If you ask Urban Meyer, he will tell you that his 2008 Florida Gators squad was one of the best ever, maybe even the best. If you ask Jevan Snead though, he may give you a different answer.
Coming off of a 9-4 2007 season, the Florida Gators got off to a 3-0 start and were ranked 4th in the Nation. Ole Miss was 2-2 having already lost to the duo of Vandy and Wake Forest and was headed into the Swamp to face a likely defeat. This was a foregone conclusion, the Rebels were a 23 point underdog and faced an almost certain defeat.
Florida was led by Tim Tebow and he had a great game statistically as he threw for over 300 yards but he made some critical mistakes in the game and when push came to shove he was stopped short on a last ditch effort on fourth down with the clock winding down.
After this unlikely win, Ole Miss would drop two straight before righting the ship and winning their final six games including a Cotton Bowl win over Texas Tech.
For Florida, without this loss a National Championship might have never happened. This was the game that gave the world, and Florida, the Tebow apology and it also lit a fire under them. The Gators would go on to win ten straight games including blowouts of Georgia, FSU, LSU and South Carolina, an SEC Championship Game win over Bama and a National Championship win over “Big Game Bob” and Oklahoma.
Video is kind of hard to come by for this game but here is some Zapruder like footage of two of the biggest plays of the game. Percy Harvin scores on a TD run to bring the Gators within one point late in the fourth but Ole Miss blocked the PAT.
and of course the post game interview with Tebow…
