01x04 - The Pain of Greatness

[bunniefuu]

[Brandon Spikes] Do your f*cking job
and we'll win this damn game.

It's that simple.
Do your f*cking job and let's ride!

- Y'all boys ready?
- [all] Hell yeah!

- Y'all boys ready?
- [all] Hell yeah!

- Y'all boys ain't ready!
- [all] sh*t!

[Tim Tebow] I promise you one thing,
a lot of good will come out of this.

You have never seen any player

play as hard as I will play
the rest of this season.

Tebow done his legendary speech.

[all] Showtime!

[Spikes] And I was like,
"Hey, let's just give it all."

"Give it all we got."

It was like, "All right."
Like, "We gotta answer the call."

[Urban Meyer] Let's go!

Let's do this.

[dramatic music playing]

[Dan Mullen] There was a drive,

and everybody was just ready to go

every single game.

[announcer] Superman strikes again!

You'll never see a team play harder
than we will the rest of this season.

[player groans]

[Tebow] We didn't know
if we would win all of our games,

we didn't know if we'd win
the National Championship,

but we knew people
were going to experience

this pain when they played us.

[crowd cheering]

[seagulls squawking]

[Meyer] To win another national title,
that was my focus.

Every day, got up in the morning,
"How do we do this?"

[announcer] This is the largest deficit
they have faced this season.

[Meyer] But what happens when the anxiety
and the fear of failure overwhelms you?

I just kept thinking, "We're not ready,
we're not ready, we're not ready."

[thrilling music playing]

[crowd cheering]

[Meyer] It's the second half
of the ' season

and we gotta win every game we play

or our chance to go on and win
the National Championship, uh, is over.

And here's Georgia.

[announcer] It's the SEC
from Jacksonville.

The winner of this game

takes a huge step toward getting
to the SEC title game in Atlanta.

And so much at stake this afternoon.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Spikes] This rivalry runs deep.

What'd they call it?

"The greatest cocktail party"
or something like that.

You got this big sea of blue and orange,

you know, black and red,
and it's split right down the middle.

And they've been there
for days, tailgating.

[fans cheering]

[Spikes] The energy is just off the chart.

- Can I say bad words?
- [woman] Yeah.

I f*cking hate Georgia.

Just so we're clear. Um...

I lost to Georgia once and... it was awful.

[fans cheering]

[tense music playing]

What they did to us last year
was embarrassing.

[announcer] Knowshon Moreno,
up over the top.

Did he break the play? Yes!
And here comes the entire team.

Watch this for excessive celebration.

I can't believe this!

[Wright] When Knowshon Moreno scored,

the whole bench,
everybody ran to the end zone.

I see a group of players
run on the field.

And they're dancing at our players
and taunting them.

We don't do that.
That's not sportsmanship. It...

It was awful.

I'd never witnessed that.
I mean, nonsense, bullshit.

And, uh... And they go on to win the game.

For them to embarrass us the way they did,

it ate us up.

[Spikes] All season, all I heard was,
"Knowshon this, Moreno this."

"Are you dreaming about it?
Well, you doing this?"

"Do you brush your teeth
thinking about it?" Like...

"Actually, I do."

Every day.

Like, we used to have,
like, pictures in our...

in the... in the... in the stall,
uh, pictures of guys.

Like, we would urinate on 'em
and defecate on them.

Like, "We b*ating Georgia.
We don't give a damn

if we lose any other game,
we gonna b*at Georgia."

[epic music playing]

[jet engines roaring]

I have never seen a team more ready
to play a football game in my lifetime

than that Georgia game of '.

That was days of disrespect
on you and your family.

What are you gonna do about it?

[announcer] Florida has to stand up now.
I mean, they gotta answer that.

[Tebow] We were a wounded, lying dog

and it was a pent-up aggression

that they weren't ready for.

Before the... the game even started,
Brandon Spikes huddled us up,

and he was like,
"I'mma lay Knowshon Moreno's ass out."

[tense music playing]

[Tebow] When they hand
the ball to Knowshon,

Spikes crushes him.

I mean, he... he m*rder*d him.

[bold music plays]

[Spikes] It's the best feeling ever.

You knock somebody head off
and they go crazy.

[crowd cheering]

As Knowshon is on the ground,
Brandon on top of him,

talking so much trash.

I was calling him every name in the book,
and just letting him know,

"I'mma be here all f*cking night,
so get ready."

[players and referees shouting]

[Black] I was trying
to get Spikes off of him,

I didn't want 'em to throw a flag.

I knew what this was gonna be.
We were gonna kick their ass.

Every dog has his day, man!

From that play right there,
they knew they lost.

