COLUMBIA, S.C. - With 1:37 left, Andre Caldwell, leaped up, came down with the ball in the endzone and grinned while pointing to the remaining patch of Gators fans.
He was smiling because his quarterback, Tim Tebow, had just put himself right in the thick of the Heisman race after scoring one of his seven touchdowns on the night.
Even with no Percy Harvin, who is still back in Gainesville with a sinus infection and migraines, UF (7-3, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) had no problems offensively Saturday night in the 51-31 dismantling of South Carolina.
"We're just not that good," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said. "The other team toyed with us.
"If we played them 10 times they'd probably beat us 10 times. We got problems stopping a lot of stuff. We got our butts kicked."
Tebow had the best night of his young career as he finished with five rushing touchdowns - giving him the UF single-season record with 19 on the season - and also passed former Gators quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel on UF's single-season touchdown list.
UF's sophomore sensation has a staggering 42 touchdowns on the season (23 passing, 19 rushing).
Tebow finished with 304 yards through the air and 120 on the ground.
"How many did he run in, two or three?" Spurrier said.
Then, a quick glance down at his stat sheet gave him a scary answer.
"He ran in five? I lost count. I wasn't keeping up with all of them."
And, for the first time this season, UF coach Urban Meyer officially endorsed his quarterback for the Heisman trophy
"I didn't know about the statistics on him," Meyer said. "but this was a Heisman performance. I don't say that too often."
While everything went perfect in Columbia for the Gators, not everything went their way earlier in the day.
UF still needs Tennessee and Georgia to lose to get back to the SEC Title Game. The Bulldogs defeated Auburn and the Volunteers beat up on Arkansas earlier in the day.
Now, Kentucky must defeat Georgia next week and Tennessee must lose to either Vanderbilt this week or the Wildcats the next week for the Gators to return to Atlanta.
"Hopefully Andre' Woodson has some great games and goes and wins the Heisman for us," said Tebow when asked if the Gators are now Wildcats fans and referring to the Kentucky quarterback.
While Tebow was spectacular, he wasn't the only one that played well. Senior wide receiver Andre Caldwell more than made up for the absence of Harvin as he finished with 148 yards and one score.
"I had to pick up a lot more extra slack," Caldwell said. "That's not expected, coming into somebody's house and just whooping them like that. They're probably in shock."
UF's offensive line did take a hit, though, as it lost freshman guard Maurkice Pouncey to a sprained ankle in the first half.
Harvin's status is still unknown for the future, but UF offensive coordinator Dan Mullen said the Gators knew late Thursday that he wouldn't be able to travel with the team. They did hope that Harvin would've been able to fly up on Saturday. Mullen said he thought Harvin had been sick since about Monday or Tuesday.
But, none of that mattered Saturday as the Gators dominated from the get-go. After South Carolina fumbled the opening snap, linebacker Brandon Spikes quickly jumped on it and then UF scored its first touchdown to make it 7-0.
On the Gamecocks' next drive, UF's John Curtis blocked Ryan Succop's punt and the Gators then made the score 13-0 (Joey Ijjas missed the PAT)
South Carolina came back to take the lead 14-13, but the Gators then scored 21 unanswered.
That deficit was too much for the Gamecocks to come back from.
"I don't think the players are mad at the coaches," Spurrier said. "Hell, we've had good Chapel services every Friday night."
