Untold: Swamp Kings (2023) s01e03 Episode Script
Trouble in the Swamp
1
[suspenseful music plays]
[Tim Tebow] Hike! [grunts]
[announcer] Tebow straight ahead.
Into the end zone!
And the Gators have put this one on ice!
[triumphant music plays]
For the second time in 100 years,
the Gators celebrate
as National Champions!
[Urban Meyer] It was, uh
It was like a dream.
[announcer] Oh, what a night
it'll be in Gainesville, Florida.
[Meyer] But the next year,
it was a whole different story.
[adventurous music plays]
[crowd cheering]
[Brandon Spikes]
Felt like I was a superstar.
The parties were insane.
Some of the stuff we was doing was insane.
[Brandon James] Like, "This is how it is
being a big-time college athlete, huh?"
It's just too much temptation.
[siren wails]
[reporter] Running back Brandon James
has been arrested for drug charges.
All right, another Florida Gator
has been arrested.
[Meyer] I was dealing
with something almost every week.
[reporter] Offensive lineman
Ronnie Wilson's in trouble tonight
after firing a shot into the air
during an argument.
The police staked out in areas
where the, you know, college kids went.
We felt like they was out to get us.
[Meyer] The media was relentless.
Attacking our players,
attacking myself, attacking our staff.
I needed to right that ship and
[music intensifies]
fast.
[ethereal music plays]
[whistle blowing rhythmically]
[dramatic percussive music plays]
Let's get it done now.
We're building a team right here.
Let's get another National Championship.
Let's go play in Atlanta.
Everyone's goal
at the beginning of the year
is always to win a championship.
But for Urban, there was no other option.
Let's go get this shit done.
You know as well as I do,
this is right the fuck where it starts.
Tebow, get this shit goin'.
It's your team,
take charge of it. Let's go!
Let's go, bring it in.
Great day today, guys.
Go long, we gotta go hard, baby. Let's go!
- Gators on three! One, two three!
- [all] Gators!
[yelling indistinctly]
[Tebow] I think, in '07,
one of the biggest things
was a changing of the guard.
As far as leadership, alpha males,
the dominant personalities.
Brandon Siler, Dallas Baker, Chris Leak,
'07, those leaders walked out the door.
[dramatic music plays]
[Meyer] But I knew we had a great
recruiting class coming in.
The new class coming in after us,
the '07 class,
for me, is better than our class.
- [man] Rollin'?
- [James] Their class is star-studded.
This is long overdue.
[James] You have Major Wright,
you have Ahmad Black,
you have Chris Rainey.
[automated voice] Scene one.
[James] You have Cam Newton,
the Pouncey twins,
Aaron Hernandez, Carlos Dunlap.
And it's exciting. It's super exciting.
[Black] My first day of school,
it was like,
"This is the number one team
in college football right now."
And we're part of it, right?
So, we I mean, we soaked it all in.
Just really can't wait
until kickoff, you know? And
We all knew coming in together,
um, that we wanted to be special.
I want to see how it is on the field.
They say the Swamp shakes.
[thunderous clapping]
[Rainey] The whole crowd screaming
and doing the Gator Chomp.
[claps reverberate]
I was just ready, all ready.
[suspenseful music plays]
[announcer] Start with this Florida team,
because you are defending national champs.
- Now everybody wants you to do it 2007.
- [commentator] That's right.
We in the Swamp. We in the Swamp!
[cheering]
- "Gators" on three! One, two, three!
- [all] Gators!
Going into the '07 season, we all knew
we were really good, like, no question.
[announcer] Tebow, looking deep again.
Has a man wide open!
- Touchdown, Florida!
- [crowd cheers]
[Spikes] I felt we could beat anybody,
we could go beat some pro teams.
We was just so confident.
[bold music playing]
[announcer] KJ Black was just
blown up by Brandon Spikes.
So Florida will pick up this win.
Suddenly Florida was the team to beat
in in the Southeastern Conference.
[announcer] Florida,
knocking at the Troy door again.
Touchdown, Florida!
Tim Tebow to Percy Harvin.
[Finebaum] They weren't expected
to compete any longer,
they were expected to dominate.
[Carl Johnson] Urban would say,
"Take no prisoners."
"We gonna leave 'em
all dead on the field."
"Make a memory out of them."
So that's what we did.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] The Volunteers
against Florida in the Swamp.
Tennessee was one
of the better teams in the country.
[announcer] Here's James.
He could be a game breaker today.
- [crowd roars]
- As I said
Brandon James, touchdown, Florida!
Eighty-three-yard return!
I'm coming off, beating my chest.
We killed them.
[Tebow] And we scored 59 points.
[announcer] Touchdown!
That was a big deal.
[announcer] And the final score, 59 to 20.
Not only are we good,
we have a chance to be great.
♪orange and blue ♪
Waving forever ♪
[Finebaum] It looked like
Urban Meyer and Florida
were going to win
the National Championship every year.
[crowd cheering]
[Spikes] Back in Gainesville,
you really started
to see and feel the love.
I felt like I was like a a rock star.
[tense pulsing music plays]
College football in the South
is way bigger than professional sports.
All of these young, talented guys,
they're experiencing every day
being told how great they are.
They're the defending champions.
They walk around like the kings of campus.
[exclaims and laughs]
How you doing? I'm Major. What's going on?
And that kind of really took over.
[moody spacey music plays]
[Spikes] You go somewhere, they was like,
"Oh, this is Brandon Spikes.
Y'all, come on in."
We was like, "Well, we not 21."
"Don't matter."
"Come on in, have a good time.
We gonna take care of the bill."
And that was my slogan back in the day,
"If it's free, give me three."
[laughs]
[bold electronic music plays]
We called it "Gaines-Vegas."
So in Gaines-Vegas, we partied.
[techno music playing]
[James] I'm 18 years old,
females know who I am,
I can go to parties and get in free,
and it was like, "Man!"
"This is how it is being
a big-time college athlete, huh?" [laughs]
[players singing indistinctly]
[Spikes] The parties were insane.
Some of the stuff we was doing was insane.
It's just too much temptation.
- [people laughing]
- [man] Drink it, drink it!
[Meyer] Alcohol everywhere,
pretty girls everywhere,
and here we are, I'm trying to
"Hey, we have practice tomorrow."
You know, "Hey, you're not that good."
"Yeah, we are that good!"
It's It was a fight.
[indistinct chatter]
Urban literally used to sit there
and be like, "You living right?"
[chuckles] I was like, "How many times
are you gonna ask me that?"
"I just want to know if you living right."
I was a college student!
"No, Coach, I'm not living right,
if that's what you mean."
Set, hut!
[gentle music plays]
[Meyer] Tim was the only one.
He was the hardest working guy.
He did everything right.
[Spikes] He wasn't partying with us.
Tebow either had his Bible out
or had his playbook out.
I would throw parties,
and women'd be like, "Is Tebow coming?
Is Tebow coming?"
I'm like, "How many parties have I thrown?
Have you ever seen Tebow?"
"Quit asking about him.
He's never coming here."
[Ryan Stamper] I was answering questions
constantly about Tebow.
"Hey, like, is he really a virgin?"
Or, "Hey, is he Like, does he
Is he really that perfect?"
Like, "He really just eat,
sleep football?"
I'm just like, "Yeah. I mean,
that's that's that's who he is."
I just wanted to see if he was real.
So I would, like, you know,
you know, maybe have, like, some
a picture, a nude picture
on my phone or something.
Show it to him just to see how he react.
"Come on, man! Like, you really,
like, get a man uncomfortable!"
I was like, "Oh, he's serious."
[country music playing]
[man whooping]
[Tebow] That class was one
of the most passionate,
rambunctious, fun-loving partiers
[chuckling]that I've ever been around.
[exclaiming joyfully]
[Tebow] But my focus was playing football.
At certain times,
we have to stop and go to work.
[crowd cheering]
["Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation plays]
[jet engines roar]
[crowd vocalizing along]
[announcer] Florida is a top-four team,
and the Auburn Tigers
nearly three-touchdown underdogs.
[tense music plays]
[Mullen] We get to week five
of the season against Auburn.
It's a a huge game.
[yells]
[Mullen] It's the only team
we lost to the year before.
[Spikes] Remember one thing,
motherfuckers!
We don't lose in the Swamp!
You know, we're one
of the top five teams in the country
and the expectations are high.
[crowd cheering]
[Spikes] We expected to win,
we knew we was gonna win.
It was just about how much.
[player] Bring it on, baby!
[Wright] That Auburn game was big.
