It's Gators vs. Tide: 'Let's go'

If only Carlos Dunlap, idiot, had gone to the quarterback's house, drank cocoa, played Pictionary and watched Alabama game film, everything would be perfect.

And now for the introductions.

Irresistible Force, Immovable Object.

Immovable Object, Irresistible Force.

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow will come to the line of scrimmage late Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. He will be staring at a small country named Terrence Cody, who plays tackle for Alabama. Cody is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 354 pounds. It takes two men and a small boy just to look at him.

"He's big," Tebow said. "You can't move him. Just get around him."

Then again, Cody has to look at Tebow - Heisman winner, two-time national champion, parter of the Crimson Tide.

That's this Southeastern Conference football championship game all over.

It's BIG. You can't move it.

Florida has to get around Alabama.

Alabama has to get around Florida.

Here they are, back under one roof (nail that sucker down) at the Georgia Dome, back to meeting again in a national championship semifinal game. They might eventually change the name to that if Urban Meyer and Little Nicky Saban's kids keep this up.

They're both 12-0 and a combined 47-1 over two regular seasons.

"I can't think of a bigger game, and we've been in a few," Meyer said.

Both teams have been waiting on this one. College football has been waiting on this one.

Tampa's Javier Arenas, Alabama cornerback and return dervish, put it simply:

"Let's go."

Let's go.

Things have changed drastically since last season. Last season, the Tide was ranked No. 1 and Florida was No. 2. This time, Florida is No. 1 and Alabama is No. 2. You see, they changed numbers and everything. Night and day, I tell you.

There will be NFL talent all over either side of the field on either side of the ball, even with Gators defensive end Dunlap suspended by Meyer for his arrest on drunk driving charges. The Gators defense allowed fewer points per game than any defense in America. Alabama was right behind them.

Don't think the loss of Dunlap won't be a factor. If you asked Saban and his players for a list of Gators they would like not to meet, the relentless Dunlap might come right after Tebow and Brandon Spikes - or before them.

Don't think this isn't a distraction for the Gators. I mean, how do they rally around this? We can just hear the Rockne speech before they take the field:

"This is for the guy who fell asleep at the light! Let's get 'em!"

Then again, Florida beat Alabama last December without Percy Harvin in a collision that was a classic of its kind. It had that much life, that much frenzy.

"We left nothing on that field," Tebow said.

Florida had a little more in the fourth quarter. Tebow did. Florida's defense did, too.

Tide players, their perfect 2008 ruined, vowed to fight another day.

"They put us out of our run for the national championship last year," Alabama linebacker Rolando McClain said. "We haven't forgotten. It's been in the back of our minds."

Florida has had a lot on its mind, too. No matter what the Gators did all season, people wanted more.

"The expectation level, it felt like it was on you the entire way," Meyer said.

Funny, but the Gators have their own expectations.

"Some of them are pretty high," Tebow said. "We haven't hit on all of them."

Two teams. Twenty-four wins. No losses.

They made it.

"You can't get to the promised land if you stumble on the rocks," Arenas said.

Now comes two mountains, face to face.

Let's go.