in a battle of top-15 teams, the #2 florida gators faced off against the #11 auburn tigers in the plains. florida jumped out to a 17–8 lead midway through the second quarter on gators freshman backup quarterback tim tebow's rushing touchdown, but settled for a slim 17–11 halftime lead. in the second half, however, auburn returned a blocked florida punt for a touchdown to give the tigers their first lead of the game, 18–17. the momentum suddenly shifted in auburn's favor, shutting out the gators the rest of the way and recovering two florida fumbles, one of which was returned a touchdown as time expired, to cap off the 27–17 upset. this was florida's only loss that season, as the gators would go on to win the bcs national championship.