Times like that--in fact even NOW, in response to this POST--there needs to be a reply-icon a notch ABOVE "Like" here at GE: Every Gator gives that one a "LOVE"!
(To be used sparingly, of course: And btw, such moments come rarely...We sure don't WANT to find ourselves regularly REQUIRING such heroics to beat ANY Vols team...but this series, this RIVALRY, has been replete with close struggles, strangely decided...One I remember back around the turn-of-the-milenium (back when BOTH programs were riding high, trading seasons of dominance in the SEC East, the EAST then considered by far the dominant of the two divisions) was also decided at the very end--a Gator victory on a short pass into the endzone that was in truth held by the receiver for just a fraction of a second before being slapped from his hands...Still, the receiver did hold onto the ball, his feet firmly planted on the ground in the endzone, and the official had already perceived/ruled it a TD--anyway, his arms and hands were in process of shooting into the air by the time the defender knocked the ball out of his hands and to the ground in what they call "a Bang/Bang play". Controversial, not at all "cut and dry" when you watch it at "normal speed". Last play of game: Gators win.
In those days, this game was the "SEC opener" for both teams: A game that at the time annually gave the victor the inside track to winning the East in the SEC. We were ecstatic, Vols fans outraged. Only fueled the rivalry. If you can, take a look at the play: literally a "classic judgment call", to this day I have to admit that "it could go either way", but I also still think it was the RIGHT call. Perhaps we were "lucky" to get it then, there--and another brick in the wall of reasons I have come to despise relying on "luck" to get wins! And yet, it brings exciting moments. Extraordinary sudden joy to one side, crushing disappointment to the other. Anyway, there is little point in whining about it: I have more and more come to realize that these "big moments", no matter HOW they actually come out, are themselves the culmination of a BUNCH of chance-events leading UP to them. This game is essentially an ongoing process of action, chance and REaction. The TEAM that rides that wild "flow of events" in relaxed readiness tends to be in a position to exploit a "moment of good fortune" at the very end. Drives us crazy, but as they say, "...needs must when the devil drives".