GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Let me paint the picture for you: at some point Saturday, as time wound down in The Beatdown That Wasn't, Nick Saban sat and watched from the comfort of home and saw this:

Florida, exposed. USC, exposed.

Is there any doubt now about the most complete team in college football? It certainly isn't defending national champion Florida, which opened up a big can of boring in the most anticipated game between Florida and Tennessee in years.

Florida fans wanted blood. They got sweat.

And nearly tears.

It wasn't so much the pedestrian 23-13 victory over outclassed rival Tennessee as it was the way it unfolded: It's 2007 all over again in Gainesville. The Tim Tebow Show on offense — and nothing else.

"It wasn't how we envisioned or hoped," Tebow said. "But it's a win and it's good enough for all of us."

Not everyone. With or without a change Sunday atop of the polls — why not Alabama? — the team to beat in 2009 suddenly has become very beatable and very, well, ordinary.

"I would think in (Florida's) locker room there are some frustrated guys," said Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. "Because they had high expectations about what they were supposed to do."

Even in defeat, the mouth that started and stirred this nonsensical offseason hype for months couldn't have been more right. While Tennessee played without a quarterback — what else can you call Kiffin's conservative play-calling strategy? — and played keep-away the entire game, Florida couldn't stop the 30-point underdog Vols from running the ball or running clock.

Special feature Tebow time Take a look at Florida's star quarterback on and off the field. NBCSports.com

While Tennessee sat in two-deep zone on defense and begged Florida to run, the Gators could muster next to nothing from their tailbacks and didn't have enough speed on the outside to stretch the defense in the passing game.

Here, everyone, is the essence of the game: With three minutes to go and trailing by 10, the Vols were running the ball to hurry up and get it over with.

And Florida still was playing as if it never started.

Kiffin, of all people, summed up the enormity of the situation without bluster or bravado, but with simple mathematics. Florida, he said, has been together as a team for four years. Tennessee has been together for three games.

Not much separated the two on this day.

"Obviously," said Florida coach Urban Meyer, "I think we could've played better."

After the game, after his team extended its winning streak to a school-record 13 games, Meyer admitted he had to "lighten the mood" of his players in the locker room. Meanwhile, outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, about 100 loyal Tennessee fans lined the walkway to the team's buses and let out a roar when the coaching staff walked by.

"There's a lot of pressure on these guys and I felt it in there," Meyer said. "I'd rather be on that end than on, boy, great job, we lost by 10."

He may be on that end sooner than he thinks.

SportingNews.com Lots of hype, hope _ and Dion Lewis _ for Pitt 6 teams with something to prove Rutgers looking for bigger and better bowl in 2010 After the fall, a new subdued era at USC It's what's up front that counts for Buckeyes

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