Florida Continues to Sputter in Win

These are not the Gators of old.

No. 13 Florida managed only two touchdowns against the last-place team in the Southeastern Conference, a 20-7 victory over Vanderbilt at Gainesville, Fla., that gave Coach Steve Spurrier his 100th career victory but not much satisfaction.

“We’re a different team than in years past,” Spurrier said. “We used to come to the Swamp thinking we were going to score 50 or 60. Now, we’re just trying to win a ball game.”

They won Saturday in atypical fashion.

After Noah Brindise, a fifth-year senior making his first career start, staked Florida to a 17-0 lead at halftime with two touchdown passes, the Gators relied heavily on the running game to secure the 20th consecutive victory at home.

It was the third game in a row Florida, 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, was held under 350 yards, the fourth consecutive game it failed to score more than 24 points and the first time all season it failed to score a touchdown in the second half.

“We’re into an ugly style of football,” Spurrier said.

The Commodores (3-6, 0-6) managed only 187 yards, all but 35 of that coming in the second half.

No. 8 Tennessee 44, No. 24 Southern Mississippi 20--Peyton Manning threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns and ran for one score to lead the Volunteers past the Golden Eagles in a nonconference game at Knoxville, Tenn.

The Volunteers (7-1) rallied from an early deficit with touchdowns on five consecutive possessions to take control over the Golden Eagles (6-3).

Manning rebounded from a poor passing performance the previous week to complete 35 of 53 without an interception. Jeremaine Copeland caught 11 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown.

Tennessee took advantage of two Golden Eagles mistakes to score twice in the last 2:10 of the second quarter for a 20-13 halftime lead, then scored three touchdowns in the third quarter.

No. 14 Louisiana State 27, Alabama 0--History and tradition continue to take a beating at Alabama. It was the first shutout of Alabama since 1991 and the first at Tuscaloosa, Ala., since a 9-0 loss to Penn State in 1990.

Kevin Faulk rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns and defensive tackle Chuck Wiley recovered a fumble for a touchdown to help the Tigers (7-2, 5-2) to their second-biggest win over Alabama (4-5, 2-4) in the 102-year history of the rivalry.

LSU moved a half-game in front of idle Auburn for the SEC West lead. The Tigers need a win against Arkansas on Nov. 28 and an Auburn loss to Georgia or Alabama to make their first-ever SEC title-game appearance.