The Hoops Gators knocked off #2 Michigan State, while Tebow’s Swamp Legacy concluded with yet another pasting of the worthless Seminoles of Florida State… all within 24 hours of each other.

In terms of schadenfreude, could this have been written any more sweetly? ESPN College Gameday dropped by, not because of the enormity of the game — FSU stinks, after all — but the significance of Tim Tebow’s final game in the Swamp. The parallel storyline, Bobby Bowden’s coaching legacy, was necessarily weak in the modern sense thanks to Bowden’s lack of accomplishments in the last 8 years of his career.

FSU’s ship is sinking. HMS Bowden is taking on water faster than Jimbo Fisher can bail it out. Meanwhile, the Gators are two games away from a historic accomplishment, and Tebow’s legacy as the greatest player in college football history is nearly cemented.

Good times, ladies and gentlemen. A halcyon era of Gator dominance… a masterful meld of coaching and players to produce an unprecedented string of success against Florida’s rivals.

But enough on the 6-6 Nolies, who don’t feature a single player on the roster who know the taste of victory over the Gators.

You want to talk about Gator Greats? Sure, Tebow’s one, but many of the Gator Greats of ‘09 play on defense. Brandon Spikes. Carlos Dunlap. Ryan Stamper. Joe Haden. A.J. Jones. While UF enjoyed a field day against FSU’s swiss-cheese offense, against better competition, our defense has carried the day. Thank you, boys. You may have walked through that tunnel for the last time, but you will not be forgotten.

Without further ago, here we go:

1. The team goes 12-1 heading into a BCS bowl.

Personally, I think is a reasonable prediction for now, given the raw talent on this football team. However, the talent of the SEC, combined with potential issues with the defense, will likely cost this team a win. It might be Georgia, Tennessee, or LSU, but regardless, this team could trip up somewhere. Even if it doesn’t, expect at least one close game.

2. Tim Tebow does not win a second Heisman.

There will be too much dissent, too much statistical drop, and too much talent on the offensive side of the ball for it to happen. Besides, Tim has openly stated that he wants jewelry to more Heisman hardware.

But he’s done enough in two years to make himself a living legend, anyway. More awards would just add to the validity.

3. The team breaks the school record for points scored in a season for the third time this decade.

Tebow’s loss is Chris Rainey’s, Emmanuel Moody’s, Carl Moore’s, etc. gain.

Oh, and the last two teams that set the record didn’t play in the SEC title game.

4. If Tebow wins the national championship, he declares for the draft.

Probably a little out on a limb. But outside of a ring, he’s got nothing left to prove on the college circuit. With the way the rookie pay scale is structured, he could get one of the richest contracts in league history. And he can still take classes at UF to finish his degree.

Emmitt Smith graduated six years after declared early. Several of the ’04s did it over the summer. Why not Tim?

5. One of the running backs will have a breakout season

It might be Moody, it might be Moore, it might even be Rainey or Demps. But with the competition on the depth chart and the raw talent level available, someone is due to separate themselves from the pack.

In case you haven’t heard, Urban Meyer wants fans to “White Out Cancer” this Saturday, so break out your ice cream jerseys. And that doesn’t include the canned food drive he’ll be holding in front of the O’Connell Center before every home game.

Philanthropy through football? Hmmmm.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are less than ten weeks away from creating parking troubles in Gainesville, giving Hawaii anything but paradise, and using ridiculous amounts of hyperbole for the most beloved signal-caller at UF since the time Atlanta, not Beijing, held the Olympic Games.

I think we’re due for a magical ride next year, and here’s why:

Urban Meyer has placed a heavy emphasis on speed and explosiveness during his time in Gainesville. However, as he adds more and more fast athletes to Florida’s offense, the value and contributions of each one go down. Hence, the law of diminishing returns.

Make no mistake, having the best offense in the most talented and parity-filled conference in the country is a huge asset. However, I feel that an opponent’s best chance of stopping or slowing down the Gators’ spread offense lies in a 3-4 or 3-3-5 formation, with explosive linebackers alternating between guarding the running game and the passing game.
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Orange and Blue Debut ‘08 is over.

