No. 6 Florida Flattens No. 12 Florida State, 38-14 : Bell Passes for 343 Yards, Three Touchdowns as Gators End Season With Rout

Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden summed up Saturday’s 38-14 loss to Florida saying: “I’ve got a feeling that they’re better.”

The Seminole coach had high praise for Florida and Gator quarterback Kerwin Bell.

“Bell is marvelous. He’s got everything it takes,” Bowden said.

Bell completed 14 of 22 passes for 343 yards and 3 touchdowns in front of 74,461 at Florida Field. Two of the touchdowns were bombs of 75 and 82 yards.

Bell, a redshirt sophomore, has completed 166 of 266 passes for 2,687 yards and 21 touchdowns this season. He has 37 touchdowns in two seasons.

“We just hit the big plays by taking advantage of their secondary,” Bell said. “If we hadn’t hit those big plays it might have been a different ballgame.”

The Gators put the game out of reach in the first half, moving out to a 28-0 lead, although the Seminoles pulled to within 14 points in the third quarter.

“They beat us the first half,” said Bowden, who said he felt before the game that it would be a close contest.

The Seminole defense just couldn’t slow the explosive Gator offense in the first half.

“Our defensive line had to whip their offensive line. I didn’t see us do that,” Bowden said. The Gators had 478 yards in total offense--328 in the first half. The Seminoles gained 292 yards in the game.

Florida’s Neal Anderson, who led all rushers with 95 yards in 23 carries, had two touchdowns in the first quarter. He capped a 79-yard drive after the opening kickoff by running six yards around right end for a touchdown. Anderson scored with 5:59 remaining in the first quarter on a three-yard run off right tackle.

Leon Pennington, Florida senior inside linebacker, was surprised at the ease that the defense had in shackling the Seminole offense.

“It’s hard to shut Florida State down because they have a lot of weapons,” Pennington said. “We didn’t expect to shut them down completely.”

Seminole quarterback Chip Ferguson, who threw four interceptions, summed up the Gator defense saying: “They were stopping everything.”

Florida has beaten the 12th-ranked Seminoles five straight times and has won 22 of their 28 meetings.

No. 6 Florida, playing its last game of the season because of NCAA probation, finished with a 9-1-1 record. The Gators have won 20 straight games at home.

Florida State (8-3) plays Oklahoma State Dec. 30 in the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville.