Florida played ball control and even though PSU had all the chances to convert two turnovers into 14 point, the Gator "D" prevailed.   Holding PSU to no points in phenomenal goal line stands.  4th and Goals from the 1 foot line and from inside the 5 yard line. 

Even though Florida did run the ball more, it was pretty execution.   With misdirection, counter plays, and draws, Penn St. was confused and maybe had too much of the Disney party, as Fred Taylor set a Citrus Bowl Record with 43 carries rushing for 234 yards going out with "a bang" as he said and preparing himself to play on Sundays.

The defense of the Gators kept Florida in the game by holding PSU on the goal line, and stopping their offense which was anemic without All-America star Curtis P-Enis.  You might remember, Curtis violated NCAA rules by accepting a gift from an agent which resulted in a suspension.....too bad for PSU, they missed him.

***************  News Report  *****************

Florida led 14-0 after seven minutes and two possessions, but then Spurrier yanked the spotlight from senior tailback Fred Taylor, who was swallowing yardage in 8-, 10-, and 12-yard increments, and shone it on himself. The Florida coach was not about to let Paterno call him the most innovative offensive mind in the game without producing some evidence, even if it had little to do with the immediate politics of this particular Citrus Bowl.

That's why, for most of the next hour or so, Spurrier led us through Offensive Innovation 101, in which he handed off to the tight end, went for it on fourth-and-9, ran a flea-flicker with Taylor tossing the ball back to the quarterback, ran a fake flea-flicker, and probably some kind of flick flea-er as well.

We all oohed and aahed, but then somebody noticed that none of it was resulting in any points. Penn State intercepted a couple of passes in obvious disrespect of Spurrier's two- and three-quarterback system, always a notarized indication that you don't have a quarterback, which is what Florida is doing in the Citrus Bowl in the first place.

Florida wideout Jacquez Green, who caught two touchdown passes, mentioned that had former Gator Danny Wuerffel been quarterbacking, he'd have thrown for 500 yards against Penn State.
Geez, they ran for nearly 300, so that would have been roughly 800, time permitting.

"We just thought we could run on them the way Michigan State ran on them," said Taylor, who with 234 yards on 43 carries became the 10th different running back to gain at least 100 against Penn State this season and the third in the past two games to gain at least 200. "A lot of teams ran on them."

Really.

"That was the plan," Spurrier said. "Hand it to Fred, play good defense, hit a pass here or there."
Anything else? You want soup with that?

The fact is, even though Spurrier ran Taylor a Florida record 43 times, had he run him or one of his capable backups on all 78 of his offensive plays, he could have named some perfectly gruesome arithmetic as the final score. He did Penn State a favor by goofing around.

He did, he admitted, take some satisfaction in beating Paterno in a manner more identified with the Big Ten than the Southeast Conference (against which, by the way, Paterno is 11-13 in his

"Yeah that makes it a little bit nicer," Spurrier said, while admitting his passing game sputters.
"Hopefully, we can pitch it around a little bit better next year. This year we just didn't have a team that could pitch it that well."
Mike McQueary pitched it 32 times yesterday and bad things happened on 22 of them. Three were intercepted.
Penn State will pitch it better next year, too. There will be a new quarterback and a new featured running back and there had better be a reconfigured defensive philosophy that at the minimum turns LaVar Arrington loose. More pointedly, Paterno needs to field a defensive front seven with players big enough not to appear to be in street clothes against the Lions' mammoth conference opposition, and he needs to find a way to get more consistent offensive line play.
"They really killed us up front today," said Lions tailback Kenny Watson.
Oh yeah, a whole season got killed up front.
(Courtesy of SH News Service.)

So with an impressive win over a Big 10 powerhouse, the Gators close the season 10-2.  A good season, but not great and no titles this year.  In fact, playing in the Citrus was rather disappointing since nothing was on the line other than beating a great coach, and the big 10.  However, we will take the win and prepare for next year.  We look forward to next year with many stars returning and a great recruiting class.  Go Gators in 1998.