[bold music continues]

We left everything on that field.

Everything.

[announcer] Tebow...
Oh, my goodness, Harvin,

all by himself in the end zone!

[cheering]

We didn't really want to b*at Georgia.
We wanted to dominate 'em.

They're putting it on play-action,
dropping to throw.

And fires the ball off,
here to the right side.

It's intercepted by Joe Haden!

Haden down the left sideline,
and midfield!

Haden to the ! Haden to the !

Haden now in some traffic!
Stopped at the !

Let's make that !

To the , to the ten, and to the five,
and down to the goal line!

And he is down to the pylon!

- Touchdown!
- [crowd cheers wildly]

[Meyer] Come on, Brandon, let's go!
Get in there, Spikes!

- Let's go, man, let's go!
- [all cheer]

We might have celebrated that one
more than some of the championships.

- ♪ Who let the dogs out? ♪
- ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪

- ♪ Who let the dogs out? ♪
- ♪ Who, who, who, who? ♪

[man] Take it, take it!

You gotta run! You gotta run! That's it.

[Dan Mullen] By the end of the year,
we're getting ready to play Alabama,

the number one team in the country,
in the SEC Championship game.

And if we win that, we're gonna play
for another National Championship.

And then the worst thing ever
that could happen to a team

is Percy Harvin gets hurt.

[tense music plays]

Our top w*apon on offense,
uh, is not gonna play.

[Tebow] We have to design a game plan

without the most expl*sive player
in college football

against the number one team
in the country.

[Paul Finebaum] I'll never forget going
into the SEC Championship final.

'Cause it was a "one versus two" matchup.
That's not what you normally get.

[crowd cheering]

And Alabama was thought to be
maybe the better team.

[Black] I remember looking over there
and seeing Percy

in freakin' street clothes.

And I'm like, "Holy sh*t."

[Spikes] Any time we had Percy
on the team,

I felt like we could b*at anybody,

but once he was gone,
I was like, "You know what?"

"We really gonna have to play hard.
It's fitting to be a dogfight."

[Wright] Each and every time
you play Alabama, you better buckle up,

because they coming,
and they comin' with everything.

[announcer] James from behind.

Oh, he's sandwiched. Ouch!

They're number one.
They got a great defense.

They got some jokers on offense
that can play really, really well.

[announcer] Coffee is the running back.
He comes right this time, at the ten!

Gets a block, dives for the end zone!

Touchdown, Alabama!

[commentator] Florida could win this game.

Without Percy Harvin,
this is gonna be something, I'll tell you.

Since the Ole Miss game,
we'd blown everybody out

and just ran up the score.

[announcer] Tebow again.

Stopped again.

But they came out and played
a fantastic game, and we made mistakes.

[announcer] Tebow throws back,
goes in the corner, left side...

It's... Oh, incomplete.

[Mullen] Going into
the fourth quarter, we're losing.

[announcer] Ingram...
Touchdown, Crimson Tide!

[Meyer] Oh, I was sick,
nauseous on the sideline.

"What if we can't do this?"

[announcer] It's Alabama
leading Florida to .

We know we don't have our best player.
So, now, everybody's game

has to magnify times ten.

- [announcer] First down, ten, Gators.
- [commentator] Here they come.

[announcer] Yep, from the corner.

Tebow goes right side!

He's got a man!

Louis Murphy, huge play!

I mean, Tebow threw a phenomenal ball.

[announcer] Tebow drills it high,
and the catch!

[Tebow] We drive right down the field.

- [announcer] Touchdown!
- [commentator] Touchdown, Florida!

And then we got out on defense
and Joe Haden got an interception.

[announcer] Intercepted. Joe Haden has it.

He's down the near sideline,
he goes to his right.

[Tebow] We get the ball back and we know.

[announcer] That should put
the cork in the bottle.

It's game over. Lights out.

[cheering]

[triumphant music plays]

My whole thing was about winning,
the taste of winning that darn trophy.

If you taste this, you want it more.

That feeling is second to none.

Second to none.

[cheering]

It was like an instant high,
it was just like... [exhales]

We had an amazing time on that sideline.

Partying like .

We definitely celebrated,
but we knew the job wasn't finished.

[music swells and stops]

[announcer] No big surprise,
a FedEx BCS National Championship Game,

January th in Florida,
and that scoreboard at Dolphin Stadium

could get a serious workout
because Oklahoma and Florida are coming.

[people applauding]

[Tebow] The media
was hyping it up like crazy.

It was a National Championship game

that had back-to-back
Heisman Trophy winners.

I won it the year before.
Sam Bradford had just won it that year.

