For 14 months, their Swamp was the sandy desert of war-torn Iraq.
But that didn't stop them from cheering for the Gators, who played about 7,000 miles away in front of capacity crowds at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Capt. Brian Hayes and 1st Lt. Dezi King, part of an 81-member military intelligence company in the U.S. Army, missed most of the regular season while serving in Iraq, but they still made sure to let everyone in their unit know who they thought was the best team in college football.
"It didn't take them long to realize that I was a Gator fan, and it didn't take them long to let me know that they weren't," said Hayes, who was commander of the company.
Hayes said his company, which is based in Fort Campbell, Ky., near the Tennessee border, includes Tennessee and Kentucky fans as well as Alabama, FSU and University of Miami fans.
The rivalries were plentiful, he said, but one set of fans gave him the most trouble.
"Oh, god, the FSU guys are the worst," he said. "They always come in with, you know, the biggest talk, and I keep tellin' 'em, I'm like, 'It's not gonna happen, you're just embarrassing yourself,'" he said. "But they talk smack anyway."
One day, he said, one of the other officers, who was an FSU fan and had a desk next to his, got an FSU flag in the mail from his wife and decided to hang it up on the wall.
"So he puts his FSU flag up, not where he can see it, ( but he) puts it to where I can see it," Hayes said.
"I had to go get my own Gator flag and hang that up so he can stare at that," he said.
Eventually, the two decided to call a truce and placed their respective flags in front of their own desks, he said.
King, who served under Hayes in the company, said he would go against military policy by wearing a 2006 national championship T-shirt and Gators hat while watching football games via a military satellite TV station on the American Forces Network.
The military doesn't allow soldiers to bring civilian clothes to Iraq, he said.
The company returned from Iraq in November in time to watch UF play Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship game.
Hayes and King said they are both grateful to be able to watch the BCS National Championship Game at home.
"It is absolutely awesome," King said. "It's like, not only are you at home, but you're like whoooo!"
