Steve Spurrier and No. 3 Florida couldn’t replicate their early-season form when it mattered most, as No. 5 Alabama blew the doors off a tight game in the fourth quarter to capture a lopsided 34-7 win in the 1999 SEC Championship Game on December 4, 1999, at the Georgia Dome.
Florida came out of the gate firing, scoring on its fourth play from scrimmage when Earnest Graham capped a quick drive with a halfback touchdown pass to Erron Kinney just 1:40 into the game, giving the Gators an early 7-0 lead. But that would prove to be the extent of Florida’s offensive output for the rest of the afternoon. It was the lowest total offense, passing yards, completion total, and first-down total Florida had produced during the entire Steve Spurrier era.
Alabama clawed its way into a 12-7, then 15-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter, setting the stage for the play that decided the game. With the Tide leading 15-7, receiver Freddie Milons lined up in a wildcat-style formation from Alabama’s own 22-yard line, weaved through the defense, and broke free for a 77-yard touchdown run that blew the contest open. “I just fortunately got in the way of somebody,” quarterback Tyler Watts joked afterward about throwing a key block on the play.
The floodgates opened from there. Less than 20 seconds after Milons’ touchdown, Alabama’s Reggie Grimes intercepted a Jesse Palmer pass and returned it 38 yards for another score, pushing the lead to 28-7. Shaun Alexander put the finishing touch on the rout with a 7-yard touchdown run late in the game, capping a dominant performance in which he rushed for 97 yards on 30 carries. Alabama’s defense was suffocating all afternoon, intercepting Palmer four times, with Milo Lewis grabbing two of them.
Milons was named the game’s MVP, finishing with six carries for 116 rushing yards, almost all of it coming on that single explosive touchdown run. The win gave Alabama its first SEC championship since 1992 and the only one of head coach Mike DuBose’s tenure, while avenging an earlier triple-overtime classic the two teams had played in Gainesville back in October, a game Alabama had also won, 40-39.
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