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| Saturday, December 2 Youth movement paves Gators' future Associated Press | |||
| ATLANTA -- Normally, it's the losers who walk off the field
after games like these and say "Wait 'til next year." This time,
it's the Florida Gators (No. 8 ESPN/USA Today, No. 7 AP), the newly crowned Southeastern Conference
champions, who really can't wait.
Freshmen and sophomores played the biggest roles in Florida's 28-6 victory over Auburn (No. 17 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) in the SEC title game
Saturday.
As Steve Spurrier rode off the field on his players' shoulders
with his sixth conference title in hand, it was clear he has a
great chance to take the ride next year, and maybe the season
after.
"We don't talk about youth much until the season is over,"
Spurrier said. "Basically, to me, if you talk about how young you
are, it's sort of an excuse for getting beat. The only thing we're
saying is, we should be back here. We should be competing for
conference championships with the players we have."
Freshman quarterback Rex Grossman threw for 238 yards and four
touchdowns. Sophomore receiver Reche Caldwell caught two of those
scores and the freshman who lines up opposite him, Jabar Gaffney,
caught another.
Meanwhile, sophomore tailback Earnest Graham gave the Gators
(10-2) the kind of ground attack they don't usually get, rushing
for a career-high 169 yards.
They are the future of Florida football, and most experts
figured it would be at least another year or two before they were
ready to lift the Gators back to the level Spurrier took them from
1991-96, when they won the first five championships.
"There's a great future for this team," junior offensive
lineman Kenyatta Walker said. "It took some of the young guys a
while to realize that this is college, this is the big-time. But I
see nothing but a bright future."
Indeed, it took Grossman and Gaffney half the season to crack
the starting lineup. Graham lost his starting position early in the
year and didn't get it back until Saturday. Caldwell has waged a
steady fight against bad hands that plagued him last year.
Their inexperience showed the most two weeks ago, in a humbling
30-7 loss to No. 3 Florida State, when the big plays were too few,
and the youthful mistakes too frequent, to compete with the best in
the country.
But that's the beauty of the SEC. Even if a national title is
out of the question, there's always that conference ring up for
grabs.
The Gators were clearly the best team in the conference this
year, and they'll be heading back to the Sugar Bowl because of it.
They're going because Grossman was at his best -- deciphering the
Auburn zone on Florida's first drive to thread a 10-yard touchdown
to Caldwell. His 21 touchdown passes are the second best for an SEC
freshman behind -- guess who? -- Danny Wuerffel.
Caldwell caught everything Grossman threw his way, including one
pass at midfield that he took to the sideline, using a nice stiff
arm and a great burst of speed for a 66-yard score.
Gaffney was at his sneaky best -- catching a perfectly thrown
27-yard touchdown over a defender who kept his eyes on the
receiver, but never knew the ball was coming. With five catches for
84 yards, Gaffney became the most prolific freshman receiver in
big-time college football history (1,184 yards).
"It's a very impressive group," said senior quarterback Jesse
Palmer, relegated to the bench for this game. "They took a great
step today, and I get the feeling the future is still ahead for
these guys."
Florida's defense is young, too, and many times just as
impressive.
The Gators created four more turnovers, including two fumble
recoveries by sophomore Mike Nattiel and two interceptions by
sophomore Lito Sheppard, to bring their total to a nation-leading
40.
The offense scored touchdowns after the first three,
capitalizing on opponent's mistakes the way experienced teams often
do.
This isn't to say the Gators were perfect.
They turned it over three times, including one poorly thrown
interception by Grossman and another play in which the quarterback
tripped after taking the snap and clumsily left the ball on the
turf.
Of course, perfection isn't the name of this game, even though
Spurrier sometimes wishes it were. The good news for him: With this
group, there's plenty of time to work on it.
| ALSO SEE
Gators easily win SEC title, invite to Sugar BowlAuburn misses many opportunities in SEC title game | ||
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