It feels good to read Swamp Gas, the message boards of GatorCountry.com to feel the excitement of Florida Gators and the fans who post there. I do not believe that those who are posting on the Internet or talking at the water cooler are being overly zealous in most of their comments. While the opponent was dreadful this past Saturday, the play of the Gators went beyond the on the field match-ups.
Five new offensive linemen, for at least one game, playing as one. No videos have shown up on You Tube showing various parts of our offense throwing better blocks at one another than the opponents on the field.
No false starts.
No holding.
While we Gator fans are still apprehensive about the offensive line of the Gators, the discipline and the play has to have increased our hope. Sure, New Mexico State is probably the weakest team we will play this season, but we committed ten penalties last season against our weakest opponent. Going forward, I like where we are now, compared to where we were.
If this year takes us to a 6-6 record or even a 5-7 I will be disappointed in the losses, but I do not think I will be disappointed in the effort or the team, which includes the coaching. There again, it has been only one game, but it is one game that we all, for the most part, feel good about our Gators.
When did you last feel that way after game one?
Florida Gators games in the past.
Today as we take a look at the games of September 8, we do have a much more interesting menu of past games to take a glance at.
First the games we have played for this date.
There have been six games, with two cupcakes and a 5-0-1 record.
Our cupcakes were in 2001 and 2007 when we played Louisiana Monroe and Troy.
The opening of our September 8th games was the second game of the 1984 season following the heartbreaking loss to the Miami Hurricanes in which the Gators gave up two touchdowns in the final minute to fall 32-20.
So, with an 0-1 record we open SEC play against the LSU Tigers which would be the last blip the Gators would have in the 1984 season. The game ended in a 21-21 tie and one web site has the game as “LSU defeats Florida 21-21”.
The second game we played on September 8th was in 1990. We played the game in Gainesville, Fl. The opponent was the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The new Florida Head Coach was Steve Spurrier and neither Gator football nor SEC football would ever be the same. The SEC played a decade just to catch up with Florida and by doing so, passed the rest of the country on the football field.
It was after eight-four years of football at the University of Florida, our time. In football lingo, before 1990 you could have referred to Gainesville and football as the final destination on a trail of tears.
The Oklahoma State coach was Pat Jones, here is his show, which if you just listen to the first three minutes you will hear what we all saw. Hear the opposing coach say, “the fans are all going berserk”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAtnx2S2lYw
There are videos of the entire game, but the quality is pretty rough, but the one I linked is pretty good.
The final September 8th game was against the Texas A&M Aggies which started the Gators on a season of last minute wins which would give Gators everywhere a false sense of where were at and where we were headed.
Coach Muschamp turned out to be fool’s gold.
While we are just ten days into this season long series of articles, September 8th does seem to represent of microcosm of Gators football.
The LSU tie which would the last time we experienced failure in 1984 and only the SEC could derail what the team did and in unprecedented display of hypocrisy tried to derail the Florida Gators express.
From the NY Times:
- While coordinator of Georgia’s remedial English program, Dr. Kemp was among several faculty members who had complained that officials at Georgia intervened in the fall of 1981 to enable nine football players to pass a remedial English course in which they had received failing grades. The athletes remained eligible to play for Georgia against Pittsburgh in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day 1982.
Yet, UGA was one of our loudest critics.
So, the SEC did not want to allow the sleeping giant in Gainesville to get a foothold, which they were able to do until the September 8th, 1990 when Steve Spurrier stepped on the conference’s throat with a “Hobnail boot”.
Finally, to wrap up that day in 2012 which delayed the comeback of the Florida Gators for at least a year or maybe two. If the Gators lose that game (which as a fan I am still glad they won as the players played their hearts out) then maybe that season does not play out like it did.
Which is the real what if of the day…
Whether you’ve got your own teeth or not keep smiling everybody.
When Steve Spurrier and the Gators took the field in 1990 the No. 1 song in the land was “If Wishes Come True”