Teams' Belt Records

Previous Belt Meetings:       None

The top-ranked Florida Gators of coach Urban Meyer began their second Belt reign in 2 years with a meeting against the 1-AA Charleston Southern Buccaneers of coach Jay Mills.  No team from 1-AA had ever won the title & Florida had no intention of allowing that to change.  In what looked more like a scrimmage, the Gators easily rolled past the outmanned, overmatched Buccaneers in a 62-3 rout to retain The Belt.  After forcing Charleston Southern to punt, Florida drove 89 yards in just 4 plays with the key play coming on a 68-yard pass from All-SEC QB Tim Tebow to WR Riley Cooper to the Buccaneers 8-yard line.  Gators' RB Jeff Demps carried the final 8 yards on the next play to give Florida a 7-0 lead just 3:55 into the season.  Late in the 1^st quarter, Gators' RB Chris Rainey took a hand-off & broke through the middle of the line on a 76-yard touchdown run for a 14-0 lead.  Florida pushed the lead to 21-0 early in the 2^nd quarter when Tebow finished a 5-play, 67-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.  The drive was highlighted by Demps' 41-yard run through the middle of the Charleston Southern defense.  Demps second touchdown came on a 23-yard run to cap a 4-play, 69-yard drive that gave the Gators a 28-0 lead early in the 2^nd quarter.  Florida's S Major Wright intercepted a deep pass attempt by Buccaneers' QB A.J. Toscano that the Gators then turned into an 8-play, 74-yard scoring drive with Tebow throwing a 28-yard strike to All-American TE Aaron Hernandez for the score.  Charleston Southern broke the shutout when PK John Paglia kicked a 38-yard field goal but Florida added to the lead on the ensuing kick-off when RB Brandon James raced 85 yards for another score & a 42-3 halftime lead.  Reserves took over in the 2^nd half for the Gators but the still added 20 more points to the final tally.  Florida's WR T.J. Lawrence returned the kick-off 46-yards to set-up 6-play 49-yard drive with back-up QB John Brantley throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass to WR Justin Williams.  Brantley threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to WR Cade Holliday to finish the 3^rd quarter.  RB Mike Gillislee finished the Gators' scoring with a 7-yard touchdown run for the final points.  Tebow finished with 188 yards passing with a touchdown while Cooper added 5 catches for 105 yards in the win.  Toscano threw for 157 yards with an interception in the loss.  Florida finished the season 13-1, ranked 3^rd nationally while the Buccaneers finished the season 6-5.  Charleston Southern has not played for The Belt again.