[Meyer] We're playing Oklahoma,

best offense, statistically,
in the history of college football,

and great defense.

Best thing, though,
it was in the state of Florida.

[bold hip hop music playing]

I'm playing the biggest game
in my life in Miami.

[both] Go, Gators! Whoo!

Go, Gators!

I'm from Fort Lauderdale,
minutes away from the stadium.

So this is basically hometown for me.

Let's go! Let's go, everyone! Let's go!

- Let's go!
- [crowd cheers]

[siren whoops]

[Black] I just remember being on a bus
and sitting back by Spikes.

And, um, he was looking out,
he was like, "This is all for us."

[cheering wildly]

[Wright] When the police
was escorting us to the stadium,

and it's real?

Oh, my God.

[announcer] It is a glorious
weather night in Miami,

and we welcome you
to sold-out Dolphin Stadium

as number-one Oklahoma
collides with number-two Florida.

Let's go, fam!

[players] Yeah!

This is my ride!

I can't even focus,
because I'm so amped to play this game.

- [man] One, two, three!
- [players] Showtime!

[cheering]

[crowd cheering]

[reporter] Percy Harvin, how much
can you expect from him tonight?

He's good. He warmed up good,
he's in there bouncing around.

We're gonna play him, he'll be fine.

[announcer] BCS National
Championship Game is underway.

[suspenseful music plays]

[Wright] Third play of the game,
Bradford, their quarterback,

pumps to our sideline.

I see the ball in the air,
I'm like, "Oh, I gotta go get that."

But then I look and I see the receiver.

I could've easily went for the ball,
but I didn't want the ball. I wanted him.

I wanted to strike fear into their team.

Fear.

- [thud echoes]
- [crowd exclaims]

The actual hit was so loud.

Like, I felt bad for him.

[announcer] Bradford,
lofting down the sideline for Johnson...

He is leveled by Major Wright.

Major forgot what he was.

He didn't think about human desire,
nor human body.

He ran through that boy.

Not to him, through him.

[Tebow] Our defense was unbelievable.

[announcer] This is Chris Brown,
and he's met by Brandon Spikes,

the first-team All-American
middle linebacker of the Gators.

Our defense played better
than our offense that night,

especially in the first half.

[announcer] Tebow will keep it.

And they've really bottled him up
in the run game.

In fact, they have bottled up
this entire Gator run game.

[tense music plays]

They didn't let Tebow scramble.
His whole, like, chuck-and-duck,

and quack down the field was over.

He ain't quackin' nothin'.

[Meyer] We can't move the ball.

We have seven points, you know?

Hut!

[Meyer] Thank God we held them to seven.

I was so exhausted, playing so hard.

But I was forcing it.
We didn't make great plays

and I knew we had to get it together.

I had to get it together.

Hey, baby! Put it all on the table, baby!

Hey, let's go! Get in here!
Get in here right now! Get in here!

Hey, we got minutes
for the rest of our lives!

- Thirty minutes!
- Thirty minutes for the rest of our lives!

That's our bad in the first half,
it ain't happening!

We get the ball, I promise you one thing.
We're gonna hit somebody

and we're taking it down the field
for a touchdown, I guarantee you that!

- [player] It's our f*cking fault.
- Look at me! Look at me!

Let's go!

We got minutes
for the rest of our lives!

- For the rest of our lives!
- Let's go!

[Louis Murphy] Let's go! Lock arms! Hey!

[sweeping music plays]

[announcer] I asked Urban Meyer

what he liked,
what he didn't like in the first half.

He said, "I liked our defensive stand.
Other than that, I didn't like 'bleep.'"

We come back in the second half
and it's boom, big play, big play,

big play, all different guys stepping up.

[crowd cheering]

We were down to the red zone
and I called that play.

I had a special feeling.
I said, "Give it to Percy."

[commentator] Is that
Percy Harvin, Wildcat?

[announcer] Yep.
Harvin will take the snap.

And tries to bring it in
and finds the end zone!

It is a touchdown!

[Meyer] That kid's playing
with a sprain on his ankle.

And to see him score a touchdown...

If I could bottle that moment,
that was one of the great moments.

[announcer] That's as close to a smile
as we're gonna get...

- [commentator laughs]
- ...from Urban Meyer.

Fourteen-seven.
Florida just in front in the third.

[Tebow] Percy had a few big plays.

Murphy had a few huge plays,
and was cramping most of the game

'cause he drank too much Red Bull
before the game.

Every single player

had an incredible moment.

[Meyer] Fourth quarter,
the old Gators took the lead.

We're up by three points,
and they're driving.

[announcer] Brown continues
to break tackles.

[Meyer] We knew
everything was on the line.

