By John Zenor
The Associated Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Alabama produced everything from long touchdown passes to a goal-line stand in its biggest game in nearly six years.
Then, the Crimson Tide players wondered why people seemed so surprised at their 31-3 rout of No. 5 Florida on Saturday.
“This is exactly where we thought we’d be,” quarterback Brodie Croyle said.
Few others were expecting such a dominant performance from No. 15 Alabama (5-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference), which proclaimed itself perhaps the league’s team to beat with the victory.
Croyle threw for three touchdowns, including an 87-yarder to Tyrone Prothro and a 65-yarder to Keith Brown, and the defense was even more impressive in shutting down Urban Meyer’s offense.
A Meyer-coached team never had been held without a touchdown, and the Gators (4-1, 2-1) hadn’t been kept out of the end zone since 1992.
“Tell him not to feel so bad, because he played a very good defense,” Tide defensive back Charlie Peprah said.
Alabama, which had lost its past five games against top- five teams at Bryant-Denny Stadium, got its biggest win since a 34-7 victory over Florida in the 1999 SEC championship game. Tide fans, who had been hungry for just such a victory, mostly remained in the stands well after the game’s conclusion, celebrating as the players lingered on the field.
“That’s all we talked about all week, that we could make history,” said Croyle, who was 15-for-18 for 286 yards. He broke Alabama’s career record held by Andrew Zow and current coach Mike Shula’s career record of 35 touchdown passes with his 15-yarder to Prothro in the third quarter.
The Gators had the league’s top defense overall and against the pass, but left having failed to even slow down Croyle when it counted.
Coming into the game, Croyle had not completed a pass longer than 52 yards all season.
“We are a man-coverage team and we were exposed,” Meyer said. “We lost a lot of one-on-one battles. They are a very fast team. They looked a lot faster than we did today.”
Chris Leak, meanwhile, was harassed into a 5-of-16 performance in the first half and his first two interceptions of the season, leaving him three passes shy of Danny Wuerffel’s school-record streak of 121 without a pick. He finished 16-of-37 for 187 yards.
It was the Gators’ worst defeat since losing 36-7 to LSU in 2002 and ended Meyer’s personal 20-game winning streak at Utah and Florida.
“Our back was against the wall the whole game,” defensive end Jeremy Mincey said. “They took advantage of that. They’re a talented team but we could have and should have won.”
There was one downer for Alabama on its best day under Shula.
Prothro, who caught five passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns, was carted off the field with a splint on his lower left leg after landing awkwardly trying to catch a fourth- down pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Shula said the do-it-all receiver broke his leg in two places and was likely out for the season.
Kenneth Darby rushed 15 times for 101 yards for the Tide.
