In the End, It Proves to Be No Contest--Auburn Wins : College football: Tigers capitalize on mismatch in final minute and beat No. 1 Florida, 36-33. Winning streak reaches 18.

They stopped short of calling Florida’s coaches stupid, but not by much. The words formed on their lips, the temptation to rip never more appealing than after the Tigers’ last-minute 36-33 shocker over the No. 1-ranked Gators on Saturday at Florida Field.

Why, asked Auburn’s players with a smirk, did some Gator rocket scientist in the coaches’ booth--a.k.a. defensive coordinator Bob Pruett--decide free safety Michael Gilmore could cover the Southeastern Conference’s third-best wide receiver, Frank Sanders, one on one?

Gilmore is listed at 5 feet 11, 180 pounds. He was a Rhodes Scholar finalist last year but is not to be confused with anyone who can actually jump.

Sanders is 6-2, 200 pounds, and the player Florida Coach Steve Spurrier had identified earlier in the week as Auburn’s go-to player, especially on lob passes.

So what happened? With 36 seconds to play, Auburn trailing by four points, the ball on the Florida eight-yard line, Sanders trotted into position and saw Gilmore poised in front of him. Worse yet for the Gators, Auburn quarterback Patrick Nix saw him too.

Sanders sprinted for the end zone. Nix lofted the ball toward the left corner. Gilmore and the Gators died.

“I have to question their defensive strategy on that one,” said Nix, who completed 28 of 51 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns. “They put (Gilmore) over Frank and blitzed us . . . on the eight-yard line. We can’t throw the ball too far down the field, so I don’t know why they blitzed.”

It was one of nearly two dozen crucial mistakes the Gators made.

The Florida Flop in detail: five interceptions (four by former Heisman Trophy candidate Terry Dean, who was mercifully benched midway through the third quarter), one fumble, nine penalties, five sacks given up and one of the strangest defensive calls you ever will see.

“They gave Frank man-to-man coverage, and as soon as we saw it, it was like little kids at Christmas,” Nix said. “It was there and we both knew it was there. As soon as we got up to the line of scrimmage I knew it was going to be a touchdown.”

The victory ended Florida’s stay atop the polls, its dreams of an undefeated season and, possibly, its chance at a national championship. Now the Gators (5-1) will have to depend on the kindness of strangers--in other words, anyone who plays still-unbeaten Auburn (7-0), Nebraska, Penn State and Colorado.

Also gone was Spurrier’s string of 15 consecutive home victories against Southeastern Conference opponents, to say nothing of his pregame contention that No. 6-ranked Auburn was something of a pretender, that the Tigers’ schedule was almost laughable.

“I told our team we didn’t coach our best game and a lot of players did not play their best game,” said a slightly humbled Spurrier, whose trademark visor had grass stains from all the times he slammed it to the turf.

Dean was nine of 17 for 126 yards, one touchdown and the four interceptions, two of which resulted in a field goal and a touchdown for Auburn. A fumbled snap by Dean accounted for another Tiger field goal.

Florida’s offensive line couldn’t handle Auburn’s front four, and Florida’s defensive line couldn’t sack Nix. That might explain why Nix, pulled earlier in the season by Auburn Coach Terry Bowden, had career highs Saturday in attempts, completions and yardage.

The victory was especially sweet for Bowden, whose team had listened to Florida’s staff and players issue assorted slights against the Tigers, who extended their NCAA-best victory streak to 18. The schedule was soft. . . . Auburn’s 38-35 victory over Florida last year was a fluke. This would be different, Florida vowed.

So much for vows. Four of Spurrier’s last five defeats have come against the Bowden family, two against Terry, two against Terry’s father, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden. In all, Spurrier is 1-5 against Terry and Bobby.

“We come down here, 16-point underdogs, and beat them again,” said Terry Bowden, whose team is ineligible for postseason play because it is on probation for NCAA violations. “You tell me, should we be No. 1? I say yes.”

The Gators couldn’t stop anybody when it counted. They botched the coverage against Sanders in the waning moments and were fooled in the second quarter when Sanders ran a 28-yard reverse for a touchdown.

Then there was Tiger tight end Andy Fuller, who entered the game with two receptions for 41 yards. Against Florida, Fuller had seven catches for 115 yards and one touchdown. Wide receiver Thomas Bailey had 10 for 117 yards and a touchdown.

“I ain’t caught that many passes in high school or Pop Warner ball,” Fuller said. “I figured after the second time they would probably pick up on it.”

They didn’t. Florida was a mess all day--and still the Gators had a 33-29 lead with 1:45 to play.

But for reasons still not clear, the Gators decided to pass on third and 15 from their 29-yard line. They could have run, knocked precious time off the clock, forced Auburn to use its second of three timeouts and then punted and forced the Tigers to drive 70 or so yards for the winning touchdown.

Instead, Spurrier, who prides himself on calling the plays, instructed Danny Wuerffel to throw for the first down. Wuerffel had played well in relief--completing 10 of 13 passes for 171 yards and three touchdowns--but this time made his only mistake.

With no Florida receiver in sight, Wuerffel threw anyway and then watched as free safety Brian Robinson made the interception, his third of the day. The Tigers started at their 45-yard line.

“We were not trying to lob it down the middle again, I can assure you of that,” Spurrier said.

The Tigers had 1:20 and two timeouts to move 55 yards. Nix found Sanders for a 13-yard gain. Later, on third and 10 at the Florida 42, Sanders dropped a pass that hit him in the hands.

With 51 seconds to play and no choice but to try for the first down, Nix found Bailey for 14 yards. By then the Tigers were out of timeouts. So chaotic was it on the Auburn sideline that Nix was lobbying for one play while someone in the Tiger coaching box was sending down another.

Finally, assistant coach Jimbo Fisher told Nix to run the play sent from upstairs. Nix did, but not before changing the formations at the last moment.

It worked. Nix passed to Willie Gosha for 20 yards to the Florida eight. Next came the Sanders-Gilmore matchup.

“All you can see is the rotation on the ball and a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” Sanders said. “Everybody’s waiting for you to make something happen.”

Sanders did his part. Afterward, while walking back to the team bus, Sanders stopped in the painted end zone and pointed to the exact spot he caught the winning pass.

“Right there . . . on that Florida,” he said.

It figures.