That was one of my first games
I played in.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] Auburn takes over at the 20.
[Wright] Auburn,
running a little tall sweep.
I come down here full speed.
[crowd exclaims]
I hit I hit him here.
I don't remember exactly what happened,
but then when I heard the crowd
[crowd roaring]
I knew something happened.
- [cheering]
- [announcer] Major Wright shook it loose.
Can the Gators come up with it?
It was one of the best feelings
ever in my life.
[cheering continues]
Let's fucking go!
[announcer] Third and long.
Tebow sits in the pocket.
Throws underneath to Harvin.
- [whistle blows]
- That was beautifully defended.
[commentator] And all at once,
Auburn has taken the momentum
right back from the Florida Gators.
- [crowd cheering]
- Hike!
[droning music plays]
[announcer] Ball over the line! Touchdown!
[commentator] This is something.
[Tebow] We were shut out
in the first half.
[announcer] Some scattered boos
greet the Florida Gators
as they head for the locker room.
[Meyer] We lacked discipline,
we had turnovers, we made mistakes.
I mean, now our backs I mean, I
I I feel the foundation
shaking a little bit.
[young Meyer] You come out there
and stick it to 'em!
You're a second-half team,
you're trained for this shit!
You're trained for this!
Everything we got!
Stick together, play your balls off!
- Right, and here you go! One, two, three!
- [all] Showtime!
[cheering]
[Tebow] We turned it on
in the second half.
[announcer] And Tebow takes off
straight ahead, touchdown!
[Tebow] We played really well offensively.
[crowd cheering]
Fourth quarter, tie game.
Cox, short set to Smith!
[suspenseful music plays]
[Tebow] But they hold the ball
and hold the ball,
and have these long, sustained drives.
[announcer] And Auburn has things
in control. Tate again.
Cutback down to the 30, to the 29.
They have a chance
to kick a game-winning field goal.
[cheering]
[announcer] Now there's 21 seconds left.
Well, from here,
it would be a 46, 47-yard field goal.
And all Urban Meyer
can do right now is hope.
[suspenseful music continues
and intensifies]
[crowd sighs sadly]
[announcer] And the fourth-ranked Gators
go down at home,
ending an 18-game home win streak.
[atmospheric music plays]
[Finebaum] That was absolutely shocking.
You also have to factor
one other thing into the equation.
No more mistakes.
Another loss and it's over, your team's
not winning the National Championship.
[Spikes] It was a whole new picture
and it wasn't pretty.
And I'm not proud.
I don't even really like discussing it
and talking about it,
'cause I'm embarrassed.
I'm very disappointed at the outcome.
A very tough battle.
Uh, but Auburn played their butt off
and so did the Florida Gators.
But we didn't necessarily play smart,
didn't play well.
[reporter] Coach, uh,
your first loss at home.
Can you talk about that?
Yeah, sick to my stomach.
[young Meyer shouting indistinctly]
[Meyer] I became so angry with that team.
Now, look straight ahead!
There was a lot of entitlement,
a lot of, "We're the greatest."
[young Meyer] Eyes straight ahead!
Don't give in!
[Mullen] They just assumed that,
"Well, we were champions last year,
we'll just be champions again this year."
And they don't understand how hard it is
to be great.
[Meyer] So we made a decision
[dramatic music playing]
that we're going back to old school.
[shouting indistinctly]
[screaming]
We're gonna turn the heat up so hot,
if we lose some players,
we lose some players,
and we'll be stronger by attrition.
If you're a non-competitor,
you have do something to become one.
It's gonna get harder
and harder and harder.
Straight line, let's go. Let's go!
[screams]
[all yelling indistinctly]
[screams]
We trained like soldiers,
like we was about to really go to war.
[grunts]
[growls]
[screams]
[brooding music plays]
[Black] Training was way,
way, way more intense, way harder,
so I was pulling hamstrings,
like, left and right.
Like, you you can be running,
and pull a hamstring.
- And you automatically shut down.
- [snaps fingers]
And, uh, Coach Meyer came up,
and he he said,
"What are What are you doing?"
And I'm like,
"Coach, I can't go. Like, my hamstring."
A few days after that,
um, I think one of the reporters
asked Coach Meyer about me,
and how I was doing, right?
Coach Meyer said, "Well, I think
that was a recruiting mistake."
To the media.
So in the newspaper, they printed it out.
Yeah.
Eighteen years old,
ready to come play football,
and that's what I get told.
- [young Tebow yells]
- [all grunting]
- [whistle blows]
- [grunting]
Why are we about to die training?
[young Meyer] That's awful!
That's fucking awful!
This is football. Like, y'all tripping.
It ain't that serious.
Hut!
- [coach 1] Go!
- [coach 2] There you go.
[whistle blows]
[Johnson] I was taught
"utter controlled violence."
[whistles blowing]
[men yelling indistinctly]
[man] Hey, hey, hey, hey!
I would never, never teach
my kids this shit.
I'm ashamed to tell them
I used to beat people up,
used to fight in the locker room
if you had a bad practice.
I would hurt you if you did wrong,
I used to hurt people on the field.
I don't even want my kids
to know that version of me even existed.
- [grunting]
- [whistle blows]
I don't apologize
for making it a hard program.
I always hope people say,
"That's the hardest program in sports."
And those who survive,
those who remain, become champions.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Tiger Stadium
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
A very special place in college football.
[sportscaster] This is a big game.
The Gators were stunned
in the Swamp by Auburn last week.
But if they win, they're right back
in the National Championship chase.
[pulsing music plays]
[Meyer] They were number one
in the country.
[cheering]
[Meyer] We have to win the game
to stay in the race.
The most difficult environment to date,
that I've ever witnessed in my life.
I mean, old ladies flipping you off
as you're driving in.
[cheering continues]
[Wright] They'd throw rocks at your bus,
they'd shake the bus.
They gonna spit on the bus.
They gonna do everything to throw you off.
Bro, I'm scared!
I'm like, "Oh, my God!
What are we getting ourselves into?"
[cheering continues]
When we're walking in, and I see this fan
sitting there, and he's holding a cup.
And that person throws it right on me.
And I don't believe it was water.
[young Meyer] Hold on, hold on!
Everybody's got a job to do!
We get in the locker room,
and I mean go berserk.
- Do your fucking job!
- [player] Do it
Everybody, do your job! You win this game!
[player] Everyone on our team
is going to be fed.
Kill these motherfuckers on three!
- One, two, three!
- Kill these motherfuckers!
[suspenseful music plays]
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
[Tebow] I was so ready to play that night.
[crowd] Tigers!
That week, someone put out
my cell phone number
to all of the student body at LSU.
And when I say thousands,
I mean thousands and thousands
and thousands of calls and text messages.
Like, "Your mom, Pamela,
your sister Christy,
your sister Katie,
we're gonna burn 'em at the stake."
"We're gonna rape 'em."
I was mad.
And it was personal.
[announcer] Tebow.
And he pulls up, wants to throw.
- Now he does and it's good!
- [crowd jeers]
Kestahn Moore, touchdown!
[Tebow] I've never really
talked trash in my life.
But I walked right up
to their student section,
and I dial a phone, I put it
"Just keep talking."
[crowd jeering]
[players yelling indistinctly]
[player] Let's go! Let's go!
LSU, number one team in the country,
one of the best defenses
in college football history,
and we dominate 'em.
[announcer] Touchdown, Florida!
[crowd jeering]
[announcer] The defending
national champions lead
the top-ranked team in the country.
[whistles] We don't jab, jab, jab
and walk away.
You go out there right now,
they got 'em wobbling, put it to 'em.
Hit 'em square in the fucking face!
Knock them out,
and as soon as you put 'em down,
fuckin' punch 'em square in the face
until it's done, baby!
Keep going!
Tap for that shit
and get the fuck out of here!
- Let's get out of here! Let's go!
- [players yelling]
Let's go!
[tense droning music plays]
[Wright] Ending, third quarter,
LSU step up.
[announcer] Keiland Williams
strolls in for the touchdown!
When they score, it switched
the whole momentum of the game.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Tebow drills it. There is
[crowd cheers]
no contact. It's incomplete.
They get the ball back,
drive down the field
[announcer] Wide open.
Get five fourth downs.
Five fourth downs.
[Spikes] They had
a whole bunch of rushing yards.
We couldn't stop a nosebleed that game.
[announcer] 24-21, 1:14 to go.
LSU, third and goal.
[Wright] Jacob Hester, their running back,
the hole opens up.
Boom! He keeps going.
[crowd cheers]
[anxious music plays]
You're a fine football team,
you're a hell of a football team.
