"The Swamp"

In the world of college football, there are places that teams dread playing away games. There are great nicknames for many of them, such as "Death Valley" for those teams having to play a game at Clemson's Memorial Stadium, "The Big House" at Michigan or when "The Sea of Red" convenes to form the third largest city in the state of Nebraska when the Cornhuskers play in Lincoln. However, as Lee Corso states,


There is no better place than The Swamp! When the Gators run out of the tunnel, it is absolutely the moment of moments in college football.
Make sure to click on the link above as it is a virtual tour of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Come on, do it!!! You know you want to experience "THE SWAMP".

This past weekend, Scott and I travelled to his alma mater, to watch his (and now mine as well)Florida Gator's (and new coach Urban Meyer's) SEC opener against long time hated rival Tennessee. The Gators beat the Volunteers 16-7.

We arrived Friday evening and promptly met his friends at a bar called none other than the Gator Dockside. The next morning, his friends, at 7:30AM set up a tailgate tent whose key feature was a satellite television with feeds to all the different games played throughout the day. We made a run to Burrito Brothers (something I've been hearing about for months), I had friends Thom and David come up to visit from Orlando and we took a walk around campus to see the key locations of Scott's years on the Gainesville campus.

One highlight was watching the marching band go through their warmup's right across the street from our tailgate tent.

When Scott was a student at Florida, he was a member of the band as well as serving two years as all important drum major. Most of the friends I met were also in the band as well. When the band played Mahler's #3, it brought both of us to tears. I think I can attribute it to the fact that for both of us, our years in college were some of the best of our lives. It is rare in our adult lives to be apart of a group, working together towards a common goal and having fun at the same time. I don't think one experiences that in the corporate world, and as a teacher you sometimes can have that but never to the extent as one had on a team or with a group back in college.

At 730PM, we finally walked over to the stadium to watch the game. Here are some images...

Scott M. and one of his best friends Scott S.

The Florida Gators Marching Band during pregame festivities

We made it, baby!! We're at "The Swamp"

The Gators huddled on the "F" just before kickoff

We spent most of the game on our feet but I was particularly impressed by the amount of noise 90,176 people (the most ever to watch a game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) could make. More than once the Tennessee quarterback (coach Philip Fulmer switched between two quarterbacks the entire game, that in and of itself was quite an event) was seen running up to his players trying to audible or the like. The place was a zoo. The best part of the game for me was watching the ball-breaking double reverse touchdown run that Florida executed in the first quarter at our end of the field, the north endzone. It happened right in front of our eyes.

Overall, I think that Urban Meyer revealed enough of his offense to beat Tennessee and nothing more. I'm guessing that there is much more up that sleeve of his and he'll pull it out when he needs to. The offense is still getting itself up to fighting condition. However, defense and special teams are already there. Hold on to your hats people, it's going to be a wild ride in the SEC this year. Florida plays at Alabama, at LSU, Georgia and Florida State this year and all are ranked in the top 25. Lastly, at this point, they are looking up in the standings at, of all unlikely teams, Vanderbilt. This year Vandy makes a trip to "the Swamp" and the game becomes a surprising game of importance. Go Gators.