Taylor: We get in there and one of our O-linemen yells out, "Kole's shoe won us the game," and we start celebrating. It was awesome.Max Johnson: Oh my gosh, that was when "The Griddy" was big, so we were all hitting "The Griddy," playing the songs. It was awesome. I went into my press conference, and I was so bad, so serious. I didn't show any emotion, my actual excitement and joy. I wish people could've seen more emotion from me at that moment.York: My dad was at some sports bar in Frisco, Texas, watching the game. I get outside the stadium and I get a call, and he's like, "Hey someone wants to talk to you." This guy says his name, and I have no idea who it is. He's like, "I was watching you kick. It's so cool. I'm here with your dad." OK, whatever. He gives the phone back to my dad, and I'm like, "Why are you having me talk to random people?" And he says, "Do you know who that was?" I had no clue. He's like, "That was the Wu-Tang Clan." They were randomly watching the game with him.In Florida's locker room, the scene was far different.Wilson: I knew right when we didn't make the tying field goal, I was like, "This is mostly on me." It's never 100% on me. It's a team sport. But I was like, "Damn, I played a big part in this loss, and I've got to take accountability for that."McDonough: It wasn't just bizarre, it was game-changing for sure. And it's too bad because that's what I remember him for. He was a very good player. He still is a very good player. But whenever his name comes up, that's still the first thing I remember.Pitts: We still had to go play the next week. If we'd won, it would've been a totally different story, and everyone would've forgotten that.Wilson: I don't think people understand what that's like. I'm going through my phone, and it's bugging out from how many messages I'm getting. There's not a lot of people who've been through stuff like that. And every message I'm getting is negative.Slaton: You can't blame one thing. There have been crazier things happen [in a game] and people still win.McGriff: I certainly understand when there's emotion and all of that flowing that sometimes guys, since the beginning of time, can temporarily lose their mind. So Marco makes a play, and he loses his mind, and I have to admit, I've never seen anybody take a guy's shoe off and throw it.Stricklin: I knew that wasn't what cost us the game. It contributed. But there were a lot of things. And I felt bad he was catching the brunt of all of it. I always thought he was a guy who represented us in a good way.Wilson: If you look at social media, everyone was like, "I'd kick this guy's ass in the locker room." But as soon as I got to the locker room, my teammates, they understood what I was going through. I'm getting yelled at on the sideline by some of the fans. I had some teammates telling them to chill. People were pulling up to my house the next day to make sure I'm cool. I felt a lot of love. Dan Mullen, right after the game, he spoke to me, and he wasn't drilling me or tearing me down and making me feel worse. That's what I really needed at the time. My whole family was at that game, including my grandma. Everyone surrounded me and helped me get through these emotions. If I was by myself, it would've been a lot harder to go through.Wilson's blunder had a clear effect on the game's outcome, but what's more controversial is the theory that the game spawned Florida's immediate downfall. From the start of 2015 through the prior week's action, Florida had won 42 of its past 59 games. In the 56 contests since, including the shoe throw, the Gators are 26-30. (Note: Mullen, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and LSU coach Ed Orgeron declined interview requests for this story.)McPherson: It was a big game for us at the time. If we win that one, we finish the year out right and, win or lose against Bama in the championship, we could sneak in [to the playoff]. Instead we ended up in the Cotton Bowl, and everybody opted out, and we got smoked.McDonough: There was already a buzz the end of the Coach O era might be coming, but you certainly didn't at the time think it was the beginning of the end for Dan Mullen.McGriff: There were times where you could see a lack of discipline and then after that -- to me, the crowning blow was the Cotton Bowl. I didn't understand Coach Mullen's approach to that game, his schemes, what he was trying to do. He's really good at that -- but not that day.Slaton: People talk about how we went 0-3 after that and didn't get into the playoff. They went with Ohio State instead of us even though Ohio State only played like five games. They made the call, they said, "Ohio State," and they slept well that night. I didn't.Stricklin: We weren't as successful after that. Usually people look at the symptoms and not the issues. What happened with Marco was a symptom of other things. There was a bit of looseness that year from being accountable and the discipline piece that had not been there in the past. And once you let that slip, it's hard to get back. And I think a lot of it had to do with the COVID environment where everybody was just like, "Let's get to the game." It snowballed on us, to be honest, beyond that year. That game kind of triggered it. You can put a pin on that date.Wilson: They try to blame the whole downfall on me. Honestly, it wasn't going how it should have been going for the Gators for a while, even before me. Florida was always defense, and after [Will] Muschamp, that started going down. They lost that Gator tradition.The enduring image from LSU 37, Florida 34 is Wilson's shoe throw, which was immortalized in internet memes almost instantly, but the story has lived on -- even reaching the locker room of the Cincinnati Bengals, where for a few months this offseason, Wilson and Taylor were teammates, alongside Slaton and McPherson, too.Wilson: The President Bush [meme] is usually the funniest. I like that one. I see the "Austin Powers" one all the time, but it's not as funny. It's too obvious.Taylor: For about a year or two, I got, "You're the shoe guy." That was interesting. I didn't love being called the shoe guy. It would've been better to be LSU tight end.Wilson: I laugh even when someone comes up to me on the street and says something or on Twitter. If it's a funny joke, I'll respond to it. But if you come at me saying, "Oh you suck and we hate you for what you did," it's like, get over it, bro. But if you want to joke about it, cool.Taylor: I actually didn't realize until a couple weeks in [to camp] it was actually a thing. I saw the name Marco, and I recognized the name, and I was like, "Oh my gosh he's on the team with us."All of ESPN. All in one place.Watch your favorite events in the newly enhanced ESPN App. Learn more about what plan is right for you. , Marco Wilson, Florida defensive back: I've been through harder times. Way harder than what I went through with that shoe. That shoe was just broadcast around the internet., I've found that mining silver and the mobs in the mountains aren't as difficult as in the swamp when I first ventured there. Perhaps it's just my experience and understanding of combat has improved, but it just feels pretty okay, I'm still dying sure but it isn't nearly as bad as my early swamp days..