Florida football: 5 best seasons in program history

Frankly, you could reorder any of the Gators’ three national championships how you want and there really wouldn’t be much of an issue of it. The reason the 2008 team gets the top spot here is two-fold: One, the Gators beat six ranked teams en route to a national title. And two, Tim Tebow gave us a promise after a shocking loss to Ole Miss early in the season, one we’ll never forget.

Florida had won a national championship two years prior. Tebow won the Heisman Trophy in his first year as the starting quarterback in 2007, but how he helped galvanize this team after losing at home to a crummy Ole Miss team because of a missed PAT was stuff of legend. The 3-1 Gators would go on a 10-game winning streak, clobbering seemingly everyone in their path.

Florida beat four top-10 teams that season in No. 4 LSU, No. 8 Georgia, No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Oklahoma. When the Gators faced the Crimson Tide in Atlanta for the right to play for a national championship, Tebow and his Florida teammates prevented the Nick Saban Tuscaloosa coronation for another year. The Gators went on to handle Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma Sooners to win it all.

This is a year that remains in every Florida fan’s mind. 2008 was not only the last time Florida won a national title, but it was the last time the Gators won an SEC Championship. In the decade-plus since, Florida has dropped three straight SEC title bouts, all to Saban’s Crimson Tide. 2008 is significant because it was the year that turned Tebow into an undeniable college football legend.

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