Good morning Florida Gators fans!
Today is Thursday, September 10, 2015. Today is a busy day in Gators sports with both volleyball and soccer action.
A lot has been made the last couple of days about the Florida Gators football team not moving in the polls at all. We are probably where we need to be right now.
A great majority of fans wanted Will Muschamp fired as the coach of the Gators, what cannot be agreed on is when it should have happened, but alas it did.
On his parting press conference Muschamp smugly commented about the amount of good players he was leaving the next coach. I would imagine he was referring to Dante Fowler Jr. and some offensive linemen which all chose to leave for the NFL.
What he did not mention was the holes, big holes, he was leaving in the skill players on offense. I cannot remember a time when the Gators offense has been so depleted and having to start so many unproven players.
Then you look at Coach Jim McElwain’s version of Treon Harris and Will Muschamp’s version of the same player and you know, coaching matters.
Back to the polls.
Pollsters, be it coaches or writers, have no body of work to rank the Gators any higher than what they have because they read the score of 61-13 alongside of other scores and it just blends in. Most of the voters did not watch our game because they were watching Alabama-Wisconsin. Then if they took five seconds to be impressed they probably looked back and said, well they started off with a 65-0 win last season, so the say same ole Gators.
If we win by the same score this week we might would move up a little because the voters think ah, East Carolina Pirates, they were in bowl last season and give us some credit for winning a bowl game. However, it appears this ECU team is very woeful it appears so a 61-13 win may not be all the impressive.
For the Gators to start ascending to the top, they will need to look good in defeating the Kentucky Wildcats in nine days. This game will be noticed because it is a road game against an SEC foe that the Gators struggled against at home last season. If we win that game and depending on what happens to teams above us, we will make a move toward the top.
Florida Gators games of the past
The Florida Gators have played five games on September 10th of the years. The Gators record is 4-0-1.
On this date the Gators last two games were fluff games against Louisiana Tech and UAB. The Louisiana Tech game was in 2005 to start the Urban Meyer era and the Gators won 41-3. In 2011 the Gators kicked stared the Will Muschamp years (which seems like decades) with a 39-0 win over UAB.
In 1988 the Gators opened the season on the road (how does that sound) with a 27-15 win over the Ole Miss Rebels.
In 1994 if was the 73-7 win over a conference and division rival, the Kentucky Wildcats. It was a game that showed the Gators were now the team in the SEC and would be so the next three years.
The big game on this date though was a tie, 19-19 in Los Angeles against the USC Trojans. Although this game was a tie, it was the two game series that Coach Charley Pell took the Gators to a place they had not been. From the home win in 1982 against the Trojans and then travel to L.A.
Many Gators fans long for those trips again.
Florida Gators Today
The Florida Gators Soccer teams will open SEC play by hosting the Texas A&M Aggies today at 7:00 at Donald R. Dizney Stadium. These two teams have been atop the SEC standings the last three seasons. The Gators are ranked No. 10 and the Aggies are No. 6.
7:00 PM • DONALD R. DIZNEY STADIUM
TV: SEC NETWORK
RADIO: ESPN GAINESVILLE 95.3FM/850AM
VIDEO: WATCHESPN
AUDIO: GATORVISION
The Florida Gators Volleyball team will also be in action today vs Eastern Washington at 10:30 PM. The Gators are in Honolulu participating in the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge which starts Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center. First up, Eastern Washington, followed by No. 16 Hawaii and San Diego State Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively, before the Orange and Blue return home for their Stephen C. O’Connell Center debut Sept. 17.
Another great day to be a Florida Gator.
Whether you’ve got your own teeth or not keep smiling everybody.
No. 1 this day in 1998