Where I Come From: My All-Time Favorite Florida Team
by mlmintampa on Jul 6, 2010 8:00 AM EDT
in EA Sports NCAA FB 11
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Your all-time favorite team should mean something beyond wins and losses. More often than not, your favorite team will be successful, but there is honor in falling short after giving everything you had. I know this is supposed to be a series of posts about college football, but my all-time favorite Florida team was the 2005 Gators baseball team.
I saw Matt LaPorta, Alan Horne, Brian Jeroloman, closer Connor Falkenbach and Gavin Dickey in his final chance at two-sport stardom. Of those guys, maybe LaPorta means something to you because he is raking for the Cleveland Indians. Dickey was a third-string quarterback who never got past Ingle Martin or Chris Leak. I was a junior in the spring of 2005, writing for The Alligator, working at WRUF and failing to get over an ex-girlfriend. When you don't have a lady friend, weekends at McKethan Stadium with a good ballclub and sorority girls hanging over the rail above the first base dugout can be good medicine.
UF started the season by losing the opener to Charleston Southern in 11 innings. When Miami came into Gainesville a week later, Falkenbach blew the opener, allowing three 9th inning runs to lose 9-7. In game two, UM again struck in the 9th, tying the game 1-1. In the 11th, Jeroloman hit a fly ball to left fielder Jon Jay. Dealing with the sun and the most abusive student section in the SEC, Jay lost the ball and by the time the ball hit the turf, Adam Davis scored to win the game. On Sunday, UF won 14-11 and the season had a much different complexion.
UF won the SEC Pennant with a season ending sweep at Vanderbilt. LaPorta, in his sophomore season, hit 26 homers and had 79 RBI. Jeroloman was a catcher who could hit, batting .298 with 49 RBI. Horne led the Gators with 10 wins and Falkenbach's submarine delivery got a 3.15 ERA and nine saves in 51 appearances.
As is typical of UF, they quickly left the SEC Tournament but swept through the Regionals. That set up a Super Regionals series against FSU, who won the season series. You cannot imagine the hatred that came out of the left field bleachers. Not only was left field all students, but about 75 percent were tanked. (The renovations and "family friendly atmosphere" neutralized this.) In Game One, UF won 8-1 thanks to back-to-back-to-back homers in the 5th by Jeroloman, Brandon McArthur and Brian Leclerc. The last homer had the added bonus of FSU's Jack Rye running full speed into the right field fence, thinking he had a step on the ball.
For Game Two, the stadium was jumping and the students wanted blood. Another Leclerc homer started the Gators with a four-run 1st inning. The Gators led 8-3 in the 9th, but FSU would not die easily. They started the inning with a homer and walk. Horne was removed from the game, but decided to walk off in style, only getting the crowd more excited. One more run would score, but it didn't matter as UF won 8-5. Florida would make their first trip to the College World Series since 1998.
Florida would lose in the Championship Series to a Texas team stacked with top prospects. But the 2005 team remains the best in UF history. In 2006, when I got to cover the team for WRUF, the Gators struggled with injuries and bad breaks, missing the NCAA Tournament. The team still meant a lot to me, but a new girlfriend and the stunning success of the basketball team was taking more of my time. I'm still pretty attached to the team and got to see Jeroloman and Falkenbach when I worked for the Toronto Blue Jays and both were in minor league spring training. On Alligator Army, I make a point of covering baseball because I always thought it never got the attention it deserved.
The 2006 football and basketball teams are also favorites of mine. My friends and I can still remember details of each championship game and following celebration on University Avenue. I expect some of you look fondly on the 1996 football team, but I hope there is some love for the sports that are under the radar.
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My pick would be the 2006 football team and the moment would be Moss’ blocked FG… that thing still gives me chills!
