Florida is the life of party against Georgia

Tim Tebow walked out of the locker room wearing a gray, protective boot on his left foot.

The Florida quarterback said he sprained his ankle on a four-yard run in the third quarter. He just as easily could have told everyone he hurt it kicking around Georgia.

Tebow accounted for five touchdowns, Percy Harvin scored twice and the fifth-ranked, revenge-minded Gators thumped the Bulldogs, 49-10, Saturday in one of the most anticipated matchups in the history of the storied rivalry known as the “world’s largest outdoor cocktail party.”

The No. 5 Gators (7-1, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) shut down Knowshon Moreno, took advantage of No. 8 Georgia’s numerous mistakes and avenged last year’s 42-30 loss in which the brazen Bulldogs used a full-team, end-zone celebration to energize themselves.

Florida’s response resulted in the worst loss in Georgia Coach Mark Richt’s career, which left the preseason No. 1 Bulldogs (7-2, 4-2) staring at being No. 2 in the SEC East for the second straight season.

“It doesn’t get any sweeter than this,” Tebow said. “We didn’t want that to happen again to us.”

Florida Coach Urban Meyer even called two timeouts in the final 44 seconds -- surely to prolong Georgia’s misery as the Gators won for the 16th time in the last 19 meetings.

“Enjoy the moment, enjoy the game,” Tebow said. “We didn’t do anything wrong. We were just playing the game.”

The seemingly cold and quick handshake between Meyer and Richt might have told a different story, but the coaches denied any animosity.

“To me, the rules say you’ve got three timeouts per half,” Richt said. “They can use as many as they want. It’s in the rules. They used their timeouts, and they have a right to do that.”