GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The down marker flipped from three to four, and Urban Meyer didn't hesitate.

Furiously pumping his right fist, the Florida head coach looked at his offense, which was perched on the Louisiana Tech 1, and left no doubt about his intentions.

The Gators needed to score. Now.

"I wanted us to hammer it in there," Meyer said.

Junior running back DeShawn Wynn answered his coach's challenge, churning into the end zone for the first score in Florida's 41-3 win over Louisiana Tech on Saturday night at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

It was just one play out of 73 the Gators ran against the Bulldogs, a game in which their dominance was rarely tested. And therein lies the problem. Meyer talked extensively before the season started about his team's need to get tougher and finish games, but it's an intangible hard to simulate in practice and early-season blowouts in which the outcome is never really in doubt.

So Meyer has chosen to look at the little picture instead of the big one, opting to put pressure on his players on given plays. So the Gators went for it four times on fourth down against the Bulldogs, even when they really didn't have to. In Meyer's mind, it's one of the few ways to tell if they're developing the killer instinct the Gators admit they lacked at crucial times in 2004.

Was he testing them by going for it, even with the game well in hand in the second half?

"A little bit," Meyer said.

Consider the Gators fast learners. They've converted 3-of-4 fourth-down attempts through the first two games. Of course, the real test comes Saturday, when No. 6 Florida (2-0) hosts No. 5 Tennessee (1-0) at The Swamp. The Vols have won the last two meetings, including a 30-28 thriller in Knoxville last season when James Wilhoit hit a 50-yard field goal with six seconds left.

It was a defeat that hinted at the trouble ahead. The Gators lost three more winnable games against LSU, Mississippi State and Georgia on their way to their worst SEC finish since 1986. When the plays needed to be made, it was the opponents, and not the Gators, who made them.

Call it bad luck. Call it karma coming around on a program that has safely stuck its head in the lion's mouth countless times and lived to tell the tale.

Junior quarterback Chris Leak says he can't put a finger on why the Gators are just 4-5 in games decided by seven points or less since he arrived in Gainesville. Things happen. A penalty here. A turnover there.

"Sometimes it gets to third-down conversions or scoring touchdowns in the ending minutes of a game," said Leak, who is 15-8 as a starter for the Gators. "When there's two great teams, it's always going to be a close game."

It's those kinds of games the Gators must win if they want to capture the SEC East title and earn a trip to Atlanta for the conference championship game for the first time since 2000, when Leak was a sophomore in high school.

Though Meyer has liked what he's seen from his players in practice and in games, he knows things will be different Saturday. For the first time this season, "the checkers are even," as Meyer put it.

"I still don't know how game tough we are," Meyer admitted. "That's not our strength right now."

That doesn't mean he hasn't stopped trying to find ways to get his players to believe in their own grit. It's why he whooped it up on that fourth-down call against the Bulldogs, one of those "out of my mind" moments that happen during the course of the game when his id takes over. His enthusiasm rubbed off on his players.

"You have to believe in yourself, that's part of chemistry," Leak said. "You have to go in there and believe you're going to get that yard or three yards. Coach has a lot of confidence to go out there and do those things."

Now it's up to the players to believe they can do them, too. Meyer has spent the better part of the last nine months trying to make his team as mentally tough as possible. He closed the locker room and took away some of their privileges. He's pushed them in practice and didn't exactly fall over himself complimenting his team after either of their first two wins, when they played well but not necessarily well enough to beat the Tennessees of the world.

Meyer knows there will be a moment against Tennessee when the Gators will have to keep their composure, even if the 90,000-plus in the stands are losing theirs.

"He wants to see that we're tough guys," said wide receiver Chad Jackson. "Sometimes he says we are and sometimes he says we're not. ... I think Saturday we find out for real."