You should have won that game.
Eyes up here.
Do not let the human element
take over this team.
You hear me, Brandon Spikes?
The Michael Jordans of the world
do not let that happen.
They don't let that happen.
Be the Michael Jordan of college football,
be the Michael Jordan of Florida Gators.
[Meyer] We just failed,
and I was so distraught.
Our chance to win a National Championship
was out, is over, it's done.
[tender melancholic music plays]
[Tebow] That week,
sitting there with coach, and
[sighs]
I'm devastated because
we're just missing something.
[Meyer] We were soft, a splintered team.
We had minimal to zero leadership.
I'm looking for someone to grab this team.
Tim's trying, but Tim can't do it.
You know, not by himself.
We needed Brandon Spikes
to be that leader.
[Tebow] He had such influence.
Other players didn't have
as big of a personality.
They didn't have the presence.
When Spikes walked in, everyone notices.
- [man] Run, run, run!
- [young Spikes] Oh, shit! Lord.
[Spikes] Urban would come to me
and say, like,
"Your job is to be great
at playing linebacker,
being a great leader,
and bringing, uh, the level
of the other guys,
bringing every their play,
bringing it to the level of yours."
[young Spikes] I'm tired, man.
[coaches yell indistinctly]
- [young Spikes] I ain't doing shit.
- [coach] Let's go! Get over here.
And you cannot be the one
complaining and whining
about the hard work we gotta do.
But I was really young and and immature.
I didn't want all of that responsibility.
[James] After the LSU loss,
all of our dreams were just crushed.
And that year, we just didn't do
a good job of coping with losing.
[siren wails]
[reporter 1] A Gators football player's
in big trouble tonight
after firing a shot into the air
during an argument.
[Meyer] I was dealing
with something almost every week.
Someone does something stupid
and it becomes a story.
All right, another Florida Gator
has been arrested.
[reporter 2] Safety Tony Joiner
faces a burglary charge tonight.
[Pat Dooley] Florida was at the high end
of getting in trouble, there's no doubt.
But when you're trying
to get the best players,
you're gonna have to take
some guys doing stupid things.
[hip-hop music plays]
I had an incident
where a dude snatched my chain.
So we fought. We got in a big brawl.
I grew up in the hood.
So you snatch what's mine,
I gotta get that back.
Everybody was, you know,
saying we cause problems.
But sometimes you do get these locals
who want to make a name for themselves
and try to provoke us.
[Tebow] So one night, me and Aaron
are in the Swamp restaurant.
As we're leaving,
the stuff that was being said
to him was awful.
And it was all racist comments.
And it was one too many names called.
And And, unfortunately,
then somebody got injured.
But I blame myself as much for that too.
I should've got him out easier,
I should've got him out faster.
I should have done more.
[Dooley] The famous story
about Aaron Hernandez
slugging the guy at the Swamp,
we never got police reports on it.
It ended up just getting fixed. Went away.
Things went away back then.
[tense moody music plays]
[siren wails]
[Johnson] If the University of Florida
gets out of this city,
it's bankrupt overnight.
Who you think paying the highest taxes?
Do not think that the police department,
or some governor,
or mayor of this city
runs this city, it does not.
University employees,
all the public servants [chuckles]
that feed from the city,
such as police departments, fire de
All that money branches from Florida.
That school called U with an F
runs this city.
[Dooley] The University of Florida
had people involved,
an attorney in town, to fix problems.
[morose piano music plays]
[Johnson] The lawyer
will come in, hear it,
find one legal jargon wrong,
get the whole thing thrown out.
But if you've got kids,
fixing it is not always the the answer.
They'll probably get in trouble again.
[reporter] Two University of Florida
athletes have been arrested
for drug charges.
Police say Brandon James
and Brandon Powell
met with a confidential police source
to buy about 0.8 grams
of marijuana for $20.
[James] We had a team rule,
there was no drugs.
So getting arrested for drugs,
you know, you're terrified.
That night in jail, I literally
sat against the wall all night,
and didn't sleep a wink,
because I only could think
about Coach Meyer.
"God, is he gonna send me home?
Is he gonna send me home?"
I had put so much work
in to try to prove myself,
and it's stripped all away
because I made one really dumb decision.
He needed to be held accountable,
but Brandon James was not a bad guy.
[James] Coach Meyer
work out on my own.
Had to do everything on my own
to earn his trust back.
[Finebaum] Urban Meyer
did the minimum, in my estimation,
to try to correct the discipline problems.
All coaches coach to win,
all coaches look the other way,
but most coaches do have a limit
to how far they will look.
I don't think Urban Meyer did.
[Meyer] Criticism started coming
because people felt I should
start kicking players off the team.
[melancholic music plays]
I'm not doing that.
I saw what happened
to a player we did throw to the street.
And that'll haunt me the rest of my life.
- [crowd cheers]
- [announcer] Here's the pass.
Oh, my goodness! It's intercepted
by Avery Atkins, a freshman!
[Meyer] Avery Atkins was
one of the top players in America.
He plays his freshman year in '05.
And he is so good.
He I mean, he is
he's cat quick, tough as nails,
beautiful smile, beautiful player.
We all loved this kid.
The team loves him
and he's really struggling.
[James] It was just
a lot of pressure on Avery.
He had a lot of success early.
And when you're playing
big-time college ball,
you're supposed to carry this smile
all the time, supposed to take pictures,
and sign autographs, whenever.
But we're 18, 19, we're kids still.
[Meyer] He was in this relationship
and he hit this girl.
And we have a core value,
if you hit a woman, you're gone.
And I mean, I teared up.
I couldn't believe I had to do this,
but I had to do it.
I kicked him off the team.
A year later
I get the phone call.
He's dead.
Avery, he overdosed on drugs.
I took football out of Avery's life,
and it was terrible.
And that's on my plate.
[melancholic music continues]
[Tebow] I can't tell you
how many times he would say,
"Timmy, what should
I have done different?"
"Should I have encouraged him more?
Should I have been harder on him?"
We talked through all of it.
We'd pray through it, we would
Honestly, with a lot of tears.
[Meyer] From that point forward,
on our staff meetings,
I'd say, "There's a couple options
we have here."
"Number one is fix the issue."
"Number two is turn your back
on that player and q quit on him."
And I just would take an eraser
on the board and actually erase that one.
So that's not an option anymore.
[man] Some of you guys,
I know some of your stories are varied,
but I would venture to guess
that there's a lot of you
who may be the first ones in your families
to graduate from college.
[Stamper] You know, Coach Meyer felt
like in order to get a team closer,
I gotta know
what this player's going through.
What is going through his mind,
you know, his life struggles, whatever.
[Seals] Friends come and go,
but a true friend
sticks closer than a brother,
and will stick by you like family.
[Tate Casey] We used to have this thing
where, you know, you bleed on your team,
or you you open up to your team.
And I think that that's why
that camaraderie builds the way it does,
because you really get to know
what a guy had to go through.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Chris Rainey,
touchdown, Florida!
[gentle music plays]
[Rainey] I was born in prison.
My mom was a drug addict,
and my dad was in prison probably
95% of my life.
So, when I was younger,
you look around and be like,
"Damn, I don't got nobody to hug, or
to talk to, or kiss, or nothing."
[Meyer] Chris Rainey points to a picture
of me and my son celebrating his birthday.
And he breaks down,
said, "Coach, I don't know my father
and I never celebrated a birthday."
And what do you say,
"Okay, let's go talk about football"?
[Rainey] Every Wednesday,
I go to his house.
His wife Shelley cooks me, um, spaghetti,
my favorite meal of all time.
[Meyer] And Chris would sit there
and watch cartoons with my son.
I loved it, you know, that he became
part of our family like that.
[Rainey] Coach and my teammates,
they became that family to me.
Like brothers.
So, if we stick together,
anything is possible.
[gentle music continues]
When I showed up, I was probably
super naive to a lot of things, you know?
Some of my teammates
never knew their parents.
Some spent time never having a home.
But opening up, understanding each other
brought us together as a team.
[uplifting music plays]
[crowd cheering]
Hut, hike!
[Tebow] One of the things that I've
learned from so many my teammates
[announcer] Tebow now takes off!
Spins his way into the end zone!
[Tebow]if you don't give in,
if you don't quit,
if you keep fighting,
good things can happen.
[announcer] Tebow's
the most dangerous guy out there.
- [commentator] There he goes again.
- [announcer] Oh, my God, touchdown!
[cheering]
[Mullen] That game, and all the
the touchdowns he scored,
started to separate his numbers
not from just being
the best in the country that year,
but being the best in history.
