JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --- Different look, same result for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Coach Mark Richt surprised his players with black pants and helmets 15 minutes before Saturday's kickoff against top-ranked Florida. The Bulldogs still ended up leaving Jacksonville Municipal Stadium the same way they had 16 previous times in the past two decades: feeling blue.
Quarterback Tim Tebow accounted for four touchdowns and Florida got four interceptions from the linebackers and beat Georgia 41-17. With South Carolina's loss to Tennessee on Saturday night, the Gators clinched the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division title.
The victory was Florida's 18th in a row and the 17th in the past 20 meetings with Georgia.
"New helmets and black pants ain't going to make you win the game," Florida linebacker Ryan Stamper said. "You've still got to go out there and execute."
Florida (8-0, 6-0 SEC) had little trouble with that. The Gators took a 14-0 first-quarter lead on a pair of Tebow-to-Riley Cooper touchdown passes. Florida ran for 210 yards and sacked quarterback Joe Cox three times.
"One of the best team wins we've had at Florida," said Florida coach Urban Meyer, who improved to 4-1 against Georgia and 13-1 against the Gators' three main rivals (Georgia, Tennessee and Florida State).
It was certainly Tebow's best game of the season. The senior completed 15 of 21 passes for 164 yards.
He also ran for 85 yards and two scores. The first, with 1:32 remaining in the first half, was a 23-yard touchdown that gave him sole possession of the SEC's career rushing touchdown record. He entered the game tied with former Georgia standout Herschel Walker with 49.
Tebow added a 5-yard touchdown run in the third quarter -- his 51st -- to put the Gators ahead 31-10. That came just three plays after linebacker A.J. Jones tipped a Cox pass and made a diving interception at the Georgia 19-yard line on the first offensive play of the second half.
The Gators got two fourth-quarter interceptions from the linebackers.
"I thought there was some good fight, but you can't turn it over like we did in the second half and mount a comeback," Richt said. "We got down 14 early on, but we battled back into it. Then we're down 10 in the second half knowing we can do it again, but the first shot out of the cannon was batted and picked and all of a sudden we're down again."
Richt's motivational ploy backfired in part because Florida had suffered through a trying week of criticism and was fired up.
"It just seems to me that Georgia is just trying to pull out all the stops and it seems like they're trying to do whatever they can to get the team motivated," Florida receiver David Nelson said.
TURNING POINT
Georgia still had faint hopes of a win when it trailed 24-10 at halftime, but Florida's A.J. Jones wasted no time erasing those hopes. On the first play of the third quarter, Jones deflected a Joe Cox pass and then dove to intercept it at the Georgia 19-yard line. Three plays later, Tim Tebow ran for a 5-yard touchdown, putting the Gators up by three touchdowns.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Florida receiver Riley Cooper made one of the best catches you'll ever see when he reeled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Tebow with one hand and cradled it to his body before Georgia's Brandon Boykin knocked him out of the end zone. The touchdown -- Cooper's second of the game -- put the Gators up 14-0 in the first quarter.
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