2009 Florida Football Post-Game Notes Florida at LSU October 10, 2009 Team * Florida extended its school-record winning streak to 15 games. * The Gators snapped LSU’s Saturday night winning streak at 32 games. Before tonight, the last time the Tigers had lost a Saturday night game came against Alabama on Nov. 16, 2002, 31-0. * The Gators have been ranked in the top 10 nine times visiting Baton Rouge and improved to 6-3. * UF has been to Death Valley ranked in the top 5 five times and won four (1993, 1995, 2001, 2009). * Tonight marked the 16th encounter between SEC teams ranked in the top five. The Gators are now 5-2 in these games. Oct. 29, 1983 - #4 Auburn defeats #5 Florida, 28-21 Sept. 21, 1996 - #4 Florida defeats #2 Tennessee, 35-29 Sept. 20, 1997 - #3 Florida defeats #4 Tennessee, 33-20 Sept. 18, 1999 - #4 Florida defeats #2 Tennessee, 23-21 Dec. 1, 2001 - #5 Tennessee defeats #2 Florida, 34-32 Dec. 6, 2008 - #2 Florida defeats #1 Alabama, 31-20 Oct. 10, 2009 - #1 Florida defeats #4 LSU, 13-3 * Florida made its 30th appearance on in the on-site game on ESPN’s College GameDay, a figure that leads the nation. The Gators have played in the game where the show is on-site 20 times, going 14-6. -Road wins over Auburn [1997], Florida State [1997], Georgia [1999, 2002, 2005], South Carolina [2001], Tennessee [1996, 2000, 2002], Ohio State [2007*], Kentucky [2007], Oklahoma [2009*], LSU [2009]. - Road losses to Auburn [2006] Florida State [1996, 2000], LSU [1997, 2007] & Nebraska [1996 *]. * Denotes these are bowl games, which are ‘Neutral Site’ games for both teams. * The Gator defense limited LSU to 162 yards of offense and 66 yards rushing on 30 attempts. * With a field goal, the Gators scored on their opening drive for the fourth time in five games this season. (Charleston Southern, TD; Tennessee, FG; Kentucky, FG; LSU, FG). UF failed to score against Troy. * Florida has out-scored opponents by a 37-3 margin in the first quarter and 73-16 in the second quarter in 2009. * Both of the Gators’ scoring drives were 80 or more yards. * Florida averaged 6.1 yards per play in the first half, with 114 yards rushing and 62 yards passing. * UF collected an interception for the 17th-straight game, the nation’s longest streak. Individual Player * Sophomore Caleb Sturgis opened the scoring with a 28-yard field goal to cap an 82-yard, 13-play drive that lasted 8:11. * The scoring drive for the Gators was the second-longest in the SEC this season behind Tennessee’s 15-play, 66-yard drive against Florida that lasted 8:33 and yielded a field goal. * Sturgis missed his first field goal of the year in the third quarter after six consecutive makes when he pushed a 20-yarder wide left. * Junior Aaron Hernandez’s first career carry went for 16 yards in the first quarter. * Hernandez established a career high with six receptions for 70 yards. * Senior Tim Tebow’s 24-yard touchdown pass to senior Riley Cooper enabled him to tie Danny Wuerffel’s school and SEC record for touchdown responsibility with 122. In his career, Tebow has 74 touchdown passes and rushed for 48 scores. * Cooper’s first reception of the game was his team-leading third scoring haul of the season. * Junior Joe Haden notched his second interception of the year and sixth of his career on LSU’s final possession of the first half. * Sophomore Jeff Demps (six carries, 41 yards) and redshirt junior Emmanuel Moody (five carries, 38 yards) combined for 11 rushes and 79 yards in the first half. Other * Game Captains: Redshirt seniors Joey Sorrentino and Ryan Stamper; Florida won the toss and deferred to the second half. * Weather at Kickoff: 68ºF on the field; winds NE 5-8 mph and 81% humidity 2009 Florida Football Post-Game Quotes Urban Meyer Florida Head Coach Florida vs. LSU October 10, 2009 “First of all, the game we just played, that was two sledgehammers just going at one another. Obviously it was as talented team as there is in the country, I thought it might not have been a high scoring affair, but it was good football. There were not a lot of turnovers and guys were coming running off the ball hard. Defensively, it was one of the best efforts I’ve ever seen containing athletes. The kicking game, I thought they did a good job of containing the athletes once again. To keep them in front of us was important. Brandon Spikes and the two corners both played very well. Obviously Tim (Tebow) came out and played his heart out. The offensive line did a good job of protecting him for the most part. We were somewhat conservative for the most part—somewhat. The management of the game is dependent upon how the defense is played and the special teams and I thought those two phases were tremendous.” 2009 Florida Football Post-Game Quotes Florida Players Florida vs. LSU October 10, 2009 QB TIM TEBOW On the past two weeks: “It was tough. I could see the stress it put on my family, friends, teammates, and different people who were worried about me not as far as football but just as a person. It was also frustrating because I wanted to be out there with my team practicing and playing and sometimes with this injury you feel like you can play, but you just have to be patient and listen to the doctors. I just tried to do that and they did a great job.” On if he had any reservations about playing: “No. All the tests that I went through and different environments they put me through, and then after a plane ride that had so much turbulence, I was like, ‘I am good to go.’” On how big this win was because of the loss against LSU in 2007: “It’s a big win. This place is one of my favorite stadiums to play in. It’s incredible. It’s just a lot of fun from the opening when they play that country song that they’re all singing. It’s just exciting and it gets your adrenaline going.” On how the offense played tonight: “To play against a good defense like that, those guys are really good and they come to play. We didn’t execute that great. We didn’t put the ball in the endzone when we should have, but I am very proud of our team and our offense. We played hard, and we played for four quarters. We just had so much confidence at the end that we knew we were going to get a shot and put this thing away.” ATHLETE BRANDON JAMES On the qualities of this year’s team: “We’re a real tough team but we’re also kind of an older team. With everybody coming back, we’ve got a lot of leadership.” On what kind of statement Florida made tonight: “I feel like we made a statement that we’re a pretty good team and still number one in the country. We can come into a tough environment like this and get a win.” S WILL HILL On the execution of the defense: “We came out and we knew we would be challenged today. We came out and played with a lot of confidence. We knew what we had to do. We knew that odds were against us since they had won 32 games in a row, so we had to come out and play tough and we did.” On when he found out QB Tim Tebow would start: “I didn’t. We knew that Tim would suit up but we didn’t know if he would play, but we didn’t really care. Tim doesn’t play defense. The defense knew what we had to do to come out and win this game.” On what the secondary needed to do to win: “We knew they had two big receivers that we had to stop. If we could shut those guys down then we could win.” LB RYAN STAMPER On the Tiger Stadium Crowd: “Just to come in and play in a hostile environment like this, I’ve never really played in an environment like this one at LSU. Their crowd is a lot like our home crowd. To come in and beat them in front of their home crowd says a lot about our team.” On the play of the defensive line: “I just think we did a great job covering. Their quarterback wants to run the ball a lot and we noticed that. If we got good pressure on them we knew he would want to run the ball a lot, so we knew that we would get a lot of chances to sack him.” 2009 Florida Football Post-Game Quotes Les Miles LSU Head Coach Florida vs. LSU October 10, 2009 Opening statement: “I thought that our effort was good. I felt like our team played a very talented football team today, and we didn’t play smart. There were times where initially we assisted offensive drives. We lined up offsides. We had two unintentional facemask penalties that gave our opponent easy first downs and field position. We moved the ball at times, and then, in the second half, we could not move the football offensively. In a game where we have just a few possessions, you have to move the football.