[announcer] Crossing midfield,
or right at midfield, a gain of three.

[Meyer] If they go down and score,
obviously, we're behind,

and they're gonna eat up the clock.

Sam Bradford drives back to pass,

throws a dime
across the middle of the field.

It was almost a perfect pass,

but when the receiver
jumped up to catch the ball,

I put my arm in between his.

So I jumped up and caught the ball,
and snatched it from him.

Major comes in,
freaking smashes and hit me,

I spin around
and, like, landed on the ball.

So everybody's, like, looking around,
like, "What the heck happened?"

[announcer] Was it intercepted
or just broken up?

I just remember Coach Meyer
screaming, "Did you catch it?"

"Did you catch it? Did you catch it?"

And I get up with the ball
and I'm like, "I caught it."

[announcer] They're saying
intercepted by Ahmad Black!

Oh, my gosh! I love this kid so much.

Right in front of me, right in front
of me. I was like, "Holy sh*t!"

[crowd cheering]

[Meyer] And Ahmad is a guy
I did not want to recruit.

Not very big, not real fast,
and he proved me wrong.

[announcer] Six interceptions
this year for Black.

That's number seven.

This is what you dream of.

Like, I remember being in the backyard,

and getting a football and throwing it up,
and running to go catch it.

And then I'd be like... [mimics crowd]
Like, for the crowd. And, like...

That's what I wanted to do
and I got an opportunity to do it.

So that was a big, big moment.

[tender music playing]

That was a turning point of the game.
We get the ball back,

and I called the offense together.

And I said, "This is the moment
we've been working for our entire life."

And I point at the scoreboard.
I says, "If you take this down the field,

take seven minutes of the clock,
we're gonna win this game."

If we score a touchdown,

we win the National Championship.

[announcer] Tebow looking down the field.

Tebow on the option,
the inside shovel pass.

Hernandez!

We're driving down the field,
looking at the clock,

and the amount of time,
and what they're expecting.

We knew we probably need
to do something different.

We figured the jump pass
would add a little bit more drama to it.

[suspenseful music plays]

Hike!

We have Tim jump up into the air,
and just throw a ball,

that everyone's like, "Where's it going?"

Loft into the end zone! Touchdown, Nelson!

[triumphant music plays]

Unbelievable... Unbelievable moment.

Just to see it fall in place,
it's... I... it's still surreal to me.

I still can't believe it.

[announcer] And Superman strikes again!

[Tebow] And you just remember celebrating.

And you realize,
"We just won the National Championship."

[announcer] And that is that.

Congratulations
to the University of Florida Gators!

[Tebow] It's like one of those moments
that are just so special.

And it was almost this sense of unity.

Like, not just a team, but a brotherhood.

[Mullen] You're not gonna find
championship teams

that don't have that brotherhood.

And I don't think that brotherhood
was there when the year started,

but by the end of the year,
that brotherhood was definitely there.

[triumphant music climaxing]

There's no better feeling to know that
the hard work that we did put in,

it paid off.

National Championship, baby!
Number one, baby!

It was a phenomenal, phenomenal time
just to be alive.

[triumphant music continues]

Me and Urban had a moment,
and I... I remember mentioning to him,

"Urban, now you have your second
National Championship in three years."

"You gotta be riding high.
You gotta be..." You know what I'm saying?

"How does it feel like?"

♪ We'll sing a song for the flag today ♪

♪ Cheer for the team at play ♪

♪ On to the goal ♪

♪ We'll fight our way for Florida ♪

We go in the locker room, and I remember
grabbing my phone, locking the door.

[tense music plays]

And I can hear 'em celebrating,
and I'm texting recruits.

Worrying about the next class.

"Uh-oh, that one's over. Do it again."
Right after the game.

[snaps fingers] It was over.
On to the next.

We won two National Championships
out of the three years.

This was an expectation now.

An expectation
we have to win it next year.

And then we have to win it the year after.
Then we have...

You know, anything less than winning
the national title, you're a failure.

[tense brooding music plays]

' started with the celebration in '.

[man] All right, guys, you ready?

In three, two, one...

There it is!

[cheering]

Here we are again,
second time in three years,

second time in four seasons
under head coach Urban Meyer.

[tense music continues]

Lot of questions
that fans would like to have answers to.

Is Tim Tebow gonna come back?
Percy Harvin, Brandon Spikes.

Maybe we'll get some answers here.

I mean, you... you knew
the players were going to start leaving.

[reporter] Harvin is ready
for the next level,

where he knows
it will be faster and it will be harder.

[Dooley] You know Percy's not coming back.

Uh, he's going pro
and some other guys are leaving.

