Outdoors: There are some fine gifts for a father to pass on to a son. 13C
Sports
S U N D A Y , O C T O B E R 3 , 201 0
SECTION C
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
Defensive stand
Alabama notebook
Breakout performance
UA defense gets big lift with interception on fourth-down play | 6C
Alabama wide receiver Marquis Maze throws a touchdown pass out of wildcat formation | 7C
Courtney Upshaw had a careerhigh seven tackles, recovered a fumble and had two pass breakups to lead the Crimson Tide defense | 9C
Empty feeling
31
6
Tide offensive line not pleased with second-half effort | 6C
Quarter glance
Challenge met
Stats
UF put the game on McElroy’s shoulders and Bama QB delivers | 6C
Complete stats from Saturday’s game | 7C
Breakdown of each quarter | 7C
Small consolation Punter Chas Henry turns out to be the lone bright spot for Florida | 9C
STILL THE ONE
PHOTO | JASON HARLESS
Alabama defensive lineman Marcell Dareus (57) celebrates with teammates Chavis Williams (55), Damion Square (92) and Nico Johnson (35) after stopping Florida quarterback Trey Burton on a third-and-goal play in the first quarter Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
No. 1 Bama KO’s Gators in convincing fashion By Cecil Hurt Sports Editor
TUSCALOOSA | If revenge is a dish best served cold, the Florida Gators needed a bigger refrigerator. If the pre-game rhetoric was any indication, Saturday night was a game the Gators had been circling for nearly a year, a chance to exact vengeance on the University of Alabama football team for last year’s season-spoiling beating in the 2009 SEC Championship Game. Mission Unaccomplished. Florida only got beaten more badly by coolly efficient Alabama this time around than it did in Atlanta last December. The No. 1 Crimson Tide administered a 31-6 thumping that was essentially over before halftime. UA overpowered the No. 7 Gators, forcing four turnovers and executing so crisply in the first two quarters that a
lackadaisical offensive performance in the second half didn’t matter much. It was Florida’s first game without scoring a touchdown since its last visit to Bryant-Denny Stadium, a stretch of five years. “I was proud of the way we came out, not pleased with the way we finished the game,” Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban said. “We’ve got to continue to understand how to play 60 minutes. It was something we came closer to, but still have further to go. “We had a lot of bad field position in the second half and couldn’t get going, but those are all things we need to work on.” The Crimson Tide defense was the real story, from linebacker Nico Johnson’s interception of a Trey Burton jump pass STAFF PHOTO | DUSTY COMPTON on fourth-and-goal in the first quarter to freshman linebacker C.J. Mosley’s Alabama running back Mark Ingram gives his third-quarter interception return for gloves to a fan after the Crimson Tide defeated SEE BAMA | 9C Florida at Bryant-Denny Stadium on Saturday.
Crimson Tide starting to assert its identity
TUSCALOOSA t might not make much sense to take one play out of a football game as one-sided as Saturday night’s Alabama-Florida contest and say that the single play told the entire story. The entire tale has really unfolded over the past couple of years, as Alabama has recruited and built a football team that is tougher and better than the one at Florida. Any lingering debate over where the dominant program in Southeastern Conference football resides can now be put to rest. If the message wasn’t clear enough in Atlanta last December, the Crimson Tide CECIL reinforced it with a 31-6 pasting of the GaHURT tors. There was more than enough misery to bring the turnover-plagued Gators to tears. But the game can be summed up more succintly. That is where the one play comes in. It was late in the first quarter. Florida had taken the ball for the first time after an Alabama field goal and moved 75 yards, just short of the Crimson Tide goal line. The Alabama defense got salty in the red zone — no surprise from a team that led the NCAA in scoring defense coming in. Florida found itself faced with a fourth-and-one. SEE HURT | 9C
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