by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
GAINESVILLE — It is football season. For some of you, that means the Jacksonville Jaguars. But for most of you, and particularly those who have spent a decade or more in Jacksonville, that means the University of Florida.
You have to reach way up into the family trees to realize the depth of this feeling. Youngsters grew up hearing about the Gators. Many went to the school; even those who went elsewhere as undergraduates came here for law school or graduate work.
Tickets have been handed down for generations. If you go between the 40-yard lines on the west side of the stadium, you can meet people who will tell you that their great-grandfather once sat in these exact seats.
For many years, there was nothing but Florida. South Georgia was undeveloped, so there were few Georgia fans in the vicinity. Florida State wasn’t far removed from being a girls’ school. Professional football was something played up North.
It was the Florida Gators. Nothing else mattered to many. And, if you reach into the big downtown buildings into the prestigious firms, you’ll find it the same: nothing else matters.
There is only one topic: how will be Gators do this year? And there is an ever present subtopic: will Coach Ron Zook keep his job?
The stadium
Fifty million dollars worth of building loom above the Gator bench at Florida Field. It is imposing but it is the contents that matter, because in that building sit the many men and the few women who can influence the future of the University of Florida’s football coach.
They are the people who will pay off that $50 million bond through gifts and ticket purchases, and they have a common interest: a football team that conquers all, or at least almost all.
The giant West stands building is the latest addition to the giant, cobbled-together-over-the-years stadium that hulks in the middle of the campus. The addition is enormous, stretching from one end of the field to the other. When you walk into the stadium Aug. 30, you will stop and stare; words can’t prepare you for its size.
Think of the skyboxes at Alltel Stadium, the ones in a row between the lower bowl and the upper deck. Now, make that row twice as high. Then, stack two more decks on top. That’s what you’ll see in Gainesville.
Remember when you saw the 10-story Touchdown Terrace in the North end zone for the first time, back at the start of the 1991 season? The West stands now reach up 14 stories.
The new enclosure holds 5,500 people. Think of that. More people will be there on Aug. 30 than are working right now in the Bank of America tower and Independent Square put together.
You will also be in awe of the crowd. For the opener against San Jose State, there will be over 90,000 people in the stands. If you exclude auto racing, it will be the largest sports crowd in any Southern state ever except Tennessee, where the university’s stadium seats over 106,000.
But, for the team’s coaches, the ones who really matter are sitting behind the glass, high above the field.
They are the Bull Gators, who donate at least $12,000 a year — plus buy premium-priced tickets — to be allowed within the courts of judgment.
Many go much farther than the donation. All but two of the 62 skyboxes have sold (a 20-seater is $48,000 plus tickets.) Only 200 of the 3,000 Champions Club seats remain.
“We didn’t do much marketing,” said Greg McGarity, the associate athletic director who has overseen the project. “Just mailings, announcements at meetings. We’re way above what we budgeted in sales.”
What you will see Aug. 30 is the largest crowd ever to see a football game in Florida. These people, however, are not just there to see and be seen. They expect a good product on the field.
Eight wins and five losses, like last year, is not acceptable.
The coach
Former Jacksonville Journal columnist Rex Edmondson once wrote:
“A perfect season for a Florida Gator fan would be to win the Southeastern Conference, beat Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl and fire the coach.”
The back of the neck those people will be staring at when the season opens Aug. 30 belongs to Ron Zook, a fellow who seems to be hyperactive to the point of being near-crazed. A career assistant coach, he took a chance last year and accepted the offer to follow the legend of Steve Spurrier (Zook was at least third in line; two others are known to have declined the opportunity.)
Zook is upbeat, even though a website named fireronzook.com counts down the days until his contract expires (493, as of today.)
“Sometimes you learn a lot more and work a lot harder when your back’s up against the wall,” he said.“There is no doubt in our minds that this program is going in the right direction.”
He seems to be a decent guy. He’s well-liked by people who know him, though not many get close. He tries to be liked; he has a distrust for sportswriters he doesn’t know, and he’s sought advice on how to overcome that . . . advice from sportswriters he trusts.
He knows what lies ahead.
“We have a tough schedule and a young team,” he said. “But no one cares. It is what it is.” He doesn’t mention the lousy recruiting job by Spurrier and his staff.
“Like I told the freshmen, you got to keep chopping wood. Good things will happen.”
Last year
Some things worked out properly, and acceptably, in 2002 — for instance, the team beat hated rivals Tennessee and Georgia. But it still ended 8-5 with embarrassing losses at season’s end to Florida State and Michigan.
Ingle Martin remembers well. He was a backup quarterback last year, and he will probably start the opening game — and possibly finish the season — as the starter this year.
“Spurrier put Florida on the map for the last decade plus and people expect a lot,” he said. “But we really didn’t fall that far. A couple of games in mid-season when we went down, but overall last year was close. Just one tipped pass and we would have been in the SEC championship game.”
It is a very sore point. Georgia threw a fourth-down touchdown on its final play to beat Auburn. If the pass failed, Florida would have won the SEC East.
“We finished second,” said Martin. “But second is like dead last. To me, it’s the same frigging thing.
“We should have done better. I think we’re all pretty disgusted with what happened last year.”
The expectations
This year, it could be worse, but Zook may get a break from another of Spurrier’s legacies: his disdain for recruiting.
“Spurrier left him with nothing,” says Del Conley, a Jacksonville stockbroker whose Orange and Blue roots go back over 50 years. “Zook has to have a chance.”
But others think otherwise.
“Four wins,” says a Jacksonville attorney. “Then he’s gone and we get Stoops.” That is a popular choice; former Florida assistant coach — and Spurrier disciple — Bob Stoops is head coach at the nation’s top-ranked team, Oklahoma.
“I had ‘em at 6-6 in the spring,” said longtime journalist Jack Hairston, who once was sports editor of the now-gone Jacksonville Journal and now publishes a newsletter about the Gators. “Now that I’ve seen these freshman, I might go higher. Maybe 8 or 9 wins.”
Hairston is an expert who bases his prediction on almost 50 years of watching football at Florida Field. (There were 40,000 seats when he first saw a game there.) If he’s uncertain, what about the boys in the downtown offices?
For them, the Gators are the year-round subject and, as the season gets close, the every-minute subject. The Jaguars may be the darlings of the politicians and the media, but the Gators live in the city’s soul.
Always have been and probably always will be.