[announcer] Tebow has got
his foot on the gas.
[commentator] Look at that power.
[announcer] A career high,
seven touchdowns.
The quarterback is gonna be the
the one with his hair slicked back
and in the front
of the magazines and whatnot, and
But it just so happened
our quarterback was really, really good.
[announcer] Here's Tebow!
Touchdown, Florida!
[commentator] This is gotta be
a big statement for Tebow
and his Heisman chances, doesn't it?
[crowd chants] Tebow, Heisman!
[clapping rhythmically]
Tebow, Heisman!
Tebow, Heisman!
[Finebaum] '07 could have
been considered a disaster,
except Tim Tebow ended the season
on such a good note.
[sportscaster] Destination New York for
the four finalists of the Heisman Trophy.
One of the most famous
individual awards in sports.
Without further ado,
the winner of this year's Heisman Trophy
is Tim Tebow.
- [crowd cheers]
- Florida.
[applauding]
Thank you.
I'd like to thank
my teammates back at home.
If it weren't for them,
I wouldn't be here.
And I'm accepting this trophy
on behalf of them.
[Johnson] Tim winning the Heisman
was incredible. We all watched it.
You know, I was pumped for him.
I mean, um
Who doesn't want to win a Heisman
or be associated with a Heisman winner?
That was the moment
myself, Percy, and Spikes
bought into the, "All right, we have
to step into this leadership role."
Tim was the leader,
he was the quarterback, but he didn't have
anyone to help him lead.
It was motivation
that we need to step our game up.
[tense ethereal music plays]
[Spikes] I said,
"I gotta get my shit together."
I'm responsible for these guys.
You know what I'm saying?
They looking to me to get 'em lined up,
make the checks, and do all that.
And I was nowhere to be found.
How can I do that to the Gator Nation?
How can I do that to my mom
when I watched her get up every day
and go get it out the mud
and not complain once?
I'm sitting here living the dream
and I don't wanna get up
or I don't want to go go get it done.
[lawnmower whirring]
[Spikes] '08 is my chance
to make it right.
[young Meyer] Get your minds right.
Get your minds right.
Get ready for the best fucking year
you've ever had.
We're gonna fucking destroy people.
The best fucking college football team
in America is gonna take the field
in early September.
[Tebow] In '08, we were ready, skill-wise.
We were ready with talent.
We were ready with toughness and heart.
[grunts]
[Spikes] Going into that '08 year,
they knew I was all in.
[yells]
[man] Hold it, hold it!
Brandon, that's all you!
[Tebow] The biggest change
that I saw in Brandon
was what he started to do
in the weight room.
Not because he loved it.
He always hated it.
- [man] Touch your butt!
- Yeah, yeah!
[Tebow] But because he knew
so many people were following him.
[player grunts]
[Spikes] Everybody, like, bought in.
We would push it to the limit in practice
and we all embraced it.
And we were trained to kill.
I will say that.
[gentle music playing]
[Steve Addazio]
Football's played with passion, right?
Football's played
with a team that's together.
And we're gonna hold on to that!
'Cause that's who we are!
Florida fuckin' Gators!
Hundred fucking miles an hour.
We'll take this fuckin' team apart today.
Everybody understand that?
[music intensifies]
You keep that fucking energy level high,
Spikes, you understand?
We're going after this fucking team,
no matter who the fuck they are!
- Good game!
- [all applaud]
[people cheer and applaud]
A tough, close, talented,
hungry group of guys
[crowd cheering]
[epic music playing]
[Tebow]that wants to go dominate.
Let's go! Let's go!
[announcer] And for the Gators,
for a national title.
That's what the aspirations are
here in Gainesville.
They gotta get after it, starting today.
Hawaii, game one.
- [crowd cheers]
- [announcer] Louis Murphy!
Touchdown, Florida! 48 yards!
Killed 'em.
Game two, Miami.
[announcer] Tebow throwing end zone
Touchdown!
Killed 'em.
Game three, Tennessee at Tennessee.
[announcer] Brandon James. Watch out!
Killed 'em.
[players cheering wildly]
We just went Hawaii, Miami, Tennessee,
and it was not even close.
[young Spikes] Great job today.
We asked them to go tight,
and we took that shit. Great job.
- Gators on three! One, two, three!
- [all] Gators!
It was just a beautiful thing
to see all of us come together like that.
Special forces, baby!
[all] Yeah!
[Mullen] There was a different drive
and a different attitude
with everybody on that roster.
And the expectations of the team were not
"Let's go win a championship."
The expectations of that team were,
"We're gonna go undefeated
and win every single game we play."
[cheering]
[dramatic percussive music plays]
They came here for ass whooping,
we gonna give it to 'em!
They came here for ass whooping,
we gonna give it to 'em!
Let's go get it. Everybody got a job.
Do your fucking job
and be accountable to this team!
That is why And I got another question.
I already know.
- [man] What is it?
- I see it in everybody's eyes.
I can feel it! I can feel it
running through my fucking veins!
- Y'all boys ready?
- Hell yeah!
- Y'all boys ready?
- Hell yeah!
- Y'all boys ain't ready!
- Shit!
Y'all boys
I mean, ready for war. Everyone
[breathes rapidly]
[dramatic percussive music continues]
[cheering]
Everybody amped,
veins popping from the neck.
Hut!
[Tebow] Ole Miss at home.
[announcer] It's Snead on the keeper.
Touchdown, Ole Miss.
They took the lead,
but it was like, "No problem."
"This is what we do.
This is a comeback? Pfft. Sure."
[announcer] Tebow will throw. Oh, damn.
Lofts it up, and that's nearly picked off,
but it's caught by Harvin!
That will be a Gator touchdown!
[cheering]
It was back and forth the entire game.
And in the fourth quarter
[announcer] Here's Harvin.
Gets a couple of great blocks.
Touchdown, Florida.
[Tebow] We scored a touchdown,
and we thought it was to tie the game.
But then at this critical moment
[crowd exclaims]
[announcer] It's blocked!
It sails out of the end zone!
Are you kidding me?
[Tebow] And so instead of being tied
31-31, we're down 31-30.
[announcer] Holy cow!
Defense goes out there.
Minutes to go, they get a stop.
We get the ball back.
[tense pulsing music plays]
[Tebow] "Oh, we're down one? No problem."
[announcer] This has gotta be
the power package with Tebow.
[commentator] He's
your Heisman Trophy winner.
There was not a doubt in my mind,
Urban's mind, or the offense's mind.
We're gonna score. This is what we do.
[Stamper] I'm just like,
"Tebow'll always get it."
"No one ever stuffed Tim Tebow."
[Tebow] We run
one of our most faithful plays.
It's like if there was an MO
or an identity of a team,
this was it.
Hike!
[audience exclaims]
[announcer] They didn't get it!
They did not get it.
And Ole Miss will
walk out of here with a win.
[somber music plays]
[Stamper] It was one
of those "wow" moments
because something
you've never seen happen,
you saw happen that game.
And that was Tebow not get a first down
on, like, a fourth and short.
That was like, "All right,
like, this guy's human."
Like, "This guy not Superman."
[announcer] Didn't see this coming, folks.
Our team was devastated. I was devastated.
Our staff was devastated.
I remember everybody was crying
in the locker room.
It wasn't even a shock, man.
That was devastation, dude.
[Spikes] You sacrifice so much,
and then you go out there,
and give it your all, and still lose.
Oh, that that one hurt me.
[Mullen] The goal was not just
to win a championship.
The goal was to be the first
undefeated team in Florida history.
And that just got yanked away
in early September.
[dialogue inaudible]
Our PR guy kept coming in.
"You ready to talk to the media?"
[cameras clicking]
[sighs heavily]
You know what?
[Tebow] Kind of calm myself down,
pull back tears.
[sniffles]
I'm sorry, um, extremely sorry.
You know, we were hoping
for an undefeated season.
That was my goal.
Something Florida's never done here.
But I promise you one thing,
a lot of good will come out of this.
You have never seen any player
in the entire country
play as hard as I will play
the rest of this season.
You'll never see someone push
the rest of the team as hard
as I will push everybody
the rest of this season.
You'll never see a team play harder
than we will the rest of this season.
God bless.
I wanted to speak
from the heart and apologize,
and share my conviction and my passion.
[tense music plays]
And I knew that
the whole team felt that way.
[Spikes] I love what Tebow said up there
'cause it it it was true.
We can't let the Gator Nation down again.
[Tebow] But, man, after that speech,
I can't even tell you
how much pressure I felt.
Now, we gotta live up to the promise.
