The No. 24 Auburn Tigers (5-2, 3-1 SEC) returned home to beat the unranked Florida Gators (4-3, 2-3 SEC) 17-6 in Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday.
After two consecutive games on the road, including their first conference loss against the Arkansas Razorbacks the week prior, the Tigers faced an opportunity to redeem themselves in collegiate standings.
"That was a great win," said coach Gene Chizik. "That was a great all-around team win. I don't think there's any question about it that every phase of our football team contributed. That was a very good, very talented football team that we beat tonight. No question about that."
The Tigers were first to score after junior wide receiver DeAngelo Benton caught a 25-yard pass in the end zone from junior quarterback Barrett Trotter. The touchdown reception was Benton's first in his career at Auburn.
"I think our defense is getting better every week," Chizik said. "I think that's something that's obviously one of our goals because we've had a lot of room for improvement.
"Offensively at times, we were not really where we wanted to be, but when we had to get first downs, when we had to have a couple of big plays in there--we were able to do that."
The Gators entered the game facing a disadvantage as their starting quarterback freshman John Brantley remained out due to a leg injury sustained in their game against the University of Alabama earlier this month. Florida Freshman Jacoby Brissett replaced freshman Jeff Driskel, who replaced Brantley last week against LSU.
One of Auburn's top wide receivers, junior Emory Blake, remained on the sidelines after suffering an ankle injury in the Tigers' game against the South Carolina Gamecocks. Benton was placed to start.
"I think he's making some strides," Chizik said of Blake. "We just didn't feel like he was at the point where he could go in there and be effective at getting off press coverage and doing other things.
"We didn't want to take the chance of him going out there, playing 10 plays, him losing ground on how much he's gained in terms of getting better and then he's out three more weeks. We'll continue to rehab him and continue to treat him. Hopefully, he'll be getting better."
Before the start of the third quarter, Trotter was benched while sophomore quarterback Clint Moseley took the field. There has been no indication that Moseley will start against LSU next week.
"We made a change at half time and put Clint in there," Chizik said. "Barrett's done a real nice job for us so were not in any way, shape or form saying that Barrett can't play anymore. That's not the message. The message is that we needed a spark and we needed to see if we could get something going offensively."
Auburn accumulated 123 passing yards and 155 rushing yards in the game, keeping close with Florida's 128 passing yards and 66 rushing yards.
The Auburn Tigers return to action against the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised by CBS.
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