Nothing was going Alabama's way.
After three quarters of play, it looked like the Tide's dream of a 19-game unbeaten season would come to a crashing halt in Miami.
Florida was ripping off chunks of yardage on the ground and had held Alabama to just three field goals offensively. A 20-9 lead, courtesy of two Tim Tebow touchdown runs, looked extremely large.
Enter Javier Arenas.
After a Florida drive had halted just out of scoring territory, the Gators punted the ball away. Arenas made a catch and immediately avoided a tackler at his own seven yard-line. Two steps to his right and he made another Gator miss. Five strides through the center of the football field and he found an alley to the right side. Then the speed kicked in and all of sudden we had 11 minutes to decide a national championship - the first in the history of college football.
A two point conversion made it 20-17.
Things went from bad to worse for the Gators. Emmanuel Moody fumbled on the Gators first play after the score and 'Bama recovered at the 25. Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram gained one yard on first down, and Terry Grant picked up three more on a second down counter. But faced with third and six, it looked like the best Alabama might do was to muster a tie. But Greg McElroy found Julio Jones on a crossing route and Jones made the most of his only catch, just getting to the pylon to give the Tide a 24-20 lead.
The Alabama defense did the rest. Florida never crossed midfield the rest of the way and Alabama went onto a 33-24 win and the National Championship.
Ingram finished the game with 109 yards and a late touchdown. Tebow ran for 144 yards on 19 carries and earned game MVP honors despite the loss.
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