Through one quarter of play Saturday, Florida looked like far from the team picked by many to win a second national title.
By halftime, however, the No. 1 Gators (2-0) had the game thoroughly in control with a 32-point lead en route to a 56-6 win over Troy (0-2).
Four of Florida's first five drives ended in either a punt or fumble, but after Troy holder Austin Silvoy fumbled a snap that could've led to a field goal that would've cut the lead to 7-6, UF's offense turned it on and never looked back.
The Gators scored on six of their next seven drives, with the only empty possession coming right by halftime due to poor clock management.
UF quarterback Tim Tebow was 15 of 24 passing for 237 yards and four touchdowns. He was a much bigger threat on the ground as well, rushing 13 times for 71 yards and a score, one week after carrying the ball only twice. It was only the second time Tebow had thrown for four touchdowns in a game (Kentucky, 2007).
Senior Riley Cooper led the receivers with five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown, and redshirt sophomore Deonte Thompson made up for recent drops with two touchdown catches.
Jeff Demps led the team in rushing for the second straight week with 87 yards on seven carries including a 24-yard scamper.
"I think we're going to continue to get better throughout the year," Tebow said. "At this time, I think we're ahead of where we were last year."
A big part of Florida's turnaround was its defense, which held Troy scoreless and allowed only two first downs during five second-quarter drives. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins picked off a pass from Troy quarterback Levi Brown, and defensive end Jermaine Cunningham recovered a DuJuan Harris fumble.
Those turnovers gave the Gators two drives starting at the Trojans 40-yard-line or better, and both led to Florida touchdowns.
"We expected to get a lot of turnovers this year," defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. "We kinda started off to a slow start. … Getting some now is starting to get us back on track to one of our goals."
The Gators' second-quarter surge helped put a stop to the fear felt by coach Urban Meyer. Meyer reminded his team all week about Troy's near-upset of LSU last year, and 15 minutes in, it looked like the Trojans were ready to give the Gators a fight to the end.
But then UF's defense kickstarted the offense, and the Gators ran away with it from there.
The Gators' defense has not allowed a touchdown through the first two games.
"If it wasn't for great defense &ndash if that was that outfit 2 years ago, when we weren't playing very well on defense &ndash that game's not what it ended up," Meyer said. "It kinda takes the wind out of a team on that opposing sideline when just can't gain any yards, nothing's working. Throwing's not working, running the ball's not working &ndash it's just a dominating performance by our defense."
