On Georgia's second play of its first drive, star running back Knowshon Moreno took the handoff from Matthew Stafford, tried to make a cut to get back to the line of scrimmage and was driven to the ground by Brandon Spikes.
Moreno tore the Gators' defense apart in 2007 with 188 rushing yards and three touchdowns in a 42-30 loss, but Spikes made it clear that the 2008 UF defense was not going to make the same mistakes two years in a row.
The vicious hit put Georgia back 1 yard, and Spikes remained on top of Moreno to trash talk for a few extra seconds.
"I just told him he better get ready because I'm going to be here all night," Spikes said after the game.
That hit set the tempo for the Gators' 49-10 win against the Bulldogs in Jacksonville a year after being embarrassed by a team-wide end zone celebration following Georgia's first touchdown in 2007.
Spikes had several other memorable plays during the Gators' run to their second national championship in three years, including an interception returned for a touchdown against LSU.
The middle linebacker rumbled down the field for 52 yards on the first play of the fourth quarter for his first pick-six at any level. After reaching the end zone, Spikes shanked a celebratory punt into the crowd to commemorate the occasion.
"I never took a pick to the house ever in my football career, and just the passion for the game kind of took over," Spikes said following UF's 51-21 victory against then-No. 4 LSU.
As a junior, Spikes was the unquestioned leader of the No. 4 scoring defense in the nation - in the box scores, on the field and in the locker room.
Despite sitting out the first game of the season, Spikes' 93 tackles on the year ranked first on the much-improved UF defense, and he was second on the team with four interceptions.
While the improvement of the Gators defense can largely be attributed to the emergence of a consistent secondary, the solid play by Spikes and the front seven anchored the defense.
A year after allowing 25.5 points and 361.8 yards per game of total offense, Spikes and the defense gave up 12.9 points and 285.3 yards per game in 2008.
And Spikes is never one to disappoint the fans. He stirred up the Tennessee faithful the past two years by questioning the Volunteers' effort on the field.
Although Spikes could have joined Percy Harvin and declared for the NFL Draft, he chose to stay at UF for his senior season.
In 2009, Spikes will be part of a defensive unit that returns everyone in the two-deep depth chart.
For making some of the year's most memorable plays, leading the Gators on and off the field and turning a questionable defense into a lockdown unit, Brandon Spikes is the alligatorSports No. 6 UF Athlete of 2008-09.
BY THE NUMBERS: Spikes earned two second-place votes, one fourth-place vote, one eighth-place vote and was left off two ballots.
