Forget the rest of it, it’s kickoff time

Posted Sep 9, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Sep 10, 2010 at 04:38 PM

Now that the planned Quran burning has been suspended, the media planning to attend that event can now move to the Florida-South Florida football game Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to assure a sellout for that spectacle of a different sort — the USF attempt at football history at a place that now will crowd over 100,000 people in that arena for an event plenty feel significant enough for international attention.

USF has this shot at immortality in this sport with an upset of the more-established Gators, though if Florida wins, it seems to be a likely finish. Matchmakers feel the Gators because of speed, depth and that home field advantage will be a bit too much for Coach Skip Holtz, son of Lou, to overcome. The Gators are 15.5-point favorites.

“We are the underdogs,” Skip Holtz said, “but we will give it all that we have in that setting. We will have to play as good as we can, maybe better than that to beat the Gators anywhere, least of all in The Swamp. This is our chance for a big deed and we will try to pull it off. A week ago, the Gators fumbled eight times but still beat Miami. They are that good.”

The truth is nobody has any idea how good either of these teams is going into this game. The Swamp, and all that noise will be hard to overcome and it is doubtful that the Bulls can pull it off in such an atmosphere.

Athletic Director Jeremy Foley has created with Coach Urban Meyer this Gators program at its apex, with Meyer heading football and Billy Donovan men’s basketball. Remarkably, Myer and Donovan won national championships in the same season, a first ever for the Gators. Now the Gators program can feed off the athletic framework Meyer and Donovan built.

“We certainly admire what the Gators have done in Gainesville and we are proud of the progress we have made at USF,” Skip Holtz said. “It is a perfect opportunity for these Bulls to make their mark on the national scene.”

This is an early Saturday afternoon game the world will see over and over again on this great stage.

Holtz said, “We know all of this. We know what a setting for us, at the same time, we will certainly find out just how good we are, in the most difficult situations. There are going to be an overwhelming number of Gators on our backs all afternoon. This is a real test. I did not book this game. It was booked before me, but I am certainly happy Foley gave us this chance.”

He added that his players are as excited as he is to be playing on this Broadway stage of college football.

Foley in his years at Florida has taken the Gators from nowhere to the top five in college football. Just recently, a national publication put the Gators on a par with the University of Michigan. The Gators’ athletic budget now exceeds $70 million. The Gators will pay USF $700,000 to play this game in The Swamp. Gators athletics, like so many programs in America, were losing money. Foley changed all of that. He has been masterful in taking this Gators program to the top of the collegiate world.

When Foley arrived in Gainesville all of these years ago, the Gators were losing in games and money. In the mid-1980s, Florida was downtrodden. About that time, I called Foley, who then was in the ticket office, and told him the athletic director job at USF was coming open. If he was interested, we could put his hat in the ring and he could have a shot at that job. It was inviting and has become what it has become, but then, so has Florida athletics. Foley thought about it a couple of days and told me he thought he had a future at Florida as well and would stay there. He did, and he has become one of the most successful athletic leaders in America. Who knows? He may be the best, just as Florida with a titanic year this season can be declared as good as there is all around.

As George “Mr. Two Bits” Edmondson would say, surely not me, then, swirl his arms around pump, point and scream at the center of Florida Field, “GO GATORS!”