RUSHING FOURTH: UF offense clicks

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's hard to fathom a game turning more quickly, more abruptly than this one. From downright ugly to picture-perfect pretty.

Somehow, that's the way it played out for the Gators on Saturday before 70.072 at Razorback Stadium.

After falling all over themselves for most of three quarters, the Gators and quarterback Tim Tebow crafted a flawless fourth quarter to pull away for a 38-7 victory over Arkansas in a game that was very tight, too tight, heading into the final 15 minutes.

"I think it starts with the quarterback position," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "Tim played excellent down the stretch. He had a couple of bumps in the road, we all did.

"Collectively, we're not hitting this right. When we do, it's a great thing to watch. We're not there yet. We better get that real fast with what's coming into town next week (LSU). Obviously, we're not a finished product yet."

Deep into the third quarter, the game was very much in doubt, with UF holding a 17-7 lead (the same lead the Gators had in the third quarter in the loss to Ole Miss a week ago). The offense had struggled for most of the day and it looked like this one would go down to the wire.

But then the game turned. And it did so on yet one more offensive blunder — a Tebow interception when it looked like the Gators were driving for a 24-7 advantage.

The pick, his first in a school-record 203 attempts without one, seemed to ignite Tebow and the rest of his teammates.

The next time Tebow stepped on the field minutes later, he was a different quarterback and this was a much different offense than the one that had sputtered and stalled for most of the day.

Suddenly, Tebow looked like the Heisman winner again, leading the Gators on an 83-yard scoring drive where he was 4-for-4 for 76 yards. His most beautiful throw was his last — a 21-yard TD strike to Harvin down the middle of the field.

"I was determined. That was a bad play by me," Tebow said of his interception. "We said, 'Shoot, we're going to spread it out and take some shots and just play.' And we did."

And it didn't stop.

Moments later, redshirt freshman Chris Rainey made a major-league spin move that set him free for a 75-yard touchdown run.

Later in the quarter, true freshman tailback Jeff Demps, who had a 36-yard touchdown run in the first half, broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run.

It was a 21-point fourth-quarter outburst that turned an ugly performance into a thing of beauty.

Tebow ended with 217 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Demps and Rainey both rushed for more than 100 yards as the Gators rolled up 514 total yards.

So, is this what the offense is capable of doing?

After the game, Meyer was asked how the offense could go from dazzling at times to mundane.

"Mundane, that's a good word.," Meyer said. "I like to use the word awful. Can it expect it now (to be dazzling)? We can work real hard as coaches and players and try to figure this thing out.

"You can't guarantee much, but you can guarantee the offensive personnel will work extremely hard to get this right."

The offense looked hopeless at times in the first half. Actually, maybe worse than that. During one stretch in the second quarter, the Gators were penalized seven times for 65 yards.

"The penalties really set us back," Meyer said.

The Gators still managed to take a 14-0 lead into halftime.

When it looked like the Razorbacks were in a position to maybe steal this game after Tebow's interception late in the third quarter, the Gators pinned a perfect quarter on what has been a struggling Arkansas team.

"This is what we're capable of doing," Rainey said.