Nov. 13, 2010

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Celebrate With A Tee! | Relive The Win With The DVD

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – The Head Ball Coach notched a huge win at his ol’ stomping grounds.

After years of being the top Gator, Steve Spurrier led South Carolina to its first division crown in the stadium he nicknamed The Swamp.

Marcus Lattimore ran 40 times for a career-high 212 yards and three touchdowns, Stephen Garcia played turnover-free and the 22nd-ranked Gamecocks upset No. 24 Florida 36-14 Saturday night to clinch the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division.

The Gamecocks won for the second time in 19 tries against Florida, snapped an 0-for-12 streak in Gainesville and earned a spot in the league title game for the first time. South Carolina (7-3, 5-3 SEC) will play second-ranked Auburn on Dec. 4, with the winner advancing to the Bowl Championship Series.

The Gators (6-4, 4-4) lost to a division opponent for the first time in 17 games, dropped their third consecutive home game and proved they didn’t deserve to play for a championship. It’s the program’s first three-game losing streak at home since 1989.

South Carolina started celebrating after Garcia’s 8-yard TD run early in the fourth that put the Gamecocks ahead 29-7. Players and fans got even more raucous after Lattimore’s 11-yard scoring run with 2:43 remaining.

Players doused Spurrier with – what else? – Gatorade with 1:01 remaining. Spurrier spent the final few seconds with cameras in his face, then got carried to midfield on players’ shoulders.

Spurrier’s Florida teams went 63-5 in Gainesville. He had plenty of important wins along the way – Kentucky in 1991, Florida State in 1991 and 1995, South Carolina in 2000 – but only that one against the Wildcats clinched a title.

So this one certainly will stand out.

It’s one Florida won’t forget, either.

Andre Debose returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, but it was one of the few highlights the Gators could muster in a game that will go down as one of the worst in school history – even more painful than anything in the Ron Zook era.

Spurrier may have even been embarrassed for his alma mater, the school he developed into a college football powerhouse during his 12 season as coach.

The first quarter was all anyone needed to watch to see how the game would unfold: The Gators ran 18 plays for 51 yards, failed to convert a third down, punted five times and had five penalties.

The Gamecocks had to settle for three field goals from Spencer Lanning, who hit from 49, 47 and 41 yards. He also banged an extra point off the left upright following Lattimore’s 7-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

There was little else South Carolina did wrong.

Garcia had his first turnover-free game since late September. He completed 15 of 22 passes for 156 yards. He added 28 yards on the ground.

Lattimore, the league’s second-leading rushing behind Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, demoralized Florida with every carry. He ran 21 times for 83 yards in the first half, then added a backbreaking, 21-yard TD run to cap South Carolina’s opening drive of the second half.

Alshon Jeffrey, the SEC’s leading receiver, came up with several key third-down receptions and was Garcia’s safety valve. Jeffrey caught six passes for 53 yards.

South Carolina finished with 395 yards, 169 more than Florida.

The Gators were downright pathetic all night. Meyer called for a “blue out,” asking fans to wear head-to-toe blue to match the team’s all-blue uniforms. But after Debose’s crowd-pleasing kickoff return, the rest of the night was more of a “boo out.”

It looked little like the Gators who beat Georgia and Vanderbilt the last two weeks. Florida’s three-headed quarterback system – the one nicknamed “Threebow” because it took three guys to do everything Tim Tebow did so well the last three years – was mostly ineffective.

John Brantley took most of the snaps and completed 16 of 31 passes for 130 yards, with an interception. Trey Burton and Jordan Reed played sparingly. Reed threw a 26-yard TD pass to Chris Rainey late, but was stopped short on a fourth-down run near midfield earlier.

Even after a lackluster first half and time to regroup in the locker room, the Gators were inept. They had just 16 yards in the third quarter.

Maybe the most telling play of Florida’s problems came on the first drive of the second half. Brantley, who has clearly been a misfit in the spread option, had a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage. The ball sailed backward and toward Brantley. Instead of batting it to the ground, Brantley caught it for a 10-yard loss.