[brooding music plays]
[suspenseful music plays]
[Tim Tebow] Hike! [grunts]
[announcer] Tebow straight ahead.
Into the end zone!
And the Gators have put this one on ice!
[triumphant music plays]
For the second time in 100 years,
the Gators celebrate
as National Champions!
[Urban Meyer] It was, uh
It was like a dream.
[announcer] Oh, what a night
it'll be in Gainesville, Florida.
[Meyer] But the next year,
it was a whole different story.
[adventurous music plays]
[crowd cheering]
[Brandon Spikes]
Felt like I was a superstar.
The parties were insane.
Some of the stuff we was doing was insane.
[Brandon James] Like, "This is how it is
being a big-time college athlete, huh?"
It's just too much temptation.
[siren wails]
[reporter] Running back Brandon James
has been arrested for drug charges.
All right, another Florida Gator
has been arrested.
[Meyer] I was dealing
with something almost every week.
[reporter] Offensive lineman
Ronnie Wilson's in trouble tonight
after firing a shot into the air
during an argument.
The police staked out in areas
where the, you know, college kids went.
We felt like they was out to get us.
[Meyer] The media was relentless.
Attacking our players,
attacking myself, attacking our staff.
I needed to right that ship and
[music intensifies]
fast.
[ethereal music plays]
[whistle blowing rhythmically]
[dramatic percussive music plays]
Let's get it done now.
We're building a team right here.
Let's get another National Championship.
Let's go play in Atlanta.
Everyone's goal
at the beginning of the year
is always to win a championship.
But for Urban, there was no other option.
Let's go get this shit done.
You know as well as I do,
this is right the fuck where it starts.
Tebow, get this shit goin'.
It's your team,
take charge of it. Let's go!
Let's go, bring it in.
Great day today, guys.
Go long, we gotta go hard, baby. Let's go!
- Gators on three! One, two three!
- [all] Gators!
[yelling indistinctly]
[Tebow] I think, in '07,
one of the biggest things
was a changing of the guard.
As far as leadership, alpha males,
the dominant personalities.
Brandon Siler, Dallas Baker, Chris Leak,
'07, those leaders walked out the door.
[dramatic music plays]
[Meyer] But I knew we had a great
recruiting class coming in.
The new class coming in after us,
the '07 class,
for me, is better than our class.
- [man] Rollin'?
- [James] Their class is star-studded.
This is long overdue.
[James] You have Major Wright,
you have Ahmad Black,
you have Chris Rainey.
[automated voice] Scene one.
[James] You have Cam Newton,
the Pouncey twins,
Aaron Hernandez, Carlos Dunlap.
And it's exciting. It's super exciting.
[Black] My first day of school,
it was like,
"This is the number one team
in college football right now."
And we're part of it, right?
So, we I mean, we soaked it all in.
Just really can't wait
until kickoff, you know? And
We all knew coming in together,
um, that we wanted to be special.
I want to see how it is on the field.
They say the Swamp shakes.
[thunderous clapping]
[Rainey] The whole crowd screaming
and doing the Gator Chomp.
[claps reverberate]
I was just ready, all ready.
[suspenseful music plays]
[announcer] Start with this Florida team,
because you are defending national champs.
- Now everybody wants you to do it 2007.
- [commentator] That's right.
We in the Swamp. We in the Swamp!
[cheering]
- "Gators" on three! One, two, three!
- [all] Gators!
Going into the '07 season, we all knew
we were really good, like, no question.
[announcer] Tebow, looking deep again.
Has a man wide open!
- Touchdown, Florida!
- [crowd cheers]
[Spikes] I felt we could beat anybody,
we could go beat some pro teams.
We was just so confident.
[bold music playing]
[announcer] KJ Black was just
blown up by Brandon Spikes.
So Florida will pick up this win.
Suddenly Florida was the team to beat
in in the Southeastern Conference.
[announcer] Florida,
knocking at the Troy door again.
Touchdown, Florida!
Tim Tebow to Percy Harvin.
[Finebaum] They weren't expected
to compete any longer,
they were expected to dominate.
[Carl Johnson] Urban would say,
"Take no prisoners."
"We gonna leave 'em
all dead on the field."
"Make a memory out of them."
So that's what we did.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] The Volunteers
against Florida in the Swamp.
Tennessee was one
of the better teams in the country.
[announcer] Here's James.
He could be a game breaker today.
- [crowd roars]
- As I said
Brandon James, touchdown, Florida!
Eighty-three-yard return!
I'm coming off, beating my chest.
We killed them.
[Tebow] And we scored 59 points.
[announcer] Touchdown!
That was a big deal.
[announcer] And the final score, 59 to 20.
Not only are we good,
we have a chance to be great.
♪orange and blue ♪
Waving forever ♪
[Finebaum] It looked like
Urban Meyer and Florida
were going to win
the National Championship every year.
[crowd cheering]
[Spikes] Back in Gainesville,
you really started
to see and feel the love.
I felt like I was like a a rock star.
[tense pulsing music plays]
College football in the South
is way bigger than professional sports.
All of these young, talented guys,
they're experiencing every day
being told how great they are.
They're the defending champions.
They walk around like the kings of campus.
[exclaims and laughs]
How you doing? I'm Major. What's going on?
And that kind of really took over.
[moody spacey music plays]
[Spikes] You go somewhere, they was like,
"Oh, this is Brandon Spikes.
Y'all, come on in."
We was like, "Well, we not 21."
"Don't matter."
"Come on in, have a good time.
We gonna take care of the bill."
And that was my slogan back in the day,
"If it's free, give me three."
[laughs]
[bold electronic music plays]
We called it "Gaines-Vegas."
So in Gaines-Vegas, we partied.
[techno music playing]
[James] I'm 18 years old,
females know who I am,
I can go to parties and get in free,
and it was like, "Man!"
"This is how it is being
a big-time college athlete, huh?" [laughs]
[players singing indistinctly]
[Spikes] The parties were insane.
Some of the stuff we was doing was insane.
It's just too much temptation.
- [people laughing]
- [man] Drink it, drink it!
[Meyer] Alcohol everywhere,
pretty girls everywhere,
and here we are, I'm trying to
"Hey, we have practice tomorrow."
You know, "Hey, you're not that good."
"Yeah, we are that good!"
It's It was a fight.
[indistinct chatter]
Urban literally used to sit there
and be like, "You living right?"
[chuckles] I was like, "How many times
are you gonna ask me that?"
"I just want to know if you living right."
I was a college student!
"No, Coach, I'm not living right,
if that's what you mean."
Set, hut!
[gentle music plays]
[Meyer] Tim was the only one.
He was the hardest working guy.
He did everything right.
[Spikes] He wasn't partying with us.
Tebow either had his Bible out
or had his playbook out.
I would throw parties,
and women'd be like, "Is Tebow coming?
Is Tebow coming?"
I'm like, "How many parties have I thrown?
Have you ever seen Tebow?"
"Quit asking about him.
He's never coming here."
[Ryan Stamper] I was answering questions
constantly about Tebow.
"Hey, like, is he really a virgin?"
Or, "Hey, is he Like, does he
Is he really that perfect?"
Like, "He really just eat,
sleep football?"
I'm just like, "Yeah. I mean,
that's that's that's who he is."
I just wanted to see if he was real.
So I would, like, you know,
you know, maybe have, like, some
a picture, a nude picture
on my phone or something.
Show it to him just to see how he react.
"Come on, man! Like, you really,
like, get a man uncomfortable!"
I was like, "Oh, he's serious."
[country music playing]
[man whooping]
[Tebow] That class was one
of the most passionate,
rambunctious, fun-loving partiers
[chuckling]that I've ever been around.
[exclaiming joyfully]
[Tebow] But my focus was playing football.
At certain times,
we have to stop and go to work.
[crowd cheering]
["Kernkraft 400" by Zombie Nation plays]
[jet engines roar]
[crowd vocalizing along]
[announcer] Florida is a top-four team,
and the Auburn Tigers
nearly three-touchdown underdogs.
[tense music plays]
[Mullen] We get to week five
of the season against Auburn.
It's a a huge game.
[yells]
[Mullen] It's the only team
we lost to the year before.
[Spikes] Remember one thing,
motherfuckers!
We don't lose in the Swamp!
You know, we're one
of the top five teams in the country
and the expectations are high.
[crowd cheering]
[Spikes] We expected to win,
we knew we was gonna win.
It was just about how much.
[player] Bring it on, baby!
[Wright] That Auburn game was big.
That was one of my first games
I played in.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] Auburn takes over at the 20.
