Welcome to Alligator Army

Each year, Alligator Army gets bigger and we are very grateful for that. But entering our fourth season of Gator football, it is a good time to reintroduce ourselves and provide some background about the site. We'll use a Bill Simmons-like Q&A to do it.

Who is Alligator Army? Alligator Army is me, mlmintampa. I have been writing here since August 2007. The site was founded as "Swamp Ball" in February 2006. 

Why do you call yourself we? Because we think we're Will Leitch? Actually, it's based on our original blog, The Sporting Orange. That blog got us this gig, but that blog was myself and two friends. I like pretending I still have a team working with me.

What makes you qualified to write about the Gators? Because a lot of your stuff sucks ass. Yeah, but what makes you qualified? In all seriousness, I never played high level football or basketball, but I did cover the Gators while I attended UF. Between 2004-06, I covered or was a beat reporter for women's volleyball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball and football. During that time, I worked for AM850, WUFT, The Independent Florida Alligator, Gatorzone and WCJB. I graduated from UF in 2006. I also worked in minor league baseball, which is why I write baseball stories like I'm Peter Gammons. I was a fairly good hockey player, so if UF gets a hockey team, the coverage here will be awesome. 

Why don't you write more? I have a regular job that keeps me fairly busy. Some days I can post early in the morning or late at night, other days I can put something up during lunch. Some days I can't post anything. That's the way the game goes sometimes.

Why don't you write about recruiting? Recruiting, like other news, is not written about unless I think I have something to add. What do I know about a recruit from Alabama that isn't already out there? If there is a Tampa recruit, I'll mention it, since I've probably seen them or at least be familiar with their team. As for other news, I usually won't repeat what the Herald, Times, Sun and Sentinel have already written. I don't have the access of a reporter, so I can't act like one.

Besides, the fanposts and fanshots are for you to add something to Alligator Army that you think we're missing. If you want to write about an 8th grader that dominated the Carrollwood Cardinals-Bay Area Raiders game, do it. (Also, we have way too many Tampa and Gainesville references in our posts.)

If we think you suck, but we're too scared to leave a comment, how can we send you an email? alligatorarmy@gmail.com. In three years, we're only had one guy who aggressively hated us, but he wasn't man enough to do it in the comments or to our face.

So if I say you suck ass in the comments, will I get banned? Usually, the only people who get banned are those who use slurs. But yeah, being aggressive and personal attacks against Alligator Army or a commenter are a good way to get banned. Judging by allowing this comment, I'm pretty conservative in applying the ban hammer. Commenters can also police the comment sections by flagging comments.

How can you hate FSU, but not Tennessee or Georgia? FSU is a horrible place and it sucks. I lived in Tallahassee for a year and each day felt like a thousand paper cuts. Plus, if you know anything about Florida education policy, you know FSU is the weakling of the State University System. Since FSU can't govern themselves (they wanted a Chiropractic College for crying out loud), the State Legislature does it. That means the State Legislature has to govern UF. That means UF can't do what it needs to become a top-10 national public university and Charlie Crist can cut Shands funding as political revenge. And where did Crist go to college? FLORIDA STATE. (We are tremendous Gator snobs.)

As for Tennessee and Georgia, I hate their sports teams but not their schools. Sure they have annoying fans, but they both like dogs and are our SEC cousins. Even if the Tennessee cousins have no teeth and all of the female Georgia fans have breast implants. Also, we have our share of annoying fans too.

As always, thanks for reading.