Search is over: Elusive greatness found in Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Like Moses, I've wandered the wilderness for what feels like forever. Here and there, I traveled the 2009 college football landscape looking for greatness, and until now, I've been forsaken. Cincinnati is good, not great. Texas? Good. Not great. Alabama? Beat Auburn by more than five points and we'll talk.

Where is the great team in college football? Where art thou? That has been my question since August.

Saturday, the answer was delivered. It was wearing orange and blue.

Florida is greatness. Maybe Florida hasn't always been greatness. Maybe the Gators needed a break here, an officiating miscue there, to stay undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. But they got those breaks and those miscues. And on Saturday, the Gators delivered greatness.

They beat the crap out of Florida State. The Gators could have named the score, settling on 37-10. It was so thorough a blowout that Florida State's only consistent play was an offsides trap, like this was soccer or something. The Seminoles would line up before a crucial play, bark loudly and hope a Gator would jump, and then quickly snap the ball for the free 5 yards. It worked at least four times, no denying that. But it was pathetic. No denying that, either.

By the end of the third quarter, the disparity between the teams was so blatant that FSU coach Bobby Bowden did something he said he has never done in his career, and his career started shortly after the death of Ben Franklin: He stopped trying to win, and started trying to avoid the shutout. That's what happened on the final play of the third quarter, a fourth-and-goal from the 2. Florida State trailed 30-0, and a comeback was impossible. Bowden was there in 1994 (of course) when Florida State trailed 31-3 in the fourth quarter before rallying for a 31-31 tie, but that wasn't happening Saturday, and he knew it. So he kicked the field goal and took solace in the scoreboard, which no longer showed a zero under the words "Florida State."

"The worst thing that could happen to us is getting shut out," Bowden said. "I don't believe I've ever done that, but the only thing worse than being down by 30 is to have nothing on that scoreboard. We took care of that."

Boy did they. That scoreboard learned its lesson.

So did I.

Florida is greatness, and based on the results elsewhere this week, and this season, Florida is the only team that can make that claim. Well, maybe Texas Christian can make that claim, too, since TCU beats the bejeezus out of everyone it plays, but TCU won't be in the BCS title game unless Texas falls next week to Nebraska. For all intents and purposes, the BCS title conversation will come down to the same three teams that it started with months ago: Texas, Alabama, Florida.

This weekend, Texas gave up 532 yards to a 6-6 Texas A&M team and needed a late kickoff return for a touchdown to seal a 49-39 win. This weekend, Alabama gained just 292 yards and had to score the final 13 points to beat a 7-5 (and fading) Auburn team 26-21.

This weekend, Florida named its score against a Florida State team with more talent than Texas A&M or Auburn.

Until Florida lost its emotional edge, what with this being the final game for a senior class that has gone an astounding 47-6 and is led by a certain someone named Tim Tebow, the Gators had me looking up the worst rout in series history. That rout came in 1973, when Florida beat an 0-11 FSU team by a score of 49-0. This game was heading that way, at 30-0 and counting, when the emotional Gators suffered the inevitable adrenalin dump. Tebow had been crying before the game. So had more than a few of his teammates. They ran onto the field minutes before kickoff, one senior after another, hugging coach Urban Meyer and sobbing onto his shoulder. They turned that emotion into a 30-0 runaway early in the third quarter, but no way could they keep it up.

Brandon Spikes and the Florida defense reduce Florida State to trying to avoid a shutout. (US Presswire)

But until then, goodness. This was greatness.

"One of the best performances we've had here," said Meyer, who has seen his teams reach a high level, what with those two national titles in four years.

Florida was doing whatever it wanted. A deep pass to receiver Riley Cooper for a 39-yard score. A short pass, and long run, by tight end Aaron Hernandez for a 37-yard TD. Jeff Demps went 62 yards on a run. Tebow went 47. Chris Rainey had a run of 45. All in the same game, mind you.

"That was the best we've had this season," Meyer said of his team's offensive explosion. "It kind of looked like last year."

When the Gators were national champions, you might recall.

They'll get there again, in about six weeks. That's my prediction, but it's not so much guesswork as it is common sense. Alabama has a really nice defense but it can't throw and, against Auburn, it couldn't run. Texas has a really nice offense but Texas A&M exposed the defense. Florida? It can run and throw on offense -- and it's No. 1 in the country in total defense.

Greatness. And all facets were on display Saturday. The defense allowed just 269 yards and had two interceptions. Florida punted just once, downing a perfect lob at the FSU 2. And the offense? Tebow was 17 for 21 for 221 yards and three touchdowns -- and Florida was more of a running team on Saturday. The Gators ran for 311 yards.

Florida was absolutely awesome, and the crowd knew it. Early in the fourth quarter, when the sky darkened, it looked like a World Series stadium before the first pitch -- flashbulbs everywhere. It was so unusual, Florida's players were talking about it on the sideline.

"Everyone was like, 'Did you see the cameras going off?'" Tebow said. "It was pretty crazy."

People want memories. Greatness doesn't come along all that often.