[Wright] Auburn,
running a little tall sweep.
I come down here full speed.
[crowd exclaims]
I hit I hit him here.
I don't remember exactly what happened,
but then when I heard the crowd
[crowd roaring]
I knew something happened.
- [cheering]
- [announcer] Major Wright shook it loose.
Can the Gators come up with it?
It was one of the best feelings
ever in my life.
[cheering continues]
Let's fucking go!
[announcer] Third and long.
Tebow sits in the pocket.
Throws underneath to Harvin.
- [whistle blows]
- That was beautifully defended.
[commentator] And all at once,
Auburn has taken the momentum
right back from the Florida Gators.
- [crowd cheering]
- Hike!
[droning music plays]
[announcer] Ball over the line! Touchdown!
[commentator] This is something.
[Tebow] We were shut out
in the first half.
[announcer] Some scattered boos
greet the Florida Gators
as they head for the locker room.
[Meyer] We lacked discipline,
we had turnovers, we made mistakes.
I mean, now our backs I mean, I
I I feel the foundation
shaking a little bit.
[young Meyer] You come out there
and stick it to 'em!
You're a second-half team,
you're trained for this shit!
You're trained for this!
Everything we got!
Stick together, play your balls off!
- Right, and here you go! One, two, three!
- [all] Showtime!
[cheering]
[Tebow] We turned it on
in the second half.
[announcer] And Tebow takes off
straight ahead, touchdown!
[Tebow] We played really well offensively.
[crowd cheering]
Fourth quarter, tie game.
Cox, short set to Smith!
[suspenseful music plays]
[Tebow] But they hold the ball
and hold the ball,
and have these long, sustained drives.
[announcer] And Auburn has things
in control. Tate again.
Cutback down to the 30, to the 29.
They have a chance
to kick a game-winning field goal.
[cheering]
[announcer] Now there's 21 seconds left.
Well, from here,
it would be a 46, 47-yard field goal.
And all Urban Meyer
can do right now is hope.
[suspenseful music continues
and intensifies]
[crowd sighs sadly]
[announcer] And the fourth-ranked Gators
go down at home,
ending an 18-game home win streak.
[atmospheric music plays]
[Finebaum] That was absolutely shocking.
You also have to factor
one other thing into the equation.
No more mistakes.
Another loss and it's over, your team's
not winning the National Championship.
[Spikes] It was a whole new picture
and it wasn't pretty.
And I'm not proud.
I don't even really like discussing it
and talking about it,
'cause I'm embarrassed.
I'm very disappointed at the outcome.
A very tough battle.
Uh, but Auburn played their butt off
and so did the Florida Gators.
But we didn't necessarily play smart,
didn't play well.
[reporter] Coach, uh,
your first loss at home.
Can you talk about that?
Yeah, sick to my stomach.
[young Meyer shouting indistinctly]
[Meyer] I became so angry with that team.
Now, look straight ahead!
There was a lot of entitlement,
a lot of, "We're the greatest."
[young Meyer] Eyes straight ahead!
Don't give in!
[Mullen] They just assumed that,
"Well, we were champions last year,
we'll just be champions again this year."
And they don't understand how hard it is
to be great.
[Meyer] So we made a decision
[dramatic music playing]
that we're going back to old school.
[shouting indistinctly]
[screaming]
We're gonna turn the heat up so hot,
if we lose some players,
we lose some players,
and we'll be stronger by attrition.
If you're a non-competitor,
you have do something to become one.
It's gonna get harder
and harder and harder.
Straight line, let's go. Let's go!
[screams]
[all yelling indistinctly]
[screams]
We trained like soldiers,
like we was about to really go to war.
[grunts]
[growls]
[screams]
[brooding music plays]
[Black] Training was way,
way, way more intense, way harder,
so I was pulling hamstrings,
like, left and right.
Like, you you can be running,
and pull a hamstring.
- And you automatically shut down.
- [snaps fingers]
And, uh, Coach Meyer came up,
and he he said,
"What are What are you doing?"
And I'm like,
"Coach, I can't go. Like, my hamstring."
A few days after that,
um, I think one of the reporters
asked Coach Meyer about me,
and how I was doing, right?
Coach Meyer said, "Well, I think
that was a recruiting mistake."
To the media.
So in the newspaper, they printed it out.
Yeah.
Eighteen years old,
ready to come play football,
and that's what I get told.
- [young Tebow yells]
- [all grunting]
- [whistle blows]
- [grunting]
Why are we about to die training?
[young Meyer] That's awful!
That's fucking awful!
This is football. Like, y'all tripping.
It ain't that serious.
Hut!
- [coach 1] Go!
- [coach 2] There you go.
[whistle blows]
[Johnson] I was taught
"utter controlled violence."
[whistles blowing]
[men yelling indistinctly]
[man] Hey, hey, hey, hey!
I would never, never teach
my kids this shit.
I'm ashamed to tell them
I used to beat people up,
used to fight in the locker room
if you had a bad practice.
I would hurt you if you did wrong,
I used to hurt people on the field.
I don't even want my kids
to know that version of me even existed.
- [grunting]
- [whistle blows]
I don't apologize
for making it a hard program.
I always hope people say,
"That's the hardest program in sports."
And those who survive,
those who remain, become champions.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Tiger Stadium
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
A very special place in college football.
[sportscaster] This is a big game.
The Gators were stunned
in the Swamp by Auburn last week.
But if they win, they're right back
in the National Championship chase.
[pulsing music plays]
[Meyer] They were number one
in the country.
[cheering]
[Meyer] We have to win the game
to stay in the race.
The most difficult environment to date,
that I've ever witnessed in my life.
I mean, old ladies flipping you off
as you're driving in.
[cheering continues]
[Wright] They'd throw rocks at your bus,
they'd shake the bus.
They gonna spit on the bus.
They gonna do everything to throw you off.
Bro, I'm scared!
I'm like, "Oh, my God!
What are we getting ourselves into?"
[cheering continues]
When we're walking in, and I see this fan
sitting there, and he's holding a cup.
And that person throws it right on me.
And I don't believe it was water.
[young Meyer] Hold on, hold on!
Everybody's got a job to do!
We get in the locker room,
and I mean go berserk.
- Do your fucking job!
- [player] Do it
Everybody, do your job! You win this game!
[player] Everyone on our team
is going to be fed.
Kill these motherfuckers on three!
- One, two, three!
- Kill these motherfuckers!
[suspenseful music plays]
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
[Tebow] I was so ready to play that night.
[crowd] Tigers!
That week, someone put out
my cell phone number
to all of the student body at LSU.
And when I say thousands,
I mean thousands and thousands
and thousands of calls and text messages.
Like, "Your mom, Pamela,
your sister Christy,
your sister Katie,
we're gonna burn 'em at the stake."
"We're gonna rape 'em."
I was mad.
And it was personal.
[announcer] Tebow.
And he pulls up, wants to throw.
- Now he does and it's good!
- [crowd jeers]
Kestahn Moore, touchdown!
[Tebow] I've never really
talked trash in my life.
But I walked right up
to their student section,
and I dial a phone, I put it
"Just keep talking."
[crowd jeering]
[players yelling indistinctly]
[player] Let's go! Let's go!
LSU, number one team in the country,
one of the best defenses
in college football history,
and we dominate 'em.
[announcer] Touchdown, Florida!
[crowd jeering]
[announcer] The defending
national champions lead
the top-ranked team in the country.
[whistles] We don't jab, jab, jab
and walk away.
You go out there right now,
they got 'em wobbling, put it to 'em.
Hit 'em square in the fucking face!
Knock them out,
and as soon as you put 'em down,
fuckin' punch 'em square in the face
until it's done, baby!
Keep going!
Tap for that shit
and get the fuck out of here!
- Let's get out of here! Let's go!
- [players yelling]
Let's go!
[tense droning music plays]
[Wright] Ending, third quarter,
LSU step up.
[announcer] Keiland Williams
strolls in for the touchdown!
When they score, it switched
the whole momentum of the game.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Tebow drills it. There is
[crowd cheers]
no contact. It's incomplete.
They get the ball back,
drive down the field
[announcer] Wide open.
Get five fourth downs.
Five fourth downs.
[Spikes] They had
a whole bunch of rushing yards.
We couldn't stop a nosebleed that game.
[announcer] 24-21, 1:14 to go.
LSU, third and goal.
[Wright] Jacob Hester, their running back,
the hole opens up.
Boom! He keeps going.
[crowd cheers]
[anxious music plays]
You're a fine football team,
you're a hell of a football team.
You should have won that game.
