Quite A Reversal

JACKSONVILLE - Pick a key play from the University of Florida's 42-30 loss to Georgia on Saturday. No matter which you choose, you may rest assured it will haunt some Florida player's or coach's nightmares until the teams meet again next year.

Maybe it was the reverse called on fourth-and-2 from the Georgia 25-yard line with the Gators trailing by four early in the fourth quarter. Remember that one? With Florida quarterback Tim Tebow - perhaps the most effective short-yardage runner in the Southeastern Conference - reduced to no more than an innocent bystander as coaches tried to protect his bruised right shoulder, Bulldogs linebacker Rennie Curran dragged down Andre Caldwell for a 3-yard loss before Caldwell could hand off to the play's intended recipient, Percy Harvin.

Maybe it was two plays later, when Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford fired a laser to Mikey Henderson, who snatched the ball over the shoulder of sophomore cornerback Wondy Pierre-Louis for a 53-yard touchdown.

Maybe it was every time Georgia tailback Knowshon Moreno (33 carries, 188 yards, three rushing touchdowns) looked trapped in the backfield - only to wriggle away from Florida tacklers for positive yards.

Or maybe it was back in the first quarter, when Georgia's entire team rushed the field to celebrate a Moreno touchdown that put the Bulldogs up 6-0. Remember how Florida coach Urban Meyer gathered his team on the sideline? Remember how the Gators stared down the Bulldogs across the field, essentially saying that if Georgia players wanted to try a stunt like that, they'd better remember which team had won 15 of the past 17 in the series?

Make that 15 of the past 18.

It took eight tries for Meyer to finally lose a rivalry game at Florida. He felt about how you'd expect him to feel.

'Yeah,' Meyer said. 'It feels awful.'

Assuming neither Tennessee nor Georgia win their remaining conference games - and no assumption is safe this season - Florida's loss complicates the SEC East Division race almost beyond explanation. The Gators (5-3, 3-3 SEC), for all their faults, still have a chance to reach the SEC Championship Game if they beat Vanderbilt and South Carolina and wind up in a three- or four-team quagmire atop the division at 5-3.

'We still could have a shot,' Tebow said as he fought back tears. 'I don't think we need to worry about that right now. We just need to worry about getting better.'

The Bulldogs, whose season seemed on the verge of collapse after a 35-14 loss at Tennessee on Oct. 6, can worry about reaching the title game again. Georgia coach Mark Richt, now 2-5 in his career against the Gators, used last week's open date to convince his players they could beat Florida.

'We game-planned energy,' Richt said, 'as much as we did X's and O's.'

The teams traded haymakers early. After Georgia's celebration - and the dual unsportsmanlike conduct penalties it elicited - the Gators responded with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Tebow to Louis Murphy. Two plays later, Stafford hit Mohamed Massaquoi for an 84-yard touchdown. Seconds into the second quarter, Pierre-Louis picked off Stafford and returned the ball 25 yards for a touchdown, flipping into the end zone and drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

A 43-yard Joey Ijjas field goal with 7:11 remaining in the first half gave the Gators their only lead at 17-14, but Moreno chewed them up on Georgia's next two possessions, and suddenly Florida trailed 28-17. A 2-yard Tebow touchdown run closed the gap to 28-24. That was the score, when, given the opportunity to run Tebow for 2 yards they desperately needed, the Gators opted to run a play that required two handoffs.

Only one succeeded. They'll see it again and again in their nightmares.

'Everybody was heartbroken after all three of our losses, but I think this one hurts just as much or more,' Tebow said. 'We thought we'd bounced back from the other losses. We were getting better and improving.

'We need to go back to the chalkboard and start working.'