So, everybody's freaking out.

[reporter] Brandon Spikes,
Percy Harvin, or, of course, Tim Tebow,

all three have filed papers
with the NFL advisory council,

and that's where players find out
their approximate position in the draft.

Myself, Spikes, and Tim
"had a decision to make."

I'm sitting with Spikes at his apartment
and we're talking about leaving.

At the time, Spikes was
the best linebacker in the nation.

I'm like, "Spikes, if you leave,
you're gonna be first linebacker

off the board,
you're talking top-five pick."

Millions and millions
and millions and millions of dollars.

Spikes is a big teddy bear. He look at me,
"Man, I'm not ready to leave college yet."

Oh! "What is wrong with you?"

And so when he said that,
I go, "All right, well, I'm staying too."

"'Cause like I'm not leaving
if you're not leaving."

[reporter] This morning,
Urban Meyer said he has no clue

what Tebow will decide.

[Meyer] I was really worried.

He had to a decision to make
whether to come back or not.

And I thought we were gonna lose him.

[crowd cheering]

[Tebow] That was something
I probably prayed about for a while.

And I talked to my parents.

They could see I was
really, really struggling with it because...

I was torn.

[crowd cheering]

[gentle piano music plays]

You know, it's been a great journey for me
here at the University of Florida.

I want to, uh,
personally thank Coach Meyer

for giving me
the opportunity to be a Gator.

I want to thank all these coaches.

I want to thank my players.
Um, I love you guys.

Thank you for all the great memories.
God bless.

And I appreciate all of you.
Thank you so much.

[crowd cheering]

And, by the way, one more thing.

Let's do it again, I'm coming back!

[crowd cheers wildly]

["Quiet Dog" by Mos Def plays]

Going into the season...

I mean, it was a circus.

♪ Said and the rocket don't stop ♪

♪ Brooklyn in the kitchen
Heat up the stove top... ♪

[sighs and laughs]

It was crazy.

It was crazy!

♪ The cool dudes swagger
They terribly corny... ♪

Girls...

[cheering]

[Rainey mock screams]
...were falling out, fainting.

All... Man, you'd be like, "What the...?"

♪ Movin' on to Def for stimulus... ♪

Wherever we moved, the crowd moved.

I mean, our practices
and stuff was just packed.

Packed. Packed.

♪ Bright as the A.M... ♪

[Black] Then, like, on the way there,
we'd just start signing autographs.

We just, like, walking
and signing autographs.

♪...cost of motivation I'll stay with
Remarkable flavors... ♪

You know, you turn on the TV,
like, all you saw was Tim Tebow.

I mean, there was nothing bigger than him.

My prayer in... uh, for myself
is to be a good role model.

[Spikes] Tebow was clean-cut, no tattoos.
Like, America likes that.

They like that. It's a feel-good story.

Like, here's this kid that's a virgin,

that's been doing
missionary church his whole life.

You know what I'm saying?
Doing all of the right things.

He was Captain America!

- [Barack Obama] Where... where's Tebow at?
- Right here.

There he is, over there.

Heisman Trophy winner.
That's what I'm talkin' about.

[Rainey] You won't understand
how it upset the team.

'Cause we are a team.

Everybody's gonna get
a handshake afterwards. Just relax.

Just like when we used to get mad
when commentators used the...

Okay, "Tebow vs. Georgia."
"Tebow vs. Tennessee."

[melancholic music plays]

[Rainey] You just got enough of it.
It was just too much.

[scoffs and chuckles sadly]

Yeah, yeah. It was a k*ller.

When you have a team,
and the media, is just...

one person.

It wasn't fair to Tebow, at least to me.

Like, Tebow couldn't control

what the media's saying about him,
and he didn't like it.

[Johnson] It's optics.

Are you marketable,
and can we sell your marketability?

If it's no, eh,
you really serve no purpose.

If it's yes, you gonna be
in front of that camera a whole lot.

You know, if you ask me, "If Tebow
was Black, would he have been as popular?"

Probably not.

[Johnson] They don't talk
about what the team had done.

It's the "Tebow's Promise."
Tebow is marketable.

[Tebow] It just felt like so many times,
people would want to say,

"It's Tebow's team."

And that adds pressure

when other people put you on a pedestal
that's different than your teammates.

That's where, as a team,
you've gotta be strong together,

fight out that noise,

which at times we did well,
and at times we didn't do as good.

[crowd cheering]

[dramatic percussive music plays]

[Finebaum] When you win
two National Championships in three years,

you're... you're at the top of the heap.

And it was a fait accompli
that they were gonna win it again in .

- [whistle blows]
- [yells]

[players clap]

[players grunting]

[Tebow] Our goal in '
was to be the best ever.

