ATLANTA -- No. 5 Florida spent the past two months hoping for another shot at Alabama.

	A bum ankle has Andrew Zow sharing time with Tyler Watts.

The Gators get their wish Saturday night, meeting the seventh-ranked Crimson Tide for the Southeastern Conference championship and a likely trip to the Orange Bowl.

For Florida (9-2), there's more at stake than another title and major bowl trip, however. No one in Gainesville has forgotten Oct. 2, when Alabama snapped the Gators' 30-game winning streak at The Swamp with a 40-39 overtime victory.

The Tide (9-2) controlled the ball for more than 41 minutes, piled up 447 yards in offense and matched Florida coach Steve Spurrier's Fun-n-Gun offense score for score.

"I'm really looking forward to it," Florida's Andra Davis said. "We've been hoping we'd get a chance to play them again because they embarrassed us in October."

No one is looking forward to this game more than Gators kicker Jeff Chandler, whose missed extra-point in overtime provided the winning margin in the first meeting.

"I owe these guys a lot," he said. "I've never had anything like that happen to me before and hope it never happens again. I was feeling bad, blaming the whole game on myself."

The SEC champion earns an automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series, expecting to face Michigan in the Orange. The loser Saturday probably will head to the Citrus Bowl against Michigan State.

Both Alabama and Florida have shown that you don't need a regular quarterback to be successful.

Alabama has used both Andrew Zow and Tyler Watts, while Spurrier can't seem to make a decision between Doug Johnson and Jesse Palmer. They rotated on virtually every play in a loss to No. 1 Florida State two weeks ago.

"Jesse's going to start the game. Doug's going to play early and we'll go from there and see how it works out," Spurrier said Thursday. "We're bringing both of them to the ballpark ready to play."

Alabama coach Mike DuBose said it doesn't matter who plays.

"You have to be prepared for both," DuBose said. "But it's the same offense."

Alabama won its last conference title in the first championship game, defeating Florida 28-21 at Birmingham's Legion Field in 1992. The Tide then beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl to claim the national title.

Florida won the next four SEC titles, beating Alabama in the championship game three times. The last meeting came in 1996, when a Heisman-clinching performance by Danny Wuerffel carried the Gators to a 45-30 victory and gave them a chance to capture the only national title in school history.

"Most of the time it's been a very competitive game that's gone down to the wire," said DuBose, an assistant during Alabama's previous trips to the title game. "The one I remember most is the only one we won."

Tennessee has been the Eastern representative the past two years, defeating Auburn and Mississippi State in the championship game.

"Tennessee's had all the fun the last two years," Spurrier said. "The conference championship is normally the biggest goal we shoot for. Obviously, if you're in the national championship game that would be a little bigger, but the odds on that are not real good at the start of the year."

Despite the loss to Alabama, the Gators were in the thick of the national race until they fell to Florida State 30-23. The Tide, on the other hand, endured a tumultuous season just to get this far.

In August, DuBose admitted to lying about his personal relationship with a school employee who settled a sexual harassment claim against him. The school punished the coach by cutting two years and $360,000 from his contract.

On Sept. 18, a humiliating 29-28 loss to Louisiana Tech had angry fans calling for DuBose's ouster. He was booed as he walked off Legion Field, his team having surrendered a fourth-down, 28-yard touchdown pass with two seconds remaining.

But the Tide lost only one more game the rest of the way, to Tennessee, and wrapped up the Western Division championship with victories over Mississippi State and Auburn.

"I'm very proud of the fact that this team stayed focused despite all the adversity," DuBose said. "When you have adversity, a team tends to draw closer together."