Eyes up here.
Do not let the human element
take over this team.
You hear me, Brandon Spikes?
The Michael Jordans of the world
do not let that happen.
They don't let that happen.
Be the Michael Jordan of college football,
be the Michael Jordan of Florida Gators.
[Meyer] We just failed,
and I was so distraught.
Our chance to win a National Championship
was out, is over, it's done.
[tender melancholic music plays]
[Tebow] That week,
sitting there with coach, and
[sighs]
I'm devastated because
we're just missing something.
[Meyer] We were soft, a splintered team.
We had minimal to zero leadership.
I'm looking for someone to grab this team.
Tim's trying, but Tim can't do it.
You know, not by himself.
We needed Brandon Spikes
to be that leader.
[Tebow] He had such influence.
Other players didn't have
as big of a personality.
They didn't have the presence.
When Spikes walked in, everyone notices.
- [man] Run, run, run!
- [young Spikes] Oh, shit! Lord.
[Spikes] Urban would come to me
and say, like,
"Your job is to be great
at playing linebacker,
being a great leader,
and bringing, uh, the level
of the other guys,
bringing every their play,
bringing it to the level of yours."
[young Spikes] I'm tired, man.
[coaches yell indistinctly]
- [young Spikes] I ain't doing shit.
- [coach] Let's go! Get over here.
And you cannot be the one
complaining and whining
about the hard work we gotta do.
But I was really young and and immature.
I didn't want all of that responsibility.
[James] After the LSU loss,
all of our dreams were just crushed.
And that year, we just didn't do
a good job of coping with losing.
[siren wails]
[reporter 1] A Gators football player's
in big trouble tonight
after firing a shot into the air
during an argument.
[Meyer] I was dealing
with something almost every week.
Someone does something stupid
and it becomes a story.
All right, another Florida Gator
has been arrested.
[reporter 2] Safety Tony Joiner
faces a burglary charge tonight.
[Pat Dooley] Florida was at the high end
of getting in trouble, there's no doubt.
But when you're trying
to get the best players,
you're gonna have to take
some guys doing stupid things.
[hip-hop music plays]
I had an incident
where a dude snatched my chain.
So we fought. We got in a big brawl.
I grew up in the hood.
So you snatch what's mine,
I gotta get that back.
Everybody was, you know,
saying we cause problems.
But sometimes you do get these locals
who want to make a name for themselves
and try to provoke us.
[Tebow] So one night, me and Aaron
are in the Swamp restaurant.
As we're leaving,
the stuff that was being said
to him was awful.
And it was all racist comments.
And it was one too many names called.
And And, unfortunately,
then somebody got injured.
But I blame myself as much for that too.
I should've got him out easier,
I should've got him out faster.
I should have done more.
[Dooley] The famous story
about Aaron Hernandez
slugging the guy at the Swamp,
we never got police reports on it.
It ended up just getting fixed. Went away.
Things went away back then.
[tense moody music plays]
[siren wails]
[Johnson] If the University of Florida
gets out of this city,
it's bankrupt overnight.
Who you think paying the highest taxes?
Do not think that the police department,
or some governor,
or mayor of this city
runs this city, it does not.
University employees,
all the public servants [chuckles]
that feed from the city,
such as police departments, fire de
All that money branches from Florida.
That school called U with an F
runs this city.
[Dooley] The University of Florida
had people involved,
an attorney in town, to fix problems.
[morose piano music plays]
[Johnson] The lawyer
will come in, hear it,
find one legal jargon wrong,
get the whole thing thrown out.
But if you've got kids,
fixing it is not always the the answer.
They'll probably get in trouble again.
[reporter] Two University of Florida
athletes have been arrested
for drug charges.
Police say Brandon James
and Brandon Powell
met with a confidential police source
to buy about 0.8 grams
of marijuana for $20.
[James] We had a team rule,
there was no drugs.
So getting arrested for drugs,
you know, you're terrified.
That night in jail, I literally
sat against the wall all night,
and didn't sleep a wink,
because I only could think
about Coach Meyer.
"God, is he gonna send me home?
Is he gonna send me home?"
I had put so much work
in to try to prove myself,
and it's stripped all away
because I made one really dumb decision.
He needed to be held accountable,
but Brandon James was not a bad guy.
[James] Coach Meyer
work out on my own.
Had to do everything on my own
to earn his trust back.
[Finebaum] Urban Meyer
did the minimum, in my estimation,
to try to correct the discipline problems.
All coaches coach to win,
all coaches look the other way,
but most coaches do have a limit
to how far they will look.
I don't think Urban Meyer did.
[Meyer] Criticism started coming
because people felt I should
start kicking players off the team.
[melancholic music plays]
I'm not doing that.
I saw what happened
to a player we did throw to the street.
And that'll haunt me the rest of my life.
- [crowd cheers]
- [announcer] Here's the pass.
Oh, my goodness! It's intercepted
by Avery Atkins, a freshman!
[Meyer] Avery Atkins was
one of the top players in America.
He plays his freshman year in '05.
And he is so good.
He I mean, he is
he's cat quick, tough as nails,
beautiful smile, beautiful player.
We all loved this kid.
The team loves him
and he's really struggling.
[James] It was just
a lot of pressure on Avery.
He had a lot of success early.
And when you're playing
big-time college ball,
you're supposed to carry this smile
all the time, supposed to take pictures,
and sign autographs, whenever.
But we're 18, 19, we're kids still.
[Meyer] He was in this relationship
and he hit this girl.
And we have a core value,
if you hit a woman, you're gone.
And I mean, I teared up.
I couldn't believe I had to do this,
but I had to do it.
I kicked him off the team.
A year later
I get the phone call.
He's dead.
Avery, he overdosed on drugs.
I took football out of Avery's life,
and it was terrible.
And that's on my plate.
[melancholic music continues]
[Tebow] I can't tell you
how many times he would say,
"Timmy, what should
I have done different?"
"Should I have encouraged him more?
Should I have been harder on him?"
We talked through all of it.
We'd pray through it, we would
Honestly, with a lot of tears.
[Meyer] From that point forward,
on our staff meetings,
I'd say, "There's a couple options
we have here."
"Number one is fix the issue."
"Number two is turn your back
on that player and q quit on him."
And I just would take an eraser
on the board and actually erase that one.
So that's not an option anymore.
[man] Some of you guys,
I know some of your stories are varied,
but I would venture to guess
that there's a lot of you
who may be the first ones in your families
to graduate from college.
[Stamper] You know, Coach Meyer felt
like in order to get a team closer,
I gotta know
what this player's going through.
What is going through his mind,
you know, his life struggles, whatever.
[Seals] Friends come and go,
but a true friend
sticks closer than a brother,
and will stick by you like family.
[Tate Casey] We used to have this thing
where, you know, you bleed on your team,
or you you open up to your team.
And I think that that's why
that camaraderie builds the way it does,
because you really get to know
what a guy had to go through.
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Chris Rainey,
touchdown, Florida!
[gentle music plays]
[Rainey] I was born in prison.
My mom was a drug addict,
and my dad was in prison probably
95% of my life.
So, when I was younger,
you look around and be like,
"Damn, I don't got nobody to hug, or
to talk to, or kiss, or nothing."
[Meyer] Chris Rainey points to a picture
of me and my son celebrating his birthday.
And he breaks down,
said, "Coach, I don't know my father
and I never celebrated a birthday."
And what do you say,
"Okay, let's go talk about football"?
[Rainey] Every Wednesday,
I go to his house.
His wife Shelley cooks me, um, spaghetti,
my favorite meal of all time.
[Meyer] And Chris would sit there
and watch cartoons with my son.
I loved it, you know, that he became
part of our family like that.
[Rainey] Coach and my teammates,
they became that family to me.
Like brothers.
So, if we stick together,
anything is possible.
[gentle music continues]
When I showed up, I was probably
super naive to a lot of things, you know?
Some of my teammates
never knew their parents.
Some spent time never having a home.
But opening up, understanding each other
brought us together as a team.
[uplifting music plays]
[crowd cheering]
Hut, hike!
[Tebow] One of the things that I've
learned from so many my teammates
[announcer] Tebow now takes off!
Spins his way into the end zone!
[Tebow]if you don't give in,
if you don't quit,
if you keep fighting,
good things can happen.
[announcer] Tebow's
the most dangerous guy out there.
- [commentator] There he goes again.
- [announcer] Oh, my God, touchdown!
[cheering]
[Mullen] That game, and all the
the touchdowns he scored,
started to separate his numbers
not from just being
the best in the country that year,
but being the best in history.