Impressions:

Chris Rainey

Everyone’s saying he’s a future star and he well could be. He racked up 130 yards of offense and made some amazing juke-you-outta-your-jock moves that an SEC back has to make if he’s going to break the big one.

His size (5′ 7″? He looked shorter than Erin Andrews!) is obviously always going to be a liability. But in college, that’s okay as long as you make up for it with other things. See: Brandon James, Percy Harvin, etc. He is not a great pass-blocker and probably never will be. His presence on the field will flash a RB pass or handoff and that that will be tough. But once you get over those negatives… wow! He is the real deal. I can’t wait to see an offensive set which includes Rainey and Harvin. For what it’s worth, Harvin and Rainey apparently alternate winning in sprint races and such in practice. Yeah, kid’s fast.
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You think of the Tennessee-Florida game and you never think “easy victory.”

But did you know that Florida’s 30-year record over Tennessee is not too far behind their ‘total ownership’ of the Georgia Bulldogs in the WLOCP (World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party) series?

The Gators have won 15 games to Tennessee’s 6 in that span. (1990 marks the first year that the series was played annually.) From ‘76 to ‘85 the Gators won all four of the rivalry’s matchups. And from 1993 to 1997, at the height of Steve Spurrier’s demented powers, the Gators rolled Smokey uncharitably, winning games by lopsided amounts (31-0 in 1994 and 62-37 in 1995) before losing an OT game in Knoxville, 20-17, in 1998. The win fueled the Vols’ championship run of that year.

But in ‘99 and ‘00, the Gator victories continued. Coming into the 2001 matchup in Gainesville — postponed to early December due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks — Phil Fulmer had only managed two wins over the Gators during his tenure at Rocky Top. But he managed to send Steve Spurrier to the NFL on a sour note, winning 34-32. Fulmer also exorcised some Tennessee demons by providing the Vols with a win in the Swamp for the first time since 1971.

In 2002, Ron Zook shocked the Volunteer and Gator Nation alike by beating the highly ranked Vols in Knoxville. But in ‘03 and ‘04, the Zookified Gators dropped two consecutive games to Fulmer. Two wins in a row over Florida was a first for the Big Guy in Orange, and Tennessee fans ate it up like Phat Phil on a Krispy Kreme bender.
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Thanks to Urban Meyer, the University of Florida coaching staff, and our outstanding football team, the Swamp has undergone some recent renovations in the “scorekeeping” category.

The first image shows the south endzone. Note the new signs that replace the old painted block lettering. I’m not sure I really like this; the painted version looked timeless while this will clearly look dated at some point in the future. Nevertheless, it’s growing on me.

A byproduct of football’s recent success is that the old “1st in the SEC” banners have been deleted. The teams of ‘84, ‘85, and ‘90 no longer receive any glory for their accomplishments. Still, there’s only so much physical room to go around, so this seems like a good problem to have.

The second photo shows Spurrier’s Heisman jersey, also once painted, now 3D-ified. I can only assume Danny Wuerffel’s jersey on the opposite side of the south endzone looks the same.

Th third photo shows where my father and I sit in the Swamp… we’re the north end zone nosebleeding crew. We’re more or less smack dab in the middle, halfway between the balcony and the scoreboard. Actually, the seats are great; sort of like a coach’s cam view of the proceedings. It’s easy to watch plays develop (especially downfield with receivers working against the secondary) when your view is vertically oriented. Anyway, whenever CBS or Sun Sports pans up to show the Ring of Honor, you’ll see our sweaty mugs.

Not too sure about this one either. Although I could never see them personally, I liked the “old” (one year) location for the Ring of Honor. They’re going to be hard to see perched above the upper reaches of the stadium, but it does leave room for future expansion on the south side.

Finally, the Stephen C. O’Connell center has been updated to honor our ‘06 and ‘07 champions.

Hopefully the stadium will need yet another upgrade at the conclusion of this year’s football season.  Let’s keep those painters/signbuilders busy…