Last year, we tried 50 For 50, and got halfway done before things cropped up. This year, Alligator Army is coming back with 100 For 100, with 100 articles in the 100 days leading up to the first Florida Gators football game of the 2012 season, and will run down storylines, profile players, examine history, and make some predictions, possibly all haphazardly. The only thing we can promise is that each day's entry will bring us all one step closer to "Herrrrrrrrre ... come the Gators!"
There are 43 days until Florida's September 1 opener with Bowling Green. There are 81 entries left in the 100 For 100 series. Will we get there? (Stop being negative, yo.)
Mike Gillislee went to SEC Media Days and disclosed his goals for the 2012 season. They are, as one might guess, kind of substantial.
Gillislee said he’d like to finish this season with 1,500 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns, numbers that would rank him second and first, respectively, in those categories all-time at UF.
"That’s just my goal," said Gillislee. "I completed all my goals in the weight room, and that’s a goal that I want to complete on the field. If not, come close."
Friend of the blog Michael Felder is skeptical about this (yep, I just linked to Bleacher Report), but I think that yardage total, at least, is within the realm of possibility, despite 1,500 yards being fairly close to the school record of 1,599 established by Emmitt Smith in 1989.
Gillislee's averaged 6.3 yards per carry in his career, a stupendous mark not often put up by even the best college running backs. Divide 1,500 by 6.3 and you get 238.09 carries; divide 238.09 carries by 14 games (with an SEC Championship Game appearance) or 13 games without one), and you get either 17 or 18.3 carries per game. Will Gillislee get more than 18 carries per game? I think so. Will Gillislee get 6.3 yards per carry? I'm less sure, but I think he'll be above 5.0 yards per carry.
But, in any case, it's nice to have goals, even if one of them is scoring more rushing touchdowns than Tim Tebow did in a season in which he was allowed to run 210 times, many near the goal line in run-pass options. Just do Gilly a favor: Focus on the yardage one.