It’s been 10 years since the Florida Gators hoisted a crystal ball over their heads in Miami as National Champions. If that doesn’t make you feel old the fact that none of the current players were even in high school when that team was playing may do it. Still, the 2008 Florida Gators left their mark on Florida and on college football.
That team’s reach extended far and wide. Even deep into LSU territory and into the living room of a kid who would eventually turn into
“Really once I first got into football was around the time Tim Tebow and them was winning championships,” New Orleans native Brad Stewart said. “So what really drew me into Florida was just my childhood, me wanting to come here as a child.”
That 2008 Florida-LSU game was over almost as soon as it kicked off. Tim Tebow connected with Percy Harvin for a 70-yard touchdown as the No. 11 Gators beat No. 4 LSU 51-21. Stewart was hooked on Tebow and the Gators from then on.
Those Florida teams, 2008 specifically, set a standard for the Gators. They went 13-1 and averaged 43.6 points-per-game during the year. Florida also paced the SEC that year with 445.1 yards per game. Since then Florida has fallen off. The Gators are 77-43 (64%) and 64-42 (.60%) since Tim Tebow left Gainesville.
Tebow will be back in Gainesville on Saturday with the SEC Nation crew. He’s also going to receive the biggest honor a Florida football player can receive when he’s inducted into the Gators’ ring of honor. Mullen recruited Tebow and coached him for four seasons in Gainesville and said, “it’s going to be a pretty special day for all of Gator Nation to come and see that.” Even a legend like Tebow was affected by Florida falling on hard times. Tebow picked Mississippi State to beat his alma mater last week. Of course Tebow is paid by ESPN to be an impartial analyst so most of the current team understood.
“That’s a guy we respect much. I think everybody on our team respects him. We know he is rooting for us even though he has to do his job,” receiver Josh Hammond said of Tebow. “We know that deep down he’s a Gator at heart and he expects the best of us.”
Hammond had a better seat than most to that 2008 season. His older brother, Frankie, was a freshman receiver in the 2008 team and Hammond went to every single home game as well as the National Championship. Those Tebow led teams were part of the reason he wanted to be a Gator. He wanted to uphold and continue that tradition that he was watching first hand being laid.
That hasn’t been the case. Florida has cycled through quarterbacks and coaches since Mullen and Tebow left but this season looks as if Florida is getting back on track. They’re nowhere near the juggernaut team that will be honored on the field this weekend but they don’t look the hapless bunch of 2017. Dan Mullen has harped on returning to the Gator standard since he was hired last December and each week it appears the Gators are taking steps toward making that statement reality.
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson knows of that 2008 team and knows that they’ll be back in The Swamp. Growing up in nearby Cocoa he watched what they did but he’s more interested in the here and now.
“It’s our time now, so we got to set our own legacy. He’s watching just like everyone else, you know,” Gardner-Johnson said of Tebow being at the game Saturday. “We got to go out there and produce and have our own legacy out there and just continue to add to the greats like those who were here before.”
No better time to do that than in a top-25 matchup against a hated rival on national television.