At Florida, This Is Next Year

Posted Jan 9, 2009 by Tom McEwen

Updated Jan 10, 2009 at 01:38 AM

Florida Gator football has reached the pinnacle, the apex, the circle of the elite, and, as some wise man said, they did it the hard way - they earned it. The climaxing victory, of course, was the beautifully managed 24-14 complete decision over Oklahoma in the BCS Championship game Thursday to the south of us.

There will be no more waiting ‘til next year. There’ll be no more explanations of louseups or the manner of losses with the qualifier, “only at Florida.” Those are out. Those pacifiers of the growing and growing citizens of the Gator Nation are no more. They are for the can’t-doers, not the can-doers that the Gators reassured membership among with the victory over a doggone fine Sooners team that was in it until Urban Meyer’s largely disciplined team extended its lead to 10 points.

Florida now has its achievements — two of the last three national championships, under the bright glare and possible intimidation of the BCS championship stage; the size, the academic reputation, and the players recruited from the state of Florida, peerless for producing football specialists like quarterback Tim Tebow. Florida has long had the players, but now the great university does not just covet them, it goes out and gets them, when they are not otherwise tempted elsewhere.

And Florida has the coaching under Meyer and it has the best of facilities, including a 90,000 seat stadium which former quarterback-coach Steve Spurrier got and named The Swamp. Florida also has money grants that now rival the University of Michigan. Florida, since World War II, has had coeds. Once it did not.

Back when I was at Florida, it was all male and there were 3,000 of us. Only three of whom I knew well enough had cars — the late George Nettles, Jack Baldwin and Burke Kibler, who in time became the chairman of the board of regents. The rest had to bum rides to the old Florida State College for Women (FSCW) at Tallahassee. Old FSCW is now FSU, coed and Gator sports’ menacing rival.

And, in my college times, the football team wasn’t much. Most on the team needed help academically to the point where two linemen “friends” tapped me on the shoulder during our honor system exams and suggested I move my head to the right. They could not see the answers as I chose to mark them. I was a decent student, and they were both large linemen. We all passed that general college course, C-1, as I recall.

Now, the glorious university of so many has all the athletic, academic and physical capital needed throngs at their games and all the lures of a great academia center on the most modern of campuses in this state. The local growth has carried with it Florida State, the University of South Florida in Tampa and Central Florida, all booming and overflowing and advancing in stature academically and athletically.

It helps all in this bustling system that the Gators played in such a touted and widely presented championship final against Oklahoma, and won. The Gators and FSU Seminoles can move on along at the top and help USF and help UCF move towards the top rung of football, too. The Gators and FSU have been national champions. They are models for USF and UCF, the Gators more recently with the well-orchestrated triumph Thursday.

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said the Florida defense won the game by repeated stops of his team on seeming touchdown drives inside the Florida 5. Agree, but add, you cannot give credit without mentioning the truck that is Tebow, especially when he turns downfield, nor without mentioning back Percy Harvin when he spies a tiny opening and breaks free for a energizing run. And Tebow was a hair better than Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford — this time.

After Florida rebounded from a Week 5 31-30 loss to Mississippi for which Tebow took all the blame, to beat Arkansas 38-7, I wrote this may be the best, most-balanced Gator team in history. Now, after season-ending routs of Florida State, Alabama (for the SEC) 31-20 and the Sooners, I repeat that this may the best, most-balanced Gator team in history. It is. I think I’ll write a book - The Gators, Part II.