. He finished
with 168 yards, tying a Florida record with his sixth straight
100-yard game.
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ALSO SEE
College Football Scoreboard
South Carolina Clubhouse
Florida Clubhouse
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