Fresh off a 31-30 home loss to Ole Miss, a disheartened, tearful Tim Tebow stood at the podium, answering for what had been one of the most disappointing losses for Florida in recent memory.
Turnovers, poor defensive execution and a failed fourth-and-1 attempt had ended UF’s hope for an undefeated season.
The Gators were title favorites with the defending Heisman winner at quarterback.
The Rebels had entered the game 2-2 after falling at home to Vanderbilt the week before.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Tebow knew it.
So, after answering every question, he left with an apology — and a promise.
"To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry," Tebow said.
"We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. But I promise you one thing: a lot of good will come out of this.
"You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of this season, and you’ll never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and you’ll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season. God bless."
That was Sept. 27, 2008, the last time the Rebels visited the Swamp.
They will do so again on Saturday, this time as the favorite and a national title contender.
And while the Gators will certainly be looking for a different result than that early autumn afternoon seven years ago, they can only hope for a moment as influential and impactful as the speech that is remembered on a plaque outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
"We missed our opportunities," Tebow reflected Friday while in Gainesville with SEC Nation.
"That game hurt but I think it really helped us overall as a team because I think we learned from it, we grew from it and our leadership improved, our focus improved and I think our attitude improved from that."
It did.
The team went 10-0 from that point forward, beating opponents by an average of 33.8 points per game on its way to a second national title in three years.
There was no lack of talent on that team, despite the popular yet uninformed belief that Tebow was the sole reason for Florida’s success during the Urban Meyer era.
There were 19 future NFL draft picks on that 2008 roster, 11 of which were taken in the first or second rounds.
But it took a low moment like that to spur some soul searching and kickstart the group.
"I was probably crying right after the game to be honest with you," Tebow said. "Honestly, for a while I was just sitting with coach Meyer and we were just talking about it.
"I was kind of leaning on the floor against him and we were talking about it. What we did. What we could do better. What we did wrong. Why did this happen?"
One could argue the Florida program hasn’t been able to get out from underneath that group’s shadow.
No team has had the personalities, the offense nor the success of the 2008 squad, and the UF fan base hasn’t been satisfied since.
With a big win Saturday, maybe this year’s team can begin to forge its own legacy and move past those days.
Or maybe Florida will lose. It worked out well last time.
Follow Graham Hack on Twitter @graham_hack24
Former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow (left) speaks during the SEC Nation broadcast on Sept. 26, 2015, on UF's Plaza of the Americas.