We believed it could happen to win
three out of four National Championships.

Let's go!

[Tebow] I wanted to finish what I started.

I wanted to finish it with Spikes,
and Brandon James, and all those guys.

We're taking no prisoners, man.
No prisoners.

All I cared about was winning. I was like,
"It's National Championship or bust."

Let's go! Dominate!

[James] That whole year,
Coach Meyer would break it down,

"We're the show.
Everybody's here to see us."

"They're not here to see the other team."
So that's pressure, like, every week.

[Stamper] Everybody expected us
to just show up and win,

because talent alone,

we should monkey-stomp every team we play.

[crowd cheering]

[Meyer] Nothing was good enough in '.

We would win a game by points
and I'd be so angry at our team

because I thought
we should have b*at 'em by points.

[crowd exclaims]

[Meyer] We're undefeated.

And the entire time, I'm in anguish
about not being perfect.

And it permeated down to our players.

Our players weren't enjoying it.
I could tell.

[menacing droning music plays]

[Stamper] We was all just trying too hard,

and just holding our breath,
hoping we don't lose.

Every week. [laughs] You know what I mean?

And then it's like, "Whoo!
All right, we... we escaped that one!"

"On to the next week!" Instead of...
You know, it wasn't fun.

[crowd cheering]

[Tebow] It was such pressure
to do more, to be more,

to finish on another level,

to be the best ever.

[young Meyer] That's what
this whole deal is. It's a tough program,

tough game, we got tough-ass players.

You put it to their ass.
Grab your hands, squeeze tight.

Here you go, T!

[Meyer] For me, it was all about the fear
of losing that one game.

"Don't screw this up, don't screw this up.
Don't be a failure."

And I know something's gonna happen
if we don't start playing great.

[tense music plays]

[cheering]

[Tebow] When we play
Mississippi State in ',

we were just trying to handle the pressure

and the weight of the success that we had.

[reporter] Just have some last-minute news
on linebacker Brandon Spikes.

He's been dealing with a groin injury.
He did warm up with the team...

[Spikes] We play at Mississippi State.
I'm on the sideline,

talking sh*t to everybody, like,
"Y'all better not lose this damn game!"

[announcer] And Ducre's got
another first down.

And this is really a great start
for Mississippi State,

as we look at Brandon Spikes
on the sideline...

Instead of having
that final knockout blow,

where we put 'em asleep early in the game,

we were missing something.

[announcer] Tebow...

There was a little bit of frustration

maybe with offense and defense,

and bickering,
and there was pressure on me.

[announcer] Tim Tebow
and the Florida offense,

you think they've got the...
the potential to be more expl*sive.

[Spikes] Tebow wasn't having his best game
and Urban didn't say nothing to him.

Anybody else on the team having problems
or doing something crazy, they'd be like,

"Hey, let's go! What you doing?
Get yourself together!"

"Get your sh*t together!"

Nobody came to him.

So I was like, "You know what?
He respect me enough."

I'm finna let him know,
like, "Hey, you stinking it up."

Oh, he fumbled.

[Spikes] "You gotta play better, bro.
You stinking it up."

So, me and him, like, you know,
we started to, like, get into it,

like, you know, go back and forth.

[anxious music plays]

[Tebow] When people are emotional,
some tempers start to flare,

stuff happens fast, right?

So he says a few things to me
that I don't think he really means.

[announcer] On the left side,
as Tebow is hurried, throws...

Tipped! Intercepted!

He was playing like pure sh*t,

and I was standing on the sideline,

and I couldn't do nothing about it!

[announcer] A hundred-yard touchdown!

It was really falling apart
right before my eyes.

And I was like, "I only came back here
to go to the National Championship."

[commentator] Right now,
Urban Meyer's saying,

"You know what? The best thing for us is
let's get to the locker room and regroup."

Instead of handling it,
addressing it, stopping it,

it escalated to the fact
that even when we go in the locker room,

it kept going.

Come on, man!

They really think they can play
with us now. What the f*ck, man?

[Spikes] I was ready to fight.
It's time to fight.

[young Spikes] Put them
m*therf*ckers away, man!

[Spikes] It became like a...
Everybody, like, picked a side.

You got guys behind me,
you got a couple guys jumped on his side.

Before you know it,
we was split down the middle as a team.

[players yell indistinctly]

[Tebow] We had to be separated.

Coach is in the middle. Me vs. Spikes.

Urban's just sitting there,
like "Oh, my gosh."

Yeah, he did one of those again,
dropped his head, like,

"This is not happening right now."

