Without a doubt it was the 2008 game in Athens.
Here is why: earlier in the year former player Victor Ellis had died. In a few short months Victor had gone from a perfectly healthy young man full of life just 28 years old to an individual destroyed by cancer. But right up until the end Victor retained his smile and joyful outlook on life. Cancer took his life but couldn't diminish his smile and spirit. He died in late March of '08. His funeral was held in Chattanooga on a cold, foggy, cloudy, rainy day. Since I was familiar with the Presbyterian church's location on Signal Mtn in Chattanooga, I was elected to drive the 15 passenger athletic dept van. The closer we got to Chattanooga the more somber our moods became. If you aren't familiar with the interstate between TUSCALOOSA and Chattanooga, there is a very short and brief stetch that dips into Georgia right before you get into Chattanooga. Evidently, there is also a reduction of the speed limit when you cross the Ala-Ga line because a Georgia State trouper pulled me over for speeding. Whether or not I was going 5 miles over the speed limit is not the point, but the real reason he pulled us over was the University of Alabama indentification on the van. The officer was gleefully belligerent when he asked for my license and even became completely disrespectful when I answered his questions about why we had a University of Alabama van in "bulldog country". All the officer wanted to talk about was the next sad trip we would make into Georgia in the coming fall. None of our party wanted to talk football but he promised we would get out butts kicked in the coming fall and he would be at Sanford stadium to celebrate it.
After taking a 31-0 lead in the first half, I remember looking at at the empty stands and and wondering where the state trouper might have been sitting ....with a smile on my face that would would have even made Victor Ellis proud.