The Gators crushed the heavily favored Buckeyes 41-14 here in the Valley of the (ITAL) Stun, (ENDITAL) capturing the BCS national title. It's the Gators' second football national title, along with the 1996 season, and also is the Gators' second national title in nine months. In April, the Gators won the national championship in men's basketball.

"This is too much, this is too much," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "This is unbelievable.

"We got the double now. What can I say? What a night. This is the stuff dreams are made of. I know how hard [Coach] Urban Meyer works. What can you say? National champions."

Again.

"Confetti landed on my head at both places," Foley said. "The exact same feeling. Unbelievably awesome. I can't believe it. I couldn't believe it in April. Can't believe it tonight."

Believe it. The Gators (13-1) not only won the national title, but they embarrassed the Buckeyes (12-1). Led by Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith, Ohio State was averaging 410 yards offense. The Buckeyes managed 82 yards against the Gators.

"Our defense did a helluva job," Florida center Steve Rissler said. "Nobody gave us credit. We played close games in the SEC, but it is the SEC. We knew our defense was one of best in the nation.

"You saw the Heisman Trophy winner. He couldn't do much."

Smith, who earlier in the week, talked about his fondness for In-N-Out Burgers, looked like he had a few too many cheeseburgers since the Buckeyes' last game against Michigan 50 days ago. He looked a step slow against the Gators defense all night, finishing 4-for-14 for 35 yards and he had minus 29 yards rushing as the Gators sacked him five times.

"Their offensive linemen don't move very well," Florida defensive end Jarvis Moss said. "They're just big. By using our athleticism and our speed, it wasn't very tough to beat those guys. Smith tried to keep his cool and smile a lot. He's the Heisman Trophy winner, he has to act like nothing's bothering him, but I could tell he was rattled."

Smith took blame for the Buckeyes' offensive struggles.

"I have to say it's a lack on execution on my part as a quarterback," Smith said. "Simply because I am the one guy out there, that you know, pretty much can control everything."

While Smith and the Buckeyes' offense had their problems, Florida senior quarterback Chris Leak led the Gators to touchdown drives on their first three possessions. Leak, who completed his first nine passes, was 25-for-36 for 213 yards and one touchdown.

"It's the greatest feeling to be national champs," Leak said.

Florida coach Urban Meyer had high praise for Leak.

"He is officially one of the top two quarterbacks to play at the University of Florida," Meyer said. "We made this comment two years ago. It is the way you are judged at Florida. It started back with Shane Matthews all the way through. You are expected to win SEC championships.

"There have only been two [national champions] in 100 years of football. There have been two quarterbacks to win a national championship. And Chris Leak is one of them."

Offensive coordinator Dan Mullen said the Gators' must have watched film on Ohio State's defense "75 times."

"I don't think we could watch anymore Ohio State games," Mullen said. "I sat there with Chris and said ‘let's go over the Michigan game one more time' and he said ‘that's the 75th time we've gone through this film, let's just go play the game.'

"He knew the plan coming in. He did a great job managing and executing the offense. We watched it one more time just to see if there was anything we missed. This is the best game he's played, most prepared, most calm he was. He took every part of this game on his shoulders and wanted to finish his career with his best game."

And he did.

For such a dominating victory, it certainly didn't start well for Florida. Before the capacity crowd of 74,628 had gotten settled in the University of Phoenix Stadium, Ohio State's Ted Ginn Jr. returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. In only 16 seconds, Ohio State owned a 7-0 lead. It turned out to be one of the few bright spots for the Buckeyes.

Ginn injured his left foot later in the first quarter and went to the locker room with a limp on Ohio State's third possession and did not return. After halftime, Ginn was on the Buckeyes bench on crutches with his foot in a boot.

"I think sometimes when you lose a guy that's a big part of what you do and constantly gave you sparks throughout the course of the years, you know, it affects you," Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said.

Even when the Gators fell behind 7-0, they never panicked. They quickly built a 21-7 lead on Leak's 14-yard pass to Dallas Baker and touchdown runs by Percy Harvin (4 yards) and DeShawn Wynn (2 yards). Ohio State scored its only offensive touchdown on Antonio Pittman's 18-yard run, making it 21-14 with 13:32 before halftime.

Buy again the Gators answered. Florida scored 13 points in the final six minutes of the half on a pair of Chris Hetland field goals of 42 and 40 yards and junior Andre Caldwell's 1-yard pass from Tim Tebow.

Hetland entered the game having made only three of 10 field goals, but split the uprights on both attempts. "It was a relief," Hetland said.

Caldwell's touchdown may have been his final as a Gator. After the game, he said he has made a decision whether he will leave early for the NFL Draft, but he's not going to announce it until Friday.

"I'm just so happy for me and my teammates," Caldwell said. "We're national champions, now no one can take that from us. Ohio State thought we would get beat 42-14, but we flipped it on them. We came out and played our ‘A' game."

A Jefferson High graduate, Caldwell wore "813" strips under his eyes. "Tampa pride," he said.

Leading 34-14 at halftime, the Gators' defense never let up on the Buckeyes. Florida's offense, meanwhile, rolled up 370 yards.

"When things don't go right, the human nature is you get frustrated and you could definitely see that from them," Moss said. "Their body language, you could see them hang their heads a little bit and get out of the huddle slow. Once we got going, it was hard for them."

One play by Florida senior linebacker Earl Everett early in the third quarter best summed up the Gators' desire. Despite getting his helmet ripped off by an Ohio State running back, Everett continued pursuing Smith, until he made the tackle.

"I was just trying to make a play," said Everett, sporting a gash on his nose from when the helmet was ripped off. "This game means the world. We wanted to show the world, the SEC is the fastest conference. We wanted to show we were the better team.

"They definitely were not as good as everyone said. Not like they were hyped up to be."

Early in the fourth quarter, Tebow, the heir apparent to Leak, added a 1-yard touchdown run, sending the UF contingent inside University of Phoenix Stadium into full-blown party mode.

On the sideline, Albert the Alligator held up matching SEC and national championship belts and former Florida running back Emmitt Smith stood on the sideline, doing the Gator chomp.

The victory for the seven-point underdog Gators made Meyer one of only five coaches to win a national title in his second season along with Tressel (2002), Ohio State's Paul Brown (1942) and Oklahoma's Bob Stoops (2000) and Barry Switzer (1974).

"This is indescribable," said freshman wide receiver Jarred Fayson, a Hillsborough High graduate. "We knew if we came out and put all three phases of our game together. We'd get a ‘W.' "

After taking a knee on fourth down on the game's final play, Leak took the football and hurled it toward the ceiling. Like all of his passes Monday night it was a perfect spiral.

A perfect spiral at the end of a perfect game.

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com