[all yelling indistinctly]

My alpha of defense, Brandon Spikes,
my alpha on offense, Tim Tebow,

two guys that were leaders
having a big argument in the locker room.

And I knew whose fault it was.
It was mine.

Brandon Spikes was mimicking my behavior.

We expect perfection.
If someone's not playing perfect, why not?

And I know exactly
where Brandon Spikes was coming from.

And I take responsibility for it.

Let them feel our f*cking pain right now.
I feel this f*cking room.

Let's go get after their ass.

We're f*cking around with this team.
We shouldn't be.

b*at the sh*t out of this team!

We get the ball right now,
right now, right now!

- Take it to 'em. I got you. Right now.
- [players] Let's go. Let's go!

[Meyer] Showtime on three.
One, two, three!

[all] Showtime!

[bold music playing]

Hike!

[announcer] Rainey, touchdown!

[commentator] Huh! Not a bad choice.

So we go out there, he plays a lot better,
you know, we win that game.

[announcer] Tebow! He's got it.

[commentator] Tebow wins another one.

Urban Meyer knows that his team
did not play great again tonight.

[melancholic music plays]

You had never seen a team
that was undefeated be so miserable.

[Stamper] Coach Meyer is
an extremely emotional guy.

How he's feeling, you see it
on his face, you know what I'm saying?

So, there was something,
like, off about him.

[tense pulsing music plays]

[Meyer] You know, I was
in a really bad place for a long time.

I started to lose weight.

And I became addicted to Ambien, you know?

I just... I couldn't sleep.

So I'd take an Ambien,
and then that was not working.

So it got to the point
where I'd take two Ambien

and drink a beer on top of it,
just to get four hours of sleep.

And I'd... I'd have those moments

where I would just sit there,
and I'd start sweating, shaking.

Like a panic att*ck.

Like, "Something's going on here.
We're not ready, we're not ready."

[seagulls squawking]

We ended that season undefeated!

You know? We... We won every game.

We won every game.

But when we got Alabama
in the SEC Championship,

we hit a roadblock.

[marching band plays]

[announcer] The defending
national champions

trying to earn their way
back to the title game.

And in their way,
the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The whole SEC Championship Game that year

had... had a different feeling
to the previous season.

- Yeah!
- Right, let's go be champions!

You felt the revenge factor
on the Alabama side building.

[announcer] Both teams undefeated.
It's never happened for this event.

[Black] By the time we got to Alabama,
we were like, "All right, cool."

"We b*at them last year.
We gonna b*at 'em again."

But we just went out flat.

[player] Let's go!

[Stamper] It just...
It just was no energy, no juice.

It was there,

but it wasn't there to be playing Alabama
in the SEC Championship

when you know we just kicked
these guys' ass the year before,

so you know they out for blood.

[crowd cheering]

The game started, and sure enough,
we were in a street fight early,

and then they started
to pull away from us.

[announcer] Here's Tebow. Stiff arm.

Nice defensive play.

[Meyer] Their defense
was relentless on Tim.

[announcer] Tebow retreats.
And as he lets it go up in the air...

Never seen it happen
where their focus was on "get after him."

I mean, we threw the ball so much
'cause we couldn't run.

We tried. Couldn't go.

[announcer] Twenty-two games
in a row for Tim Tebow,

Urban Meyer, and the Florida Gators.

And this is the largest deficit
they have faced this season, down by nine.

We went against
another juggernaut in Alabama,

that for days,

they talked about losing to us,

they preached about stopping us.

[announcer] Touchdown, Alabama!

[Tebow] They had the edge because...

they had nothing to lose
and we had everything to lose.

[announcer] They try
to get Upchurch open in the flat.

He was held up at the line of scrimmage.
So McElroy says, "What the heck?"

What the heck?

- [commentator] That was Tebow-esque.
- Yes.

[commentator] That's the play you
would've thought Tebow'd make.

McElroy is making all the plays.

We played a 'Bama team who,
quite frankly, was way hungrier than us.

[announcer] Here's Cody at fullback.

Touchdown, Alabama!

[crowd cheers]

[commentator] What a performance
by Nick Saban's team.

Alabama won it from start to finish.

[melancholic music plays]

[Meyer] It was all there in front of him,
and somehow,

on one afternoon in Atlanta,

it all slipped away.

It was said by Alabama fans,

"It was the day that
the Gators d*ed and Tebow cried."

And I mean, it was... it was...
It got really cruel.

[crowd cheering]

When I look back
at all of the games I've ever played in,

that's the one I have the most regret for.

We were so close to doing it.

But we were still trying to match the past

versus press on for the future.

[Stamper] If I had to say
something that I'm, like, angry about,

that's the fact that
I don't have three championships

from the University of Florida.