MileHighReport.com member since 02/06/07, promoted to "Position Coach" (i.e. new staff writer) on 02/16/10!
same as me
I thought ’06 was the best where we shocked the world by crushing Ohio State, it just never gets old
...in dixie land i'll take my stand to root for Atlanta
Easily my favorite football moment of all time
and my favorite team. I was in the student section when it happened. A random bro leaped into my arms. A random girl kissed me. It was definitely the happiest, craziest moment I witnessed at Ben Hill during my four years at UF.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains
by Chekhov's Spread Gun Option on Jul 6, 2010 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions
mines the 96 football team.
because its the one that made me love florida. my favorite moment would have to be when ike hilliard caught a long pass down the middle and juked out two noles defenders with one step and made them look so stupid.
Mine is the 1990 football team
That was my sophomore year. My freshman year at UF (1989) was less than stellar as far as our major sports were concerned. We lost my first ever Gator game to Ole Miss – playing on the old Astroturf. It was a noon kickoff and about 150 degrees in the stands. It was miserable. I remember seeing “Fire Arnsparger” banners flying over Florida Field as UF was headed toward probation in football. Then the basketball follies began when Schinzius quit/was kicked off the team, Livingston Chatman quit and Don Devoe led us to one of our worst seasons in memory.
It was a tough time to be a student at UF in the fall of ‘90, as the Gainesville murders brought a black cloud over campus and dampened the spirit of students who were living in fear but sticking together as one. But the fall of ’90 also brought new hope to the school and its football team – John Lombardi took over as President (still one of the best ever in my opinion) and Steve Spurrier- one of Florida’s favorite sons and its most well-known player and only Heisman winner, took over as head ball coach.
The Gator football team was coming off back-to-back 7-5 seasons and a drubbing from Washington in the 1989 Freedom Bowl – where Emmitt Smith quit on the team (I still contend it happened although I cannot find any articles on it). In addition to Ole Miss and Washington, the Gators lost to UGA, Auburn, FSU in 1989. In short, we really didn’t beat anyone of consequence that year.
Then the ole ball coach rolls in. He removed the astroturf in favor of natural grass and adds the big F at midfield. He then takes 5th stringer Shane Matthews and lights up the scoreboard to the half century mark against Oklahoma State on opening day. Wow. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Shane looked like Joe Montana throwing for 332 yards (7th best in Gator history at the time). The Gators followed that up with a 17-13 shocking upset in Tuscaloosa where Will White stole the show with his 3 INTs and Richard Fain recovered a block punt for the winning TD. The Gators proved that they could win on both sides of the ball and that this wasn’t the “same old Gators.”
Following easy wins over Furman 27-3, Mississippi State 34-21 (sort of – are those ever easy?) and a 34-8 throttling of LSU, the Gators headed up to Knoxville at 5-0. There, Spurrier took his first black eye as a Gator coach (and I believe his worst beating) 45-3 to Tennessee. I was at the game and it wasn’t as bad as the score showed, at least from the beginning. It was 7-3 at the half, then UT ran back the 2nd half kickoff, and followed that up with back-to-back scores off Gator turnovers the next 2 possessions to make it 28-3 and the route was then on….
The Gators then returned home for homecoming week and took it out on Akron 59-0. They followed that up with one of the best 3 conference game stretches in history with a 38-7 stomping of Auburn, a 38-7 drubbing of the Dawgs in Jax (it was beautiful and ended a streak of 13 losses in 16 years against UGA!) and a 47-15 thumping of Kentucky in Lexington (what else is new?).
That put the Gators at 9-1 heading into Talley, where the Gators met the Seminoles for the first time ever when both teams were ranked in the Top 10 (they would go on to meet 11 more times that decade where both were ranked in the Top 10!!). As would be the case often in SOS’s career, the ‘Noles were too tough for the Gators that day, and Amp Lee and Marvin Jones led them to a 45-30 win over the Gators. Due to probation, the Gators were not allowed to play in a bowl game nor claim the SEC title they would have won, but Spurrier always had a soft spot in his heart for his first team at UF, who finished 9-2. The paint in the stadium end zone evidenced Spurrier’s sentiment.
The Gators would finally get their first official SEC title the following year, and while It would take 5 years for the Gators and Spurrier to play for a national title, and yet another year after that to win one, the 1990 team was truly the foundation for turning our football program into the dominant machine we enjoy today.
A tip of the cap to my favorite Gators team – the 1990 football squad,
Go Gators!
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