A Jacksonville homecoming for several Florida Gators

The Florida Gators will celebrate homecoming on November 7 when the Vanderbilt Commodores come to Gainesville for a noon kickoff. There will be a parade and pep rallies, the normal homecoming celebration stuff, but several Gators will celebrate a different type of homecoming this weekend when Florida takes on the Georgia Bulldogs.

Florida-Georgia is one of the most storied and celebrated rivalries in college football. It doesn’t matter if both teams come in winless; it will be a primetime game that people pay attention to due to the physical nature of the contest as well as the pure animosity and bitterness between the two schools. It’s a special game to everyone involved in it, but even more so for eight Gators.

For Ahmad Fulwood, Tyler Jordan, Daniel McMillian, David Sharpe, Kavaris Harkless, Travaris Dorsey, Nick Washington and walk-on linebacker Darius Singletary, this week is different. Growing up in Jacksonville the Florida-Georgia game was embedded into the very fabric of these players’ childhoods. When Florida and Georgia play the country takes notice and the spotlight is put on their hometown.

“Sitting in the stands, that was the best game I’ve ever been to,” recalled Nick Washington of attending the game growing up. “Just being home, Florida-Georgia is what everybody in Jacksonville looks forward to. That’s the biggest thing in Jacksonville.”

The game brings in millions of dollars every year to the city of Jacksonville. It’s not a long drive from Athens and an even shorter drive from Gainesville, not to mentions the thousands of Dawg and Gator fans that live in the area. Each weekend the city of Jacksonville shuts down for the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, it even changes the schedule of the high school players growing up in Jacksonville.

“Even in high school you have to play your games on Thursdays because the cops need to be at the stadium on Friday,” receiver Ahmad Fulwood said. “So I mean it’s just crazy. It’s madness.”

Growing up in the city and attending the game is one thing but to a man every player who has experienced the game on the field can attest that the environment is one of a kind. It starts even before players get tape on their ankles, smear eye black on their cheeks or even come close to putting their helmets on in the locker room. No, the true Florida-Georgia experience starts on the team bus as it makes its way over the Hart bridge and the players get their first glimpse of the throng of fans adorned in orange, blue, red and black.

“I literally get chills every time. It’s crazy to me that I go from, you know, playing right across the river from it, seeing the events that happen before it,” said Fulwood. “The actual chance to actually play inside the stadium that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time still gives me chills to this day.”
The stadium is split as evenly as you can. You bet your last dollar that either fan base would raise hell if they counted one extra seat allotted to the other side. The environment inside the stadium is special for fans, but for Jacksonville natives, getting an opportunity to go back home and be part of the game that shut down their city one weekend each year is special. Having the opportunity to have all of their friends and family in attendance is even more special, even if your old friends who are Georgia fans don’t like the outcome.

“They were really mad about it,” David Sharpe said of his friends that are Georgia fans. “I got some bad text messages, but it was great.”

When the final whistle blows they’ll all find their friends and family in the stands. Everyone that they know and grew up with will find a way to make it inside the stadium. Both bands will play their alma maters; players will hug and say their goodbyes on the field and retreat to the locker room. When Sharpe, Washington, Fulwood and the rest of the Jacksonville natives get back to their bags and open their phones they hope to see those same bad text messages from a year ago.