Florida rallies past Alabama

ATLANTA — After taking Alabama’s best shot in the third quarter, No. 2 Florida responded like a champion.

The Gators, who looked tired on defense and confused on offense in the 15 minutes after halftime, dominated the fourth quarter and stopped top-ranked Alabama 31-20 Saturday in the SEC Championship Game.

Trailing 20-17 going into the fourth quarter, the Gators got touchdowns from Jeff Demps on a 2-yard run and Riley Cooper on a 5-yard pass from Heisman Trophy holder Tim Tebow — who made a compelling case for his second Heisman.

Tebow led the Gators in rushing with 57 yards on 17 carries. But as Alabama took away the run, it forced Tebow to throw. The junior quarterback finished 14-for-22 for 216 yards and three touchdowns.

“They played a lot of man coverage,” Tebow said. “The receivers have to do a good job in man coverage. Our receivers stepped up today.”

“I have the best quarterback in college football,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said. “That fourth quarter was vintage Tim Tebow. That quarter will go down as one
of the greatest at the University of Florida.”

They needed it. Alabama (12-1), which trailed for the first time all season at halftime, 17-10, appeared to take charge of the game in the third quarter.
Two long scoring drives produced 10 points. Mark Ingram capped a 15-play, 91-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run. That tied the game at 17-all.

Florida missed a field goal on its next possession, and Alabama capitalized. A 10-play, 65-yard march ended with Leigh Tiffin’s 27-yard field goal.

“We felt great on the sidelines,” Tide quarterback John Parker Wilson said. “We felt like we kind of imposing our will and running the ball on them. We just couldn’t keep it going.”

“I guess they had a gut check,” said Tide running back Glen Coffee, who finished with 112 yards on 21 carries. Alabama finished with 136 yards on the ground.

But Florida got touchdowns, not field goals, in the fourth quarter.

“We had them covered about as well as you can cover them, and that ball is in a small space that they made good catches on,” Tide coach Nick Saban said. “They have a great team. They believe in each other. I thought we did a good job in the game; we just didn’t make the plays at the end of the game that we needed to make.”

Florida dominated the fourth quarter more than Alabama dominated the third. The Gators had the ball almost 12 minutes, ran 23 plays to the Tide’s six and converted 3-of-4 third-downs.

“We stopped them on third down a lot when it was third-and-6 or more,” Saban said. “The short ones, we didn’t get it done. ... So that was the difference in the game.”

Demps finished off an 11-play, 62-yard drive with a 1-yard run that gave the Gators a 24-20 lead with 9:21 remaining in the game.

On that series, a little shuffle pass to Aaron Hernandez for 6 yards converted a third-and-5 from the Alabama 9.

“I was actually shocked that that was the play call,” said Tebow, who led Florida to its seventh victory in its nine SEC Championship Game appearances. “They lined up in a different defense, the guy came right at me and I shuffled it. Hernandez made a great play.”

Alabama went three-and-out and Florida went 65 yards in eight plays over 4:37 to go up 31-20. Cooper’s reception in the right flat ended that march.

“We had a bad series after they scored and they turn around and score again,” Saban said. “That was the most critical series for us offensively in the game. He tried a long pass and didn’t hit it. Didn’t run it well on second down. Don’t make it on third down. It was critical for us to respond right there and move the ball, change the field position, and we didn’t do that.”

Two special teams mistakes hurt Alabama in the second quarter.

Moments after Florida kicked a short field goal to tie the game at 10-all, Alabama return specialist Javier Arenas fielded a kickoff against the right sideline and stepped out of bounds at his own 4.

After a three-and-out, Florida took advantage of a short field, driving 57 yards for a tie-breaking touchdown and 17-10 halftime lead.

In addition to Arenas’ misstep, another second-quarter error in the kicking game helped wipe out Alabama’s 10-7 lead.

An odd fake field goal run by holder P.J. Fitzgerald managed only one yard and gave Florida the ball at its own 31 early in the second period.

Saban said giving Florida that kind of field position was the difference in the first half.

Early in the game, Tebow threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Carl Moore to give the Gators an early 7-0 lead.

Alabama answered on a Glen Coffee 18-yard run off right tackle. The score was set up by a 64-yard completion to Julio Jones.
Tiffin gave the Tide a 10-7 lead after the first quarter.

Florida came back with a 19-yard field goal midway through the second quarter and took the lead 17-10, on David Nelson’s 5-yard pass from Tebow.