Gator Country

The One and Only Gator Country Magazine

The Gator Country Magazine is now the fastest growing full color magazine printed on high quality glossy paper that’s dedicated to bringing you the best in-depth feature coverage of the Florida Gators. Our magazine is the only one that has award winning writers and columnists on staff so you can truly enjoy reading about your beloved Florida Gators.

There are ten issues a year and each issue is packed with feature stories & information, the latest recruiting news, excellent commentary, and outstanding photographs not found anywhere else. Unlike most magazines, we have fewer advertisements so as to allow us to pack more content for your reading pleasure.

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• 15 DAYS
  Spring football answers and creates questions for the Gators
  
  Maurkice Pouncey probably said it best one very warm April afternoon when the Gators had just finished practice: “Losing four games… that’s embarrassing.” After 45 straight wins, three state championships and two national championships at Lakeland High School, Florida’s 9-4 2007 was a bit of comeuppance for Pouncey, a first team Freshman All-American guard. “I don’t ever want to go through that again,” said twin brother Mike Pouncey, a backup center who moved to defensive line in time to lead the Gators to a 4-0 record in November. He will be back to the familiar digs of the offensive line in 2008, playing right guard while Maurkice moves over to make the line calls at center. He spent the spring playing with a bit of attitude. He was determined to do his part to ensure he never has to go through four losses in a single season ever again. “Losing just sucks,” he said. “I hate to lose.”

• SPRING FOOTBALL REPORT CARD
  Breaking down the scholarship players
  
  The talent level from top to bottom of the roster is greater than at any time in the Meyer era. What the spring showed is that if the Gators can (a) make progress at a couple of critical positions; (b) get everybody healthy and (c) have a chemistry-building offseason, there certainly won’t be another four-loss season. A championship season wouldn’t be out of the question. Here are the position-by-position grades for spring practice 2008:

• SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
  Spring football practice around the SEC and Florida’s 2008 opponents
  
  Spring practice has wrapped up on college campuses, which means that there is roughly only 100 days until the practice fields are lined, helmets buffed and blocking sleds readied for use. In July, the media masses will convene in Hoover, Ala. for the Southeastern Conference Media Days. We’re fortunate enough in Gainesville to get to watch a few days of the practice before they’re closed up for the year. Interestingly, in their first five games of the 2008 season, the University of Florida will face three teams with new head football coaches (Hawaii, Ole Miss, and Arkansas), a second year coach (Randy Shannon) of a hated rival (Miami), and Tennessee head coach Phil Fulmer, whose Volunteers haven’t won a Southeastern Conference title since 1998.

• A THREE ACT PLAY
  Looking back on the 2007-08 basketball season.
  
  Maybe it is fitting that the final game of the season was played at Madison Square Garden, just a few blocks from the theater and entertainment district. Florida’s basketball season could be best described as an off-Broadway stage adaptation to the Clint Eastwood movie “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” This was a season in which there was plenty of good, an equal amount of bad and far too much ugly. THE GOOD: Florida finished the season 24-12, eclipsing the 20-win mark for the tenth straight year. Prior to Billy Donovan’s arrival at Florida, the Gators won 20 or more games only five times.

• TRIPLE PLAY
  A trio of Florida baseball players are making their mark in 2008.
  
  It’s time the University of Florida baseball program rightfully honors one of their own. They don’t have to form a search committee. They don’t have to browse through the records and review the names of other outstanding Gators athletes. No, merely take a few steps into their own locker room. The award, you ask? The Brandon McArthur Award for Courage and Perseverance.

• IN HER FATHER’S EYES
  All-American softball player Kim Waleszonia almost missed the current season to be with her ailing father.
  
  When hundreds of orange-and-blue-painted people got off a bus in front of UCLA’s softball stadium from Fontana, Calif., all Kim Waleszonia could do was laugh. The hourand- a-half trip dumped these maniacs off at the doorstep of the stadium in 2007, causing UCLA fans to immediately alert the coaching staff of the large number of Florida fans in attendance. The trip was the idea of Kim’s father, Lester, who wanted as many people to make the trip to see his daughter play. When she made the decision to play her college softball across the country in Gainesville, he knew the opportunities would be rare. The residents of her town wouldn’t miss a chance to see her play.

• HOLLYWOOD BOB’S TOP FIVE PROSPECTS TO FOLLOW
  Every month, Gator Country Recruiting Analyst Bob Redman tells us who the Gators are hot after in football recruiting.
  

• THE HALF-IKE-WITH-AN-EMMITT-CUTBACK
  Buddy Martin’s column
  
  If you indeed can tell anything from a spring football game, then the “Orange and Blue Debut” in April could be a harbinger of good things to come.
  (First, though, put that thought on hold for this official complaint: Couldn’t we just go back to the old-fashioned “Orange and Blue Game?” I just don’t get the “Debut” thing being used over and over since Urban Meyer’s first appearance in 2005.) In a private interview after the game for his upcoming biography, “Urban’s Way,” Meyer told me he was cautiously optimistic about 2008, but was firm in his conviction about not getting ahead of himself. He agreed with me, however, that things appear to be taking shape nicely and is hopeful that the presence of more playmakers on offense and defense will bode well.

• BONUS EXTRA:  Pull-out full color poster of the Circle of Life drill during O&B Game:
  

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Prior Gator Country Magazine Issues:

• July 2007
• August 2007
• September 2007
• October 2007
• November/December 2007
• January 2008
• February 2008
• March 2008
• April 2008