We should have won in .

Talent for talent, player for player,

we should not have lost that game.

[melancholic music continues]

I just felt like, you know,
something was wrong with me.

I felt the dynasty
slipping from our hands right there.

I feel all this coming on me
'cause it's my team.

Felt like a failure.

I was in deep depression.

You know, I... I couldn't get out of bed.

I mean, my... I was curled up and I...

No energy, no desire.
I thought I was gonna die.

That's when I started thinking,
"I'm done."

He gave a speech
about everything that we're doing well.

Then at the end of it, he says, you know,
"I'm stepping down as coach

at the University of Florida."
And everybody's like, "What?"

"What do you mean?"

[reporter] It shook
the college football world

that Urban Meyer was stepping down

after five seasons as the head coach
at the University of Florida.

[Tebow] Everyone's shocked.

A lot of guys are in tears
and I think some guys were mad.

Some guys were emotional.

You know, it was like,
"Wait, what is happening?"

I mean, think about it, right?

We're playing for the SEC Championship,
number one team in the country,

about to win another SEC, and go play
for another National Championship.

We lose, we're shocked, we're stunned.

Couple days later,
he says he's retiring, he's ill.

What happened? I thought we were,
you know, finishing with... on top,

climax, you know, this incredible story.

Moments, falling apart.

[sportscaster] "I've dedicated most
of my waking moments the last five years

to the Gator football program,"
said Meyer.

He also went on to say,
"I've ignored my health for years,

but recent developments

have forced me to re-evaluate
my priorities of faith and family."

I mean, this is the guy
that lost two games over two years.

[gentle music plays]

It's almost like
the more successful he got,

the more he wanted.

And, like, you only have
so much to give as a coach,

and he gave everything.

And eventually that was just too much.

When it finally crashed and b*rned, it...

it... it came to me as quite a shock.

What was the fork in the road
that undid him?

Urban Meyer, the fierce competitor,
the take-no-prisoners approach.

The... The never-say-die...

Ultimately, I think he... he ended up

defeating himself.

[Meyer] Everybody in their careers,
they look back,

and there's mistakes made,
and things you wish that you had a redo.

You can chase perfection all you want,
you're gonna come up empty-handed.

I did everything I can just to keep myself
and that program going.

And I hope someday to apologize, and...

and say, "I wish
it would've ended differently,"

but I can always look back
and say we gave it our very best.

[uplifting music plays]

The Jacksonville Jaguars have fired
head coach Urban Meyer

after less than one year on the job.

It brings to an end
a tumultuous season for Meyer.

[Tebow] You know, when I...
I walk in here, I love it.

It's the best stadium in the country.

So much success, and so much fun,
and so many memories.

But I think... [sighs]

...it's hard for me

because there's supposed to be
another number at the end.

It's supposed to say ', ', ', '.

[Tebow] I've had the chance
to be in a lot of stadiums.

I've had the chance
to be in this stadium a lot.

[fan yells indistinctly]

Yeah, for sure. Go, Gators.

[crowd cheering]

[Spikes] It was a magical thing
and I'll never forget it.

I became a man in Gainesville.

A better man, a better person,
a better teammate.

[Rainey] What's happening?
What's happening? [laughs]

[Spikes] I never thought we'd be
still talking about Florida football,

my time in Gainesville.

[all laughing]

I thought, like, that was a moment,
it was fun while it lasted,

but, you know, it's the past.

And here we are.

[Rainey] What's happening?

What's up, bro?

James! What's up, man?

Why you gotta look better
than everybody else?

[all laugh]

You're smellin' good!
You smell like heaven!

- [all laugh]
- What is that?

But, boy, that... Boy, he was dangerous!

Half cheetah, half man.

[laughs]

We had faced adversity all four years,
but we overcame so much of it.

[Tebow]...about playing in this game,
and we start the game.

And Spikes smacks Knowshon,
like, "Get off the bench."

[Tebow] It was a place of brotherhood,
camaraderie, love, and trust.

[announcer] The Gators celebrate
as national champions!

[Tebow] Being a Gator, it's unique.

It's a drive,
it's a passion that is relentless.

We got minutes
for the rest of our lives!

- Thirty minutes for the rest of our lives!
- Yeah!

[triumphant music plays]

[sobs]

[announcer] Loft into the end zone!
Touchdown, Nelson!

We're number one!

Ooh, ahh! Ooh, ahh! Ooh, ahh!

[Meyer] I'll never forget
the day that I walked into the Swamp.

And I thought, "This is the place
where magic could happen."

And it did.

[triumphant music crescendos]

[bold percussive music plays]