Florida-Georgia memories: 2008 Urban Meyer timeout game

Florida Gators were out for revenge against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2008 and got it in remarkable style thanks to Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow.

Rivalries are bitter by nature. Everyone wants to defeat their biggest foe, after all.

But rivalries in sports rarely carry outright disdain, at least from coaches and players. Sure, drunk fans may duke it out in the stands, but the teams themselves usually demonstrate mutual respect for each other.

That wasn’t the case in the 2008 Florida-Georgia game, though. For the Gators, that game meant one thing and one thing only: revenge.

For context, we have to go back to the prior year. After scoring a touchdown in the first quarter to break a 0-0 tie, the Bulldogs’ bench cleared to celebrate the score in the end zone, drawing an excessive celebration penalty. UGA went on to win the game 42-30.

The following year, Florida hadn’t forgotten. And coach Urban Meyer and the Gators showed no mercy.

In a battle of top-10 teams, UF beat the breaks off the Bulldogs and asserted itself as the top team in the SEC East, which it went on to win in addition to conference and national championships.

The Gators ran up the score in a 49-10 win, and they took every opportunity to make it hurt for the Bulldogs.

With his team up big late in the game, Chris Rainey was back to return a punt. He caught it, slowly took a couple steps and began to lower his knee to the ground.

But he faked the kneel and popped back up, rushing down the sideline toward the end zone. Unfortunately for the Gators, the play was called back.

By the time the Bulldogs finally found the end zone late in the second half, the majority of their fans had left and the 50/50 split in the stadium was then leaning decidedly Orange and Blue.

Taking pity on the Georgia players, whose fans had abandoned them, some Florida fans in the crowd cheered after the UGA touchdown — just to be courteous, of course.

Even in the final minute, with the outcome already decided, Meyer called all of his remaining timeouts, just to prolong Georgia’s suffering a little while longer.

When the Gators take on the Bulldogs in Jacksonville this Saturday, it’s unlikely to see a repeat of that result. In the 12 years since, Georgia has found more success and has won the last three matchups in the series.

But UF coach Dan Mullen, who was the offensive coordinator during that 2008 game, will look to swing things back in Florida’s direction and earn his first win in the rivalry as head coach.

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