Regular Season
Alabama entered Nick Saban's second year as head coach with an AP preseason ranking of 24. After finishing the 2007 season 7–6, including a win in the Independence Bowl, the Crimson Tide brought in one of the nation's top recruiting classes and was expected to improve in 2008. The team started off strong in the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff with a convincing 34-10 win over #9 Clemson. Four weeks later they shocked the nation by defeating #3 Georgia 41–30 in Athens after building a 31–0 halftime lead. The rest of the season included a 27–21 overtime victory over #16 LSU in Nick Saban's first game in Baton Rouge against his old team, as well as a 36–0 shutout of Auburn to end Alabama's 6-game losing streak to their in-state rival. The Crimson Tide finished the regular season with a 12–0 record and a #1 ranking in the BCS, AP, and Coaches' Polls.
Only two years removed from a national championship, Florida entered the season with high hopes and an AP preseason ranking of 5. The Gators went 9–4 in 2007, and they had many key players returning, including Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. After a 3-0 start, the team suffered a devastating home loss to Ole Miss. However, this loss was later seen as a turning point for Florida. In their last 8 games, the Gators scored no less than 38 points and had an average margin of victory of 39.6. Key victories included #4 LSU (51–21), #6 Georgia (49–10), #25 South Carolina (56–6), and #20 Florida State (45–15). Florida finished the regular season with an 11–1 record and a #2 ranking in the AP Poll.
Read more about this topic: 2008 SEC Championship Game
Famous quotes containing the words regular and/or season:
““I couldn’t afford to learn it,” said the Mock Turtle with a sigh. “I only took the regular course.”
“What was that?” inquired Alice.
“Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied; “and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”
“I never heard of ‘Uglification,’” Alice ventured to say.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)