SOUTHEASTERN ROUNDUP : Florida Wins, 45-13, to Clinch Tie for Title

Sixth-ranked Florida has gotten half of what it wants. Now it is after the whole thing.

The Gators, members of the Southeastern Conference since 1933, put an end to nearly six decades of frustration by beating No. 23 Georgia, 45-13, Saturday at Jacksonville, Fla., to clinch at least a tie for its first official SEC championship.

“It’s a great win, but we still have some business to take care of,” defensive tackle Brad Culpepper said. “It’s nice to have at least a share of the title, but we don’t want to share it with anyone.”

The Gators, 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the SEC, have finished first in the league standings three times, including 1990, but haven’t been recognized as champions because of NCAA probation.

A victory against Kentucky next Saturday would give them an undisputed title as well as a trip to the Sugar Bowl.

“Florida is an awful good football team,” said Georgia Coach Ray Goff, who watched the Gators roll up 512 yards total offense to the Bulldogs’ 220.

“They’ve beaten Alabama, they’ve beaten Auburn, they’ve beaten Tennessee, and now they’ve beaten us,” Goff said. “I think they deserve to be champions.”

Shane Matthews passed for 303 yards and four touchdowns and Errict Rhett rushed for 124 yards and one touchdown to pace the rout before a crowd of 81,679 in Jacksonville’s Gator Bowl.

Willie Jackson caught touchdown passes of four and nine yards from Matthews and also scored on a 24-yarder from Brian Fox.

Harrison Houston and Alonzo Sullivan, meanwhile, helped put Matthews in the SEC record book with scoring receptions on plays covering 36 and 61 yards, respectively.

Matthews, who has thrown for three touchdowns or more in 10 of 20 college starts, finished with 22 completions in 31 attempts and the ninth 300-yard game of his career--a SEC record.

His second touchdown pass to Jackson gave him 24 this season, equaling the conference single-season mark set by Florida’s John Reaves in 1969.

Georgia (6-3, 3-3) long has been a roadblock to Florida’s path to the SEC championship. The Bulldogs have beaten the Gators five times since 1966 with the title on the line, but were no match for Florida Saturday.

The victory gave Florida consecutive victories over Auburn and Georgia in consecutive years for the first time since 1962-63.

The Gators are 17-3 in two seasons under Coach Steve Spurrier.

No. 8 Alabama 20, Louisiana State 17--In a game of big plays at Baton Rogue, La., David Palmer returned the first punt of the game 90 yards for a touchdown, Antonio London blocked a field-goal attempt and Antonio Langham had two big plays to prevent a touchdown as the Crimson Tide (8-1, 5-1) edged LSU (3-3, 4-5).

“We made plays when we had to,” Alabama Coach Gene Stallings said. “We intercepted one in the end zone, which was a big play. Blocking the field goal was a big play. I thought the punt return early that Palmer got was one of the big plays of the game.”

Siran Stacy led a ball-control running game for Alabama, which had 312 yards rushing to 161 for LSU. Stacy rushed for 102 yards, including a six-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

London blocked a 28-yard field goal attempt that would have tied the game with 2:39 left in the game. It was the third consecutive game in which London has blocked a field-goal attempt.

Langham’s two big defensive plays thwarted an LSU drive that reached the six-yard line as the fourth quarter began. He stopped James Jacquet for one yard on an option play on first down, then intercepted a pass on third-and-seven to kill the drive.

Vanderbilt 17, Kentucky 7--Corey Harris rushed for 157 yards, becoming only the second Vanderbilt runner to gain 1,000 yards in a season, and Marcus Wilson rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns as the Commodores (5-5, 3-3) beat the Wildcats (3-6, 0-5) at Nashville, Tenn.

Harris pushed his season rushing total to 1,015 yards.

Vanderbilt has now won four games in a row, the first time the Commodores have done that since the opening of the 1984 season, and they’ve achieved five victories for the first time since going 5-6 in 1984.

Auburn 50, Southwestern Louisiana 7--Stan White threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as the Tigers (5-4) ended a three-game home losing streak, routing the Ragin’ Cajuns (1-8-1) at Auburn, Ala.

Auburn took out five weeks of frustration on outmanned Southwestern Louisiana, as White completed 17 of 22 passes for 203 yards.