GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The team played better, but No. 4 Florida's outlook didn't change. These first two victories of the season mean next to nothing.

In the final tuneup before the Gators play Tennessee, Doug Johnson threw for four scores and Florida scored seven touchdowns before halftime in a 58-27 victory over Central Florida.

	Travis Taylor caught three TD passes as Florida ran away from the Knights on Saturday.

In almost every way, the victory Saturday night was better than Florida's opener, a mistake-riddled 55-26 victory over Western Michigan. But there was little celebrating going on.

The real season begins next week.

"You can throw out the first two games," said Gators coach Steve Spurrier. "All we did was win a couple ballgames and didn't lose anything in the rankings. If Tennessee would have played today, they would have said about the same thing. Now, the real season starts against the real teams. Encouraged, discouraged? I don't know."

If the convincing showing against an outmanned team from Central Florida (0-2) was any indicator, the Gators (2-0) are ready.

Johnson, who had an interception returned for a touchdown against Western Michigan, looked sharp, going 15-for-23 for 271 yards, all before the starters came out at halftime.

The special teams, which gave up a turnover that kept last week's game close into the third quarter, produced a touchdown off a blocked punt.

The defense that gave up 405 passing yards last week still looked soft at times, allowing 379 yards to Central Florida quarterback Victor Penn. But unlike last week, most of the yardage came well after the game was decided.

"The yardage looks bad, but I've never been too concerned with that," said defensive coordinator Jon Hoke. "I thought our first-string guys played well. After that, we had a lot of freshmen in there. They have to learn from it and you say, 'Welcome to college football.'"

With the way the offense played in the first two games, Hoke's defense could turn out to be little more than an afterthought this season.

Florida produced 501 yards to bring its total to 1,193 for the season. The Gators scored the most they have since an 82-6 victory over Central Michigan two years ago this week.

"We played better today than last week, and hopefully, we'll play better next week than we did this week," Johnson said. "We all know that next week starts a whole new season."

Travis Taylor continued to emerge as Florida's biggest receiving weapon. He caught touchdown passes of 1, 15 and 31 yards and finished with five receptions for 61 yards. The 31-yarder put Florida ahead 28-7 in the second quarter.

Late in the first half, Reche Caldwell caught a 46-yard reception to set up Robert Gillespie's 2-yard touchdown run for a 48-14 lead.

Gators defensive lineman Buck Gurley recovered a fumble on the next play and Florida tried to top the 50 mark, but Central Florida's Elliot Shorter came up with a sack to end the half.

It only delayed the inevitable. On Central Florida's first play of the second half, Gurley recovered another fumble at the Knights 9. Three plays later, backup quarterback Jesse Palmer hit Michael Haugabrook for a 5-yard touchdown and a 55-14 lead.

Thus continued a frustrating evening for the Knights, who actually led this game early, after Ricot Joseph's interception on Florida's opening drive set up an 84-yard touchdown drive for a 7-0 lead.

UCF turned it over four times and had the punt blocked -- way too many errors for a heavy underdog looking to stay close.

"We talked about eliminating those mistakes," said Knights coach Mike Kruczek. "Obviously, we haven't gotten all the bugs out of it yet. We'll go back again and try to work on technique."

Penn also hit Charles Lee for a 50-yard touchdown in the second quarter. The play exposed the young Florida secondary, but meant practically nothing. The score cut Central Florida's deficit to 34-14.

"We've given up a lot of passing yards two weeks in a row," Spurrier said. "But hopefully, that has more to do with the nature of the game. A team gets behind and starts throwing it around a lot. But you try to hang in there and knock it out a couple of times. I think we did that."

Lee finished with 11 catches for 170 yards.