Coach was here tonight for the Gator Gathering. I'll try to recap some of what he said. Much of it, of course, is stuff we've seen or heard somewhere else.....regardless.

 But first, my own perception on something. Coach is quite a polished speaker. He is well-spoken with a very rapid-fire manner. This is the second time I've seen him in this type of setting. I didn't time it but he probably spoke for 20 -30 minutes and is very fluid, intense, but with a good sense of humor. You can contrast that with what you see in the short, sound-bite, halftime interviews where he kinda stumbles all over his thoughts and words. Clearly, then, he isn't the least bit interested in halftime interviews. His mind is on the game, his team, etc. and he comes across that way. Some that don't get the opportunity to see him in a different setting may get the wrong impression. Anyway....on to what he covered.

Last year was "an education". He didn't specifically elaborate on that but through the course of his talk, you understood what he meant.

He said one thing he learned was the opinionated SEC officials. He went into a long lead-in describing the Ugly game and how we immediately went up 14-0....then messed up and lost the chance to go up 21-0...and went into halftime having sorta lost the momentum. That carried over into the third quarter. Ugly back to 14-10 and momentum with them. Something has to change. The fake punt call. Dangerous. Dumb. But gotta do something to get momentum back. So, he reminds the ref that the rules have changed and he can call a timeout. He's already called the punt team over and told them he's gonna run the fake punt. He has a name for it, which he repeated several times, and warned the crowd if it shows up on the internet, he's not coming back. So, it won't appear here. Anyway, so, he tells the ref he's gonna run a fake punt but wants a timeout. The ref looks at him and says, "Are you a jerk? A fake punt. Here? Now?". So, according to Myer, they get in a screaming match back and forth regarding whether he's a jerk for calling a fake punt in this situation.

He talked about how during the Fall, the worst time of year for academics for the football team, how last year's team had the highest GPA in the history of Florida football. Not clear if he meant in the Fall or if he meant this Spring, but he threw out the statistic that 41% of the team had a GPA of 3.0 or higher. He kinda rambled at this point and he might have meant this Spring.

He spent a considerable amount of time giving props to Billy and the boys. Much of what we've heard before....how they were a real team...how he wants his team to be like them. How he always gets the question, "Are you afraid this is now a basketball school?" to which he replies, "No, it's a school of Excellence. Mary Wise has won 15 straight titles and she thinks it's a volleyball school." He repeated over and over it's a school of excellence.

He talked about how much Billy is his friend. How Billy recruited him to Florida. He talked about how the team two years ago had great players but wasn't a great team. He pointed out two years ago, only one guy had 75 assists and the next guy was around 40. This year's team had four guys with more than 70 assists. A great team.

He spoke about how emotional it was for him to be invited into the locker room after the game in Indy. How he watched the Gator Boys and how close they were. Nobody was talking about playing at the next level. How they loved each other and how the only thing on their mind was doing the Gator Jaws in the locker room. He wished there was someway he could have had each of his football players in that locker room to see what a real team was all about.

He then talked about how Mincey, Herring and Brown stepped up and saved last year's team when the going got rough. He talked about how anyone can lead when you're winning but true leaders show up at the toughest times. Later he also mentioned Billy Latsko and Dallas Baker in the same terms.

He said Leak is fundamentally the soundest he's ever been. Tebow is tough, strong, dedicated and 18 years old. Fayson will be the backup QB to Leak and Tebow.

He says Bubba is 90% and Ray Mac is 80-85%.

He told a story about strong Momma's. How you can have a 280lbs guy sitting in front of you all tough and macho who is screwing up. Coach shows him the cell phone with Momma's number on his speed dial. "You want me to call her right now?" Coach says when you see the sweat start pouring off the kid, you know you've got a strong Momma. I don't think he was specifically referring to Ray Mac, but he then introduced Mr. and Mrs. McDonald and had them stand up for the crowd.

He says this team is 100% democratic. Just before they start two-a-days, they will vote on the captains. But, says Coach, he's got a REALLY, REALLY BIG VOTE, and Latsko and Baker will be captains. 

Reggie Nelson will be our punt returner.

He talked at length about what I believe he said was "Senior Tackle Day". Acoustics were bad and I may not have the name right. Anyway, we have heard this before but he went on at length about how emotional it is. This happens the last practice before the last game. Everyone forms up in a semi-circle and then each position coach and some selected players talk about a particular senior. Then the senior comes forward to speak. He says this can go on sometimes for four hours and there's never a dry eye in the house. Football is such a tough, violent, difficult experience. He spoke about several players but the one that clearly gets to him is Vernell. He says Vernell is simply the best person/football player he has ever been around. He spoke about when it was time for Vernell, and Chuck Heater got up to speak. He says he's coached with Heater for years and has never seen him this emotional before, but when Heater got up to speak about Vernell, he simply could not speak for a full eight minutes because of his emotion. Coach said he timed him.

He covered each area of the team. I won't go into that. We've all heard the analysis before. No real surprises. He did say although inexperienced, the OL plays together as a team and he'll take that everytime over experience. I don't know if that was a jab at last year's team, or not. He also mentioned Reggie Lewis as being vastly improved. Told a story where last year Reggie was a 2.0 student and the kind of guy "you just don't want to have to deal with". Said he got a call recently from Reggie who said, "Coach, I like my steaks medium-rare." Apparently, Coach promised him a steak dinner at his house if Reggie could pull a 3.0. Said he replied, "you can't spell 3.0." Reggie, apparently, is going to get his steak dinner. 

Lastly, someone in the crowd asked Coach the one thing he learned from last year. He replied that very simply if you can't do it the right way, you're gone.