The video making the rounds said we needed to be fixed and it was true.  We'd grown accustomed to success at the very highest levels and after three years of slipping back into the mediocrity we thought we had outrun for good, all we seemed to do was argue and snipe amongst ourselves.  The program had slipped and, as fans, so had we.  We did the worst thing people can do.  We became cynical.  Yes, Gator Nation needed fixing.

How a guy named Urban from Salt Lake City via Ashtabula, Ohio could fix us, we weren't sure but after your first press conference, we bought in and our Gator optimism began to be rekindled.  You were young, hungry and accomplished.  And you were intense. When we watched your Utah team play its last game under your leadership, we let ourselves start to imagine a little.  Maybe this guy who wasn't one of us, the guy with the stoic demeanor, the guy who genuflected, not at the thought of Steve Spurrier or Ray Graves or even Bear Bryant, but Woody Hayes, maybe he was what we needed.  Maybe we could find some Gator in him.  Maybe he'd fix us.

We had no idea.  In six years, years that have flown by so fast we can barely believe it, you transformed us. You did it the old fashioned way.  You made our kids earn it.  You demanded toughness and integrity. You treated our players like good fathers treat their sons.  With high expectations and unconditional love.  We watched the way you handled wayward boys.  We noticed how often they later became the ones you loved best.  You weren't impressed with the "superstar look at me" type and players who were didn't get very far with you. Your sights were on toughness and humility. And redemption.  No, you were a Tim Tebow man. A Chris Rainey man.  A Vernell Brown man.   Coach, we saw all that.  We lived it vicariously. You made us all go back to the basics.  To the fight song and the alma mater.  To sticking together in all kinds of weather. You fixed us.

Oh and the Gators won 65 games, a Heisman trophy, two conference championships and two national championships.  We beat every rival we played just about every time we played them.  We finished games.  We took back the Swamp.  We became the most successful program in all of college football.

And we loved you, your family and every single minute of your leadership of our program.  We never in our lives wanted to win a game so badly that meant so little to the program as we did tonight.   Make no mistake.  It wasn't about a springboard to next year or anything else. We wanted to win it for you.  All of Gator Nation wanted to see you walk away with one more win.  We wanted to replace the look of worry and concern with that patented fist pump and smile.  And when it happened and we watched you walk off the field for the last time, with your beautiful wife and children, we had a lump in our throats the size of Micanopy.

So thank you Coach.  Go enjoy your family and your health.  Farewell.  It's been all we could ever ask for.