NEW ORLEANS — It didn’t end with a Heisman Trophy or a BCS national championship.
But it sure was memorable.
Tim Tebow and Florida’s senior class let the chance to win its third national championship in four years slip away after losing to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, but that didn’t keep them from going out winners against Cincinnati (12-1).
Tebow threw for 482 yards and three touchdowns as the Gators (13-1) rolled over the Bearcats 51-24 in the Sugar Bowl.
With the win, UF became the first FBS program to win 13 games in back-to-back seasons.
The senior class will leave Gainesville with two national championships, two SEC titles and a 48-7 record, the best in conference history.
“That’s a special group,” UF coach Urban Meyer said. “They made a statement as freshmen that we want to go down as one of the best ever and let’s put a little plan together and you guys stick together and follow the plan and let’s see what happens. And they followed the plan.”
Giving Meyer plenty of time to plan has often resulted in big point totals in bowl games.
But the offensive explosion — 659 yards of total offense — was a bit surprising considering the way the Crimson Tide held the Gators to 13 points and 335 yards of offense.
In conference games this season, including the SEC Championship Game, UF averaged 26 points and 371 yards of total offense per game.
Whenever they stepped out of conference, the Gators feasted on opposing defenses.
Florida averaged 48 points and 622 yards of total offense per game against its three non-conference bowl eligible opponents this season — Troy, Florida State and Cincinnati.
In the Sugar Bowl, Tebow shattered his previous career high for passing yards — 338 against Florida Atlantic in 2007 — and set a new BCS bowl record for total yards (533), breaking the 467-yard mark set by Texas’ Vince Young against USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
“I didn’t see this coming as far as that many yards and everything,” Tebow said. “I knew we had a good game plan. I knew we were going to try to spread it out a little bit. We felt like that would be successful.
And just coming into the game, we just were hitting and clicking, so we kept going with it and ended up obviously throwing for a lot of yards.”
As was the case all season, senior wide receiver Riley Cooper and junior tight end Aaron Hernandez were the primary beneficiaries of Tebow’s passes.
Cooper hauled in seven passes for 181 yards in his final game as a Gator, including a 80-yard deep ball down the left sideline, and Hernandez grabbed nine passes for 111 yards and a touchdown.
It was the first time two UF players went over the century mark in receiving yards since Andre Caldwell and Percy Harvin did it in the Gators' 49-22 win over Vanderbilt on Nov. 3, 2007.
Despite Meyer’s health concerns, coaching changes and a possible lack of motivation, the senior class cemented a legacy that won’t soon be forgotten by Gators fans.
“You hear a lot of guys talk about dynasty around here and taking the sport to a new level, and I think we’ve done that,” said senior wide receiver David Nelson, who caught two passes for 37 yards. “We really didn’t care who we were going to play tonight. We didn’t care who was going up against us, it could’ve been the Dallas Cowboys."