[announcer] Tebow has got
his foot on the gas.
[commentator] Look at that power.
[announcer] A career high,
seven touchdowns.
The quarterback is gonna be the
the one with his hair slicked back
and in the front
of the magazines and whatnot, and
But it just so happened
our quarterback was really, really good.
[announcer] Here's Tebow!
Touchdown, Florida!
[commentator] This is gotta be
a big statement for Tebow
and his Heisman chances, doesn't it?
[crowd chants] Tebow, Heisman!
[clapping rhythmically]
Tebow, Heisman!
Tebow, Heisman!
[Finebaum] '07 could have
been considered a disaster,
except Tim Tebow ended the season
on such a good note.
[sportscaster] Destination New York for
the four finalists of the Heisman Trophy.
One of the most famous
individual awards in sports.
Without further ado,
the winner of this year's Heisman Trophy
is Tim Tebow.
- [crowd cheers]
- Florida.
[applauding]
Thank you.
I'd like to thank
my teammates back at home.
If it weren't for them,
I wouldn't be here.
And I'm accepting this trophy
on behalf of them.
[Johnson] Tim winning the Heisman
was incredible. We all watched it.
You know, I was pumped for him.
I mean, um
Who doesn't want to win a Heisman
or be associated with a Heisman winner?
That was the moment
myself, Percy, and Spikes
bought into the, "All right, we have
to step into this leadership role."
Tim was the leader,
he was the quarterback, but he didn't have
anyone to help him lead.
It was motivation
that we need to step our game up.
[tense ethereal music plays]
[Spikes] I said,
"I gotta get my shit together."
I'm responsible for these guys.
You know what I'm saying?
They looking to me to get 'em lined up,
make the checks, and do all that.
And I was nowhere to be found.
How can I do that to the Gator Nation?
How can I do that to my mom
when I watched her get up every day
and go get it out the mud
and not complain once?
I'm sitting here living the dream
and I don't wanna get up
or I don't want to go go get it done.
[lawnmower whirring]
[Spikes] '08 is my chance
to make it right.
[young Meyer] Get your minds right.
Get your minds right.
Get ready for the best fucking year
you've ever had.
We're gonna fucking destroy people.
The best fucking college football team
in America is gonna take the field
in early September.
[Tebow] In '08, we were ready, skill-wise.
We were ready with talent.
We were ready with toughness and heart.
[grunts]
[Spikes] Going into that '08 year,
they knew I was all in.
[yells]
[man] Hold it, hold it!
Brandon, that's all you!
[Tebow] The biggest change
that I saw in Brandon
was what he started to do
in the weight room.
Not because he loved it.
He always hated it.
- [man] Touch your butt!
- Yeah, yeah!
[Tebow] But because he knew
so many people were following him.
[player grunts]
[Spikes] Everybody, like, bought in.
We would push it to the limit in practice
and we all embraced it.
And we were trained to kill.
I will say that.
[gentle music playing]
[Steve Addazio]
Football's played with passion, right?
Football's played
with a team that's together.
And we're gonna hold on to that!
'Cause that's who we are!
Florida fuckin' Gators!
Hundred fucking miles an hour.
We'll take this fuckin' team apart today.
Everybody understand that?
[music intensifies]
You keep that fucking energy level high,
Spikes, you understand?
We're going after this fucking team,
no matter who the fuck they are!
- Good game!
- [all applaud]
[people cheer and applaud]
A tough, close, talented,
hungry group of guys
[crowd cheering]
[epic music playing]
[Tebow]that wants to go dominate.
Let's go! Let's go!
[announcer] And for the Gators,
for a national title.
That's what the aspirations are
here in Gainesville.
They gotta get after it, starting today.
Hawaii, game one.
- [crowd cheers]
- [announcer] Louis Murphy!
Touchdown, Florida! 48 yards!
Killed 'em.
Game two, Miami.
[announcer] Tebow throwing end zone
Touchdown!
Killed 'em.
Game three, Tennessee at Tennessee.
[announcer] Brandon James. Watch out!
Killed 'em.
[players cheering wildly]
We just went Hawaii, Miami, Tennessee,
and it was not even close.
[young Spikes] Great job today.
We asked them to go tight,
and we took that shit. Great job.
- Gators on three! One, two, three!
- [all] Gators!
It was just a beautiful thing
to see all of us come together like that.
Special forces, baby!
[all] Yeah!
[Mullen] There was a different drive
and a different attitude
with everybody on that roster.
And the expectations of the team were not
"Let's go win a championship."
The expectations of that team were,
"We're gonna go undefeated
and win every single game we play."
[cheering]
[dramatic percussive music plays]
They came here for ass whooping,
we gonna give it to 'em!
They came here for ass whooping,
we gonna give it to 'em!
Let's go get it. Everybody got a job.
Do your fucking job
and be accountable to this team!
That is why And I got another question.
I already know.
- [man] What is it?
- I see it in everybody's eyes.
I can feel it! I can feel it
running through my fucking veins!
- Y'all boys ready?
- Hell yeah!
- Y'all boys ready?
- Hell yeah!
- Y'all boys ain't ready!
- Shit!
Y'all boys
I mean, ready for war. Everyone
[breathes rapidly]
[dramatic percussive music continues]
[cheering]
Everybody amped,
veins popping from the neck.
Hut!
[Tebow] Ole Miss at home.
[announcer] It's Snead on the keeper.
Touchdown, Ole Miss.
They took the lead,
but it was like, "No problem."
"This is what we do.
This is a comeback? Pfft. Sure."
[announcer] Tebow will throw. Oh, damn.
Lofts it up, and that's nearly picked off,
but it's caught by Harvin!
That will be a Gator touchdown!
[cheering]
It was back and forth the entire game.
And in the fourth quarter
[announcer] Here's Harvin.
Gets a couple of great blocks.
Touchdown, Florida.
[Tebow] We scored a touchdown,
and we thought it was to tie the game.
But then at this critical moment
[crowd exclaims]
[announcer] It's blocked!
It sails out of the end zone!
Are you kidding me?
[Tebow] And so instead of being tied
31-31, we're down 31-30.
[announcer] Holy cow!
Defense goes out there.
Minutes to go, they get a stop.
We get the ball back.
[tense pulsing music plays]
[Tebow] "Oh, we're down one? No problem."
[announcer] This has gotta be
the power package with Tebow.
[commentator] He's
your Heisman Trophy winner.
There was not a doubt in my mind,
Urban's mind, or the offense's mind.
We're gonna score. This is what we do.
[Stamper] I'm just like,
"Tebow'll always get it."
"No one ever stuffed Tim Tebow."
[Tebow] We run
one of our most faithful plays.
It's like if there was an MO
or an identity of a team,
this was it.
Hike!
[audience exclaims]
[announcer] They didn't get it!
They did not get it.
And Ole Miss will
walk out of here with a win.
[somber music plays]
[Stamper] It was one
of those "wow" moments
because something
you've never seen happen,
you saw happen that game.
And that was Tebow not get a first down
on, like, a fourth and short.
That was like, "All right,
like, this guy's human."
Like, "This guy not Superman."
[announcer] Didn't see this coming, folks.
Our team was devastated. I was devastated.
Our staff was devastated.
I remember everybody was crying
in the locker room.
It wasn't even a shock, man.
That was devastation, dude.
[Spikes] You sacrifice so much,
and then you go out there,
and give it your all, and still lose.
Oh, that that one hurt me.
[Mullen] The goal was not just
to win a championship.
The goal was to be the first
undefeated team in Florida history.
And that just got yanked away
in early September.
[dialogue inaudible]
Our PR guy kept coming in.
"You ready to talk to the media?"
[cameras clicking]
[sighs heavily]
You know what?
[Tebow] Kind of calm myself down,
pull back tears.
[sniffles]
I'm sorry, um, extremely sorry.
You know, we were hoping
for an undefeated season.
That was my goal.
Something Florida's never done here.
But I promise you one thing,
a lot of good will come out of this.
You have never seen any player
in the entire country
play as hard as I will play
the rest of this season.
You'll never see someone push
the rest of the team as hard
as I will push everybody
the rest of this season.
You'll never see a team play harder
than we will the rest of this season.
God bless.
I wanted to speak
from the heart and apologize,
and share my conviction and my passion.
[tense music plays]
And I knew that
the whole team felt that way.
[Spikes] I love what Tebow said up there
'cause it it it was true.
We can't let the Gator Nation down again.
[Tebow] But, man, after that speech,
I can't even tell you
how much pressure I felt.
Now, we gotta live up to the promise.
[brooding music plays]