CBS SportsLine wire reports
Sept. 5, 1998
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- In a game tailor-made for piling up statistics and building confidence, Jesse Palmer and Terry Jackson accomplished their goals.
|
Palmer threw for 301 yards and four touchdowns and Jackson ran for 127 yards and two scores Saturday to lead No. 3 Florida to a 49-10 victory over Citadel.
The sophomore quarterback completed 18 of 28 passes, including three touchdown throws to perfect spots in the corners of the end zone, to help the Gators improve to 9-0 in season openers since Steve Spurrier took over as coach in 1990.
Jackson played for the first time since a season-ending knee injury last September and came out with his first 100-yard rushing game since 1995, his freshman year. He never appeared tentative, and scored on runs of 22 and 26 yards, the second after ripping through three Citadel tacklers on a simple up-the-middle handoff.
"I THINK I DID ALL RIGHT," JACKSON said. "I felt a little rusty, a little tired. I guess I hadn't played in a real game in a while. There's a big difference between playing in a scrimmage and playing in the Swamp. But overall, I thought we did OK."
Palmer had 254 yards by halftime, but with junior Doug Johnson still recovering from shoulder surgery, Spurrier kept Palmer in through the middle of the third quarter.
There was plenty to work on. Palmer fumbled the first snap of the game, lost another fumbled snap later in the first quarter, threw an interception and had at least two more passes that could have been picked off.
|
|
Travis Taylor catches a touchdown pass in the second quarter.
(AP)
|
Those mistakes left the quarterback on the receiving end of many a visor-flipping lecture from his coach on the sidelines, even after a few of the six drives he engineered for touchdowns.
"He played pretty well, about like I thought he would," Spurrier said. "There were a few errant plays, but not bad. He was under control, he stayed in the pocket. They dropped a few interception opportunities that we hung up. But he's got a chance to be a really good one for us."
The Ontario native showed glimpses of that throughout and didn't appear to lose any ground in what should be a heated battle with Johnson for the permanent starting spot.
Palmer opened the scoring by floating a 32-yard touchdown pass to well-covered Darrell Jackson in the back right corner of the end zone, leaving Jackson just enough room to get one foot inbounds.
Just before halftime, Palmer nearly repeated the throw to the left side on a 29-yard score to Travis Taylor, for the first of Taylor's two TD catches. Two plays after a Citadel turnover deep in its territory, Palmer hit Nafis Karim on a timing pattern for a 14-yard score and a 42-10 lead.
WORKING AT TIMES OUT OF A HURRY-UP offense, Palmer had a much better performance than his only other start, an 8-for-14, two-interception showing last year against Auburn.
"I felt pretty comfortable," Palmer said. "We kind of had a hurry-up offense going. It was nice to get up and get things running. It gave us a lot of options. I had a chance to audible and make some changes. Both physically and mentally I felt pretty good."
The defense, thought to be one of the best in the country this year, had a decent day, allowing 218 yards, 137 on the ground.
Citadel managed only one sustained drive against the first-team defense, going 65 yards just after halftime, capped by quarterback Stanley Myers' 3-yard touchdown run.
That drive cut the Florida lead to 28-10, but the Gators answered with two quick touchdowns to end the evening for Palmer and Jackson.
THE BULLDOGS, A DIVISION I-AA MILITARY school, kept the game respectable throughout by keeping the ball on the ground and avoiding turnovers. They finished with a 12-minute edge in possession time and somewhat of a confidence boost themselves heading into their Southern Conference opener against Wofford.
"We can definitely take something from this game," Myers said. "I think coming in, a lot of people thought we were going to totally get our behinds whipped. We came down here and wanted to establish respect and I think we definitely got that."
Backup quarterbacks Larry Richart and Tim Olmstead split time over the final 11/2 quarters for Florida. Richart engineered an 81-yard touchdown drive in his first appearance. Freshman tailback Robert Gillespie capped that drive with a 4-yard touchdown and finished with 30 yards rushing.
Florida's 22nd consecutive home victory is one short from matching the school record compiled between 1990-93.