Recreational Holidays

#1 Gators Destroy Troy State

The 2009 college football season is already two weeks old and so far its looked almost too easy for defending national champions Florida. That was expected last week, as they destroyed overmatched FCS opponent Charleston Southern 62-3, but it wasn’t much harder today against a better class of opposition. QB Tim Tebow threw for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth as the Gators demolished Troy State 56-6. The Gators led only 7-3 at the end of the first quarter before scoring seven unanswered touchdowns. Florida is now 2-0 on the season, while Troy dropped to 0-2.

Despite a generous head start from the pointspread, Troy State lost against the money as well. Florida covered as -37 home favorites”their third straight ATS cover as a favorite of 31 or more. The Gators also won and covered the last time the two teams met, cashing tickets for college football betting enthusiasts as a -26 favorite in 2007. The 65 points scored just barely made it OVER the generous total of 61.

After the contest, Florida coach Urban Meyer gave most of the praise to a defense that limited Troy to 139 yards of total offense and took the ball away three times (2 fumble recoveries, 1 interception):

“Defense is the name of the game today, and that defense was dominating.

Troy State played tough against Ohio State in 2008, but this time coach Larry Blakney was just glad the game was over:

“We just close our eyes and pretend we never came here. But hopefully since we’ve seen the biggest, seen the best, we will learn from this experience.”

The Gators now turn their attention to their SEC opener next week against Tennessee. As if the rebuilding Vols didnt have enough problems facing the best team in college football next week, theyve gone and made Florida mad. Specifically, a quote by new Vols coach Lane Kiffin which was is now taped to the Gators locker room wall. In the incendiary quote, Kiffin talked about Tennessee tradition as follows:

“I’m really looking forward to embracing some of the great traditions at the University of Tennessee, for instance the Vol Walk, running through the T, singing Rocky Top all night long after we beat Florida next year. It will be a blast.”

So having losing badly in the previous two meetings between the teams, the Vols have managed to make it personal.

After hosting Tennessee next weekend in The Swamp, Florida will hit the SEC road the following week against the University of Kentucky. Theyll be back on the road for a tough contest against LSU on October 10th. Troy State will host UAB next weekend and play at Arkansas State on Saturday, September 26.

Ross Everett is a well known freelance writer who covers travel, casino gambling and sports handicapping. He is a staff handicapper for Anatta Sports where he is responsible for providing daily free sports picks. In his spare time he enjoys fine dining, flower arranging and deep sea diving. He lives in Las Vegas with four dogs and a pet coyote.