When Florida and Alabama square off this Saturday in the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, both schools will be adding another entry to the longstanding series of their conference title game rivalry.
Saturday's edition will be the Gators and Crimson Tide's ninth time playing one another in the SEC title game since 1992. No other two SEC schools have played each other as many times in the conference championship.
Right now, Florida stands at 4-4 against Alabama all-time in SEC championship games. There have been plenty of memorably impressive showings by the Gators - and also some not-so impressive - so now, Inside the Gators ranks Florida's SEC title game outings against Alabama from best to worst.
1. 2008 – No. 2 Florida's 31-20 win against No. 1 Alabama: This game will go down as one of Florida's greatest wins in school history - and one of Tim Tebow's most clutch performances as a Gator. With a spot in the national championship game on the line, both squads traded punches throughout the game. Florida entered halftime with a 17-10 lead, but Alabama responded with 10 third quarter points to take the lead at 20-17. Then, Tebow engineered the Florida offense to two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, the first capped off by a 1-yard Jeff Demps touchdown run for a 24-20 advantage. With 2:50 left in the game, Tebow led the offense down the field and then hit Riley Cooper for a 5-yard score, as Florida clinched its second trip to the national title game in three years. Florida would then go on to knock of Oklahoma for its third national title in program history. Tebow finished with 216 yards passing and three touchdowns to go along with 57 yards rushing against Alabama, en route to MVP honors.
2. 1996 – No. 4 Florida's 45-30 win against No. 11 Alabama: After this victory over the Crimson Tide, the Gators would go on to the Sugar Bowl and win their first national championship. Danny Wuerffel delivered a virtuoso performance, throwing for 401 yards and six touchdowns against an Alabama defense ranked sixth in the nation in total defense at the time, while wide receiver Reidel Anthony caught 11 of Wuerffel's passes for 171 yards and three touchdowns. Florida scored 24 straight points early in the game to take a 24-14 halftime lead. Both teams went up and back on the scoreboard in the third quarter, as an 85-yard touchdown pass from Wuerffel to Jacquez Green lifted to a 38-28 lead with 3:09 left in the third. Anthony scored a 21-yard touchdown in the fourth as UF increased its lead to 45-28 with 14:54 remaining.
3. 1994 – No. 6 Florida's 24-23 win against No. 3 Alabama: This was an up-and-back affair - and certainly one of the more exciting games in this Florida-Alabama rivalry. The Gators led at halftime 17-10, but Alabama responded in the third quarter with an interception return for a touchdown and two field goals to take a 23-17 advantage. However, the Gators responded with a 10-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that saw Wuerffel hit Chris Doering for a 2-yard score to take the 24-23 lead with 5:29 remaining. On the next drive, Florida's Eddie Lake forced an interception with 54 seconds left to clinch the victory for the Gators. Florida defensive lineman Ellis Johnson earned MVP honors for his performance of five tackles (three TFL) and two sacks.
4. 1993 – No. 9 Florida's 28-13 win against No. 16 Alabama: A year after the 1992 loss in the SEC title game, Steve Spurrier and the Gators bounced back to exact revenge on the Crimson Tide and earn their first SEC Championship Game victory. Florida quarterback Terry Dean passed for 256 yards and two touchdowns en route to MVP honors. Leading by just 14-13 after close to three quarters, on a 4th and 8 call punter Shayne Edge kept the drive alive with a 20-yard gain and then the next play Dean hit wideout Jack Jackson with a 43-yard pass to give Florida an eight-point lead. An Errict Rhett 3-yard touchdown run would seal the deal for the Gators.
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5. 1992 – No. 12 Florida's 28-21 loss to No. 2 Alabama: The 1992 SEC title game was one for the history books, as the SEC became the first Division I-A conference to stage a championship game between two divisional winners. Like McElwain, Spurrier lost in his first SEC Championship Game appearance as Gators head coach. However, Spurrier's first conference championship appearance was close up until the very end, when Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham returned an interception on a Shane Matthews pass 27 yards for the game-winning score with just 3:16 remaining.
6. 1999 – No. 5 Florida's 34-7 loss to No. 7 Alabama: The Gators actually hung with the Crimson Tide for the first three quarters of this game. Thanks to its defense coming up with big stops on a number of Alabama drives into Florida territory, UF trailed by just 12-7 at halftime and 15-7 by the end of the third quarter. Then, the floodgates opened. After Freddie Milons scored on a 77-yard run, Jesse Palmer threw a pick-six to Reggie Grimes as Alabama's lead ballooned to 28-7. Then, the Tide tacked on a touchdown run by Shaun Alexander in the final minutes.
7. 2009 – No. 1 Florida's 32-13 loss against No. 2 Alabama: This is a contest that Alabama essentially controlled from start to finish. Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson combined for 193 yards and three touchdowns on 39 carries, while the Crimson Tide held Tebow to 247 yards and one touchdown against an interception on 20-of-35 passing. Although Alabama always held the edge, Florida managed to cut its deficit at halftime to 19-13 and keep it a game. Still, the Crimson Tide wouldn't let up. The lasting memory of this game for Gators fans is a shot of Tebow crying on the sideline at the end of the game as Florida's national title game hopes were dashed.
This game - infamous for Urban Meyer's hospital trip for chest pains and dehydration the day after the contest, and then his first of two retirement announcements in Gainesville - proved to be a pivotal moment in Florida football. Leading up to that game, Florida had gone 56-9 (86.15%) since Urban Meyer took over in Gainesville after the conclusion of the 2004 season. Since that 2009 loss to Alabama, Florida has gone just 56-33 (62.9%) over seven-plus years.
8. 2015 – No. 18 Florida's 29-15 loss against No. 2 Alabama: Although Treon Harris' 46-yard touchdown pass to C.J. Worton late in the game made the highlight reel, this was an utterly pathetic display by the Gators offense against the Crimson Tide as it went 0-of-11 on third down and saw Austin Hardin's lone field-goal try from 40 yards out blocked. An 85-yard punt return touchdown by Antonio Callaway in the first half kept Florida in the game at halftime, down 15-7, but eventually the Florida defense broke down after playing close to three-fourths of the game and the Crimson Tide jumped out to a 29-7 advantage with 8:50 left in the contest. Alabama running back Derrick Henry rushed for 189 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries, as Alabama out-gained Florida 437-180.
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