Gators hold off Vandy upset bid

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Posted 8:29AM on Sunday, November 10, 2002

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - Earnest Graham ran for 125 yards and a touchdown and Rex Grossman added a TD run as No. 23 Florida struggled past Vanderbilt 21-17 Saturday. Despite an unspectacular performance in their follow-up to the previous week's upset of Georgia, the Gators (7-3, 4-2 SEC) won their third straight to stay in contention for the Eastern Division title. The Commodores (2-8, 0-6) have lost 12 straight to Florida and 15 straight conference games, but they had plenty of chances to end both losing streaks. Vandy held the Gators scoreless in the second half and had the ball with 5:41 left, but the Commodores couldn't move past their own 34. Vandy entered the game as the least-penalized team in the SEC, but their possession was stunted by an illegal-substitution flag and a holding call. After Vanderbilt turned the ball over on downs, Florida ran out the clock. Ran Carthon carried 14 times for 83 yards for the Gators, who had more yards running (223) than passing. Grossman was 17-of-32 for 170 yards. Florida hurt itself with several miscues in the first half, including seven penalties, a kickoff that went out of bounds and shanked punts of 24 and 16 yards. The key play turned out to be Cory Bailey's interception of Cutler's pass on Vanderbilt's first play from scrimmage. He returned it 24 yards to the Commodores 1, and Graham scored. With four freshmen on offense, Vandy couldn't do much with favorable field position. After Florida's bad kickoff, the Commodores settled for a 40-yard field goal by Greg Johnson to cut the lead to 7-3. Gus Scott then intercepted Cutler for the second time in the quarter at the Florida 32. Florida finally settled down with a 13-play drive capped by Carthon's 1-yard TD early in the second. Brandon Smith took Ingle Martin's punt on the fly and ran up the left sideline 65 yards before Martin tackled him at the Florida 10. Matthew Tant scored two plays later to pull the Commodores to 14-10. Florida led 21-10 at halftime with Grossman's 1-yard run that capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive. The Commodores turned in their best drive of the season at the start of the second half with a 15-play, 80-yard drive, and Cutler scored on a 1-yard run to pull Vandy to 21-17 with 7:30 left in the third. The Commodores, ranked 97th in the nation on defense, held Florida to just 149 yards in the second half. Florida's only scoring chance of the second half came early in the fourth quarter, when the Gators got to the Vandy 30. But the drive stalled, and Matt Leach missed his second field goal of the game, a 48-yarder that came up short against a stiff wind.