2010 Sugar Bowl Notes

• No. 5 Florida humiliated No. 4 Cincinnati 51-24 in a fitting end to the unparalleled career of these Florida seniors. Total domination would be an understatement. Cincinnati was not in Florida’s league; we proved that tonight.
• Tim Tebow capped a brilliant career with his best passing performance ever and he sent his coach Urban Meyer into his leave of absence with a 51-24 triumph in the 76th Allstate Sugar Bowl.
• Tebow went out in style in his final college game, as the Florida quarterback passed for a career high 482 yards, completed 31 of his 35 passes and accounted for four touchdowns. Tebow’s 88.6 completion percentage set a BCS bowl game record and his four total touchdowns tied a Sugar Bowl mark.
• Ironically, Tim Tebow’s final successful moment as a Florida Gator came on the same stage as the final successful Gator moment of his hero, Danny Wuerffel.
• Tim Tebow is the greatest college football player of all time, and he illustrated why in his final game.
• “One of the most efficient quarterbacks to ever play the game, a part of two national championships, he’s a winner and unless the job description changes at some other level of football, he’s a winner and he’ll win at the next level, too,” Meyer said.
• “They couldn’t stop Superman,” said Gators guard Carl Johnson. “They needed some kryptonite.” Tebow broke Vince Young’s BCS bowl record for total offense and did it before three quarters were up.
• Florida became the first school in the Football Bowl Subdivision to win 13 games in consecutive seasons.
• The last five years have produced 57 wins, two national titles and some of the most memorable games in Gator history. That’s the legacy.
• The Gators steamrolled through the Cincinnati defense and Tebow could have won another Heisman Trophy the way he played.
• The Florida Gators shed all of their distractions and dispatched the Cincinnati Bearcats in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The Bearcats had given up just 11 sacks during the regular season but Florida’s defense notched four sacks on the night.
• “I wanted to go out on top and do the best I could and that’s what I did,” Riley Cooper said. “I’ll have no regrets for the rest of my life.”
• Senior wide receiver David Nelson was the last member of the team to come off the field, and long after most of the team exited for the bus and the rest got dressed, he was still sitting at his locker dressed in his uniform.
• How tough is Maurkice Pouncey? After spending five hours in Tulane Hospital passing kidney stones, the center was cleared to play and started the game. He came out in the second half only because he began passing another kidney stone.
• Funny: Cincinnati’s Gilyard set the Sugar Bowl record for kickoff return yards, but only because he had so many returns.
• To get an idea of Tebow’s impact on the world, check out the top Google searches for New Year’s Day. The “Tebow Cam” was a FOX camera focused on him all night during the Sugar Bowl. “EPH 2:8-10” was the Bible verse inscribed on his eye-black.
• UF’s 51 points were the second-most in the game’s history, just one shy of the 52 the Gators put up in a 52-20 victory over Florida State in 1997. UF also set a Sugar Bowl record with 646 total yards.
• Although Tebow has put up cartoonish statistics and established off-the-charts intangibles in college, experts say that his professional future is blurry.
• The last time the Gators lost six games in a season? 1987. FSU lost that many this season. Miami lost at least six in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Michigan hasn’t gone bowling in two seasons. Alabama has lost at least six in four of the last seven years. Even USC lost six as recent as 2001. Florida? 1987.
• Get your 2010 Gator Sugar Bowl Champions gear from the good folks at Football Fanatics.

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