It happened quietly in a split second by UF's bench, but safety Tony Joiner might as well have shouted his message over The Swamp's loudspeakers Saturday.
Joiner pecked Tim Tebow near his left ear after the quarterback rushed for a touchdown in the second quarter. The innocent smooch served as a bold proclamation:
Kiss the game goodbye, Tennessee.
"That's not the first time that's happened," Tebow said, smiling. "Knowing Tony, I'm surprised it wasn't farther down."
Judging by UF's 59-20 victory against the Volunteers, it's easy to see why the sophomore was in such good spirits.
What promised to be UF?s first heated battle of the season turned into a display of dominance by the Gators.
When Percy Harvin wasn?t making jaws drop, Brandon James was breaking ankles. When Jermaine Cunningham wasn?t plowing into unsuspecting ball carriers, Markihe Anderson was picking off passes. When Tebow wasn?t leaping into the end zone, he was darting deep passes over the heads of defenders.
The only orange sections of the stadium thinned considerably when Tebow rushed into the end zone for his second touchdown with 11:25 remaining in the fourth quarter to up the score to 49-20. Soon, all that was left was a giant sea of blue-clad Gators fans, which successfully drowned Tennessee?s orange.
Some were more creative with their attempts to blue-out the stadium than others.
A group of students body-painted themselves blue, and they used white paint to spell out the individual letters of BFear The Swamp!C
The fans? sentiments toward their rival were displayed on signs like, BThanks for volunteering to be Gator BaitC and BChar Broiled Smokey,C a reference to Tennessee?s mascot.
The game may have lacked the drama some expected, but UF was anything but bored after the game.
As the Gators rejoiced with their orange helmets in hand, pumping toward the sky to the beat of UF?s fight song, Tennessee?s marching band was bent on playing BRocky TopC for what seemed like the 1,000th time. The Volunteers solemnly walked toward their locker room, heads down, without acknowledging the tune.
UF fans had difficulty selecting which hometown star to cheer for. Students sitting behind the north end zone chanted BPer-cy Har-vinC while the students sitting along the sideline roared BUr-ban Mey-er.C
They shouted even more as their beloved hero, Tebow, lapped half the stadium after his television interviews to high-five the fans in the first few rows.
Former Minnesota Vikings and Ohio State receiver Cris Carter and former UF quarterback Chris Leak soaked it all in from the field. Leak said it was his first time back to see a game in The Swamp.
BThere?s no better game to come back to,C Leak said minutes before the game ended. BI?m enjoying it.C
Dozens of recruits also attended the game in the hopes of getting a glimpse of life as a college player.
While UF linebacker Dustin Doe doesn't know the fate of next season?s potential rookies, he knows how they feel.
BI know when I was being recruited, the first major game I came to was this game,C Doe said. BIt was just phenomenal. To see all those people do the wave, orange-blue (chant), singing the fight song, singing the alma mater - those are little nuggets you take with you for the rest of your life.C
