First off let me say that they put on another great gathering. The only other Gatherings that I've attended were at Daytona and they don't hold a light to Central Florida's. It's air conditioned with great food, great beer, plenty of room, plenty of beer, Gator women (nuff said), free flowing beer, numerous displays at sometimes great prices, iced tea & lemonade, Jack Youngblood (every year), free Gator Bait, free Fightin' Gator Mag (first time I'd seen it---great recruiting info), a chance to sing "We are the boys..." in the off season and all for the $25 admission. From the Zooker: His first words were "Don't believe everything you read" and then he intro'd his wife and daughter (he later had a short and subtle rip for Bianci). He talked for awhile about how special UF is, how strong Gators' passion runs, high expectations, how respected the Gator name is throughout the south and that UF is much more than sports...it's the whole package with academics coming first. "If you graduate from Florida you will never miss your call because of where you went to school." He told a story of being at a Gathering, in the bathroom, and two other guys (that didn't know he was in there) were ripping him up and down for his "always getting better, much better than last year, huge improvement" attitude. When he got to the podium he told them he says that because he believes it from every bone in his body and he sees positive prooof of it every day. He said he was looking at 6:00AM tapes from this year and from last and was so impressed with the improvement that he called in all the other coaches to witness it, too. He's a much better speaker than he was last year and often quite funny. His biggest regret is last yrs Miami game (for which he took all the blame). He said we suited up 70 players, 35 of which had never played at this level and mentioned that most of them were "riding little yellow buses" a year ago. He talked about how scary it is to be 3-3 and be the head coach of Florida. Said he took a different route to work every day and even heard the Christian station saying prayers for him. LOL. After the third loss he said he was as tired as he'd ever been and wanted to see noone. His wife didn't think the coaches should be alone (might slit their wrists or hang themselves) and wanted to throw a party and, against RZ's pleadings, the party took place. Joe Wickline showed up with his kids in PJ's and when RZ asked why he said he didn't think they'd be there long because they all thought they were getting fired. (laughter) He thinks that this yrs recuiting class might be better, top to bottom, than last years. Channing Crowder. He said Channing screwed up big time but like everyone else he also has good times and bad times, "but you never hear about the good times". Said he was a tremendous help in recruiting and that his good outweighed the bad. Bubble screen. He said that nhe catches hell for that play although it averaged more than 8 yds a play throughout the season. Asked if we knew who first ran that play at UF...SOS! "And nobody yelled at him!" (laughter) Asked about an increase in passing: Pointed out that LSU had 1 more game than we did but we had 20 more passing plays, of 20 yds or more, than they did. He defended his pass/run ratio and said that as we perfect our patterns, passing and reads we will pass more. Pure & simple. (Hear, hear, Coach!) Jumbo Trons: The second big screen is being installed right now. YEEHAW! He hopes players won't trip all over themselves when entering the field because they're looking at themselves. (-' Lingerd (I know I spelled that wrong): Coach said he was asked if it was alright to look for somewhere else to go. He gave the nod and that's all the info he has right now. Asked about C4 as a reciever: He might consider it but C4 couldn't catch a cold in practice. (laughter) Special teams: They'll be run by Zook. Women: There are more women at UF than men. Most important thing: TO HAVE FUN. He still tells all his coached that when 90,000 people leave the Swamp he wants them to be impressed with the fun the the team is having on the field. And last but not least...Coach gets to fly with the Blue Angels next month! That is so cool!!! He said that he has visited them already and was highly impressed with the way they work as a team. He hopes to bring some of that back to the Gators. (If I screwed anything up, please jump on my with both feet. I'll just shake it off and stomp it! )