A Salty Spurrier Peppers Georgia, 47-7

No. 1 Florida threw another meaningless touchdown pass in another lopsided win over Georgia. Then Coach Steve Spurrier showed how much he really dislikes the Bulldogs.

After a 47-7 Southeastern Conference victory Saturday at Jacksonville, Fla., Spurrier gave a game ball to Pepper Rogers.

“The last college game he coached, I was on his staff at Georgia Tech in 1979, and the ‘Dawgs kicked our tails,” Spurrier said of Rogers, who earlier coached at UCLA. “He dislikes them just like all of us Gators.”

A year ago at Georgia, Spurrier ordered up a touchdown pass in the final minute of a 52-17 victory because no team had ever scored 50 points at Sanford Stadium.

Saturday, with Florida leading 40-7 with 2:36 remaining, the Gators, 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the SEC, recovered a fumble on the kickoff and junior tight end Taras Ross caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Doug Johnson.

Danny Wuerffel, who had four first-half touchdown passes, completed 16 of 23 passes for 279 yards, despite playing only one possession of the second half.

Wuerffel now has 9,539 passing yards in his career, topping the Florida record of 9,260 held by Shane Matthews.

Florida center Jeff Mitchell broke his left ankle on the second play from scrimmage and will miss the rest of the regular season. Defensive end Willie Rodgers tore cartilage in his left knee and will have arthroscopic surgery.

Georgia is 3-5 and 2-4.

No. 6 Tennessee 31, South Carolina 14--Peyton Manning completed 20 of 36 passes for 362 yards and two touchdowns for the Volunteers (6-1, 4-1) at Columbia, S.C.

South Carolina (5-4, 4-3) closed within 21-14 after scoring on its first possession of the second half, but didn’t score after that.

No. 24 Auburn 28, Arkansas 7--Dameyune Craig threw for 185 yards, ran for 54 and accounted for two touchdowns as the Tigers no-huddle offense clicked at Auburn.

The no-huddle, combined with Craig’s freelancing style, kept Arkansas (2-5, 0-4) off balance all night. Craig led Auburn (6-2, 4-2) to four unanswered touchdowns.

Vanderbilt 31, Alabama Birmingham 15--Damian Allen threw for two touchdowns and ran for one as the Commodores (2-6) spoiled former coach Watson Brown’s return to his alma mater by defeating the Blazers (4-4) in a nonconference game at Nashville.

Mississippi State 59, Northeast Louisiana 0--Tony Buckhalter scored three touchdowns and Nakia Greer had two as the Bulldogs (3-4) won at home for the first time this season. Northeast Louisiana is 4-4.