Autumn Spectacle: Trip Captain at Florida

"Gator Bait!" (Continued)

beneath the south goal posts, as the stadium rocked.

With the crowd in a frenzy, they kicked it off. The Vols received and returned to their 18.

As they set up for their first play, the sound in The Swamp rose to an ear-piercing screech, which shook the structure to its core. Cap’s eardrums cried for mercy prior to the snap, as a UT pass fell incomplete, and when the Gators sacked the Vol QB on third down. And so it was throughout the contest – when Tennessee was attempting to run a play or when Florida made a play, the sound would rise to a deafening roar, but would subside when the Gator QB called signals.

The teams battled on even terms until junior WR Andre Caldwell put Florida out front with an 18 yard TD run on a reverse, with 4:14 left in the first quarter. The Vols answered on an 8 yard scoring pass from soph QB Erik Ainge to junior WR Bret Smith, with 9:29 left in the second quarter, 7-7 at the half.

Throughout the contest, the students in the north end and the east corner continually led “the chomp.” Depicting the jaws of a gator, with hands extended straight out in a chomping motion, several versions – slow, then getting faster; opening slow, then snapping shut to “Gaaaaaaator BAIT!,” and chants: “go Gators, get ‘em Gators, go, go, get ‘em, get ‘em Gators!” “let’s go Gators, let’s go Gators,” and with the band: “GIMME A G-A-T-O-R-S GO GATORS!” The crowd was continually hooked up, team members all the way.

At halftime, Cap fled to the concession, seeking relief from the relentess heat and humidity. An ice cream and Pepsi did the trick, and when he returned to his seat, the evening air was cooling and he found new energy in the darkness.

The Gators added two field goals in the third quarter, by junior Chris Hetland. The first a 38 yarder following a fumble recovery by junior Tremaine McCollum, and a second one from 35 yards, 13-7 Florida. At the end of the third quarter, the crowd all stood, joined arms and swayed as one to “We Are The Boys”:

“We are the boys from old Florida, F-L-O-R-I-D-A…
Where the girls are the fairest, the boys are the squarest
of any old state down our way…
We are all strong for old Florida,
down where the old Gators play…
In all kinds of weather,
we’ll all stick togetherrrrr…for F-L-O-R-I-D-A"

Florida put it away in the final stanza with a 16-play drive to a third Hetland field goal, as their fans chanted: “It’s great, to be, a Florida Gator,” “I say it’s great, to be, a Florida Gator”…, over and over - final,16-7, Gators.

At the final gun, the Florida players went to the northwest corner, where they raised their helmets toward the band and students as the band played and the Gator Faithful sang the UF Alma Mater, ending… “’Neath the Orange and Blue victorious our love shall never fail…There’s no other name so glorious…All hail, Florida, hail.”

Urban Meyer waved to the adulation of the crowd as he walked the length of the field, and Chris Leak stayed to gratefully acknowledge the support of the Gator Nation.

The huge crowd had stayed in Ben Hill Griffin to the end, for the postgame celebration, and emptying the stadium was a slow process. The throng moved at a snail’s pace, en masse, and as they inched along underneath, reverberating chants started, grew, ended and started again, “It’s great, to be, a Florida Gator, I say it’s great to be a Florida Gator”…and “SEC! SEC! SEC!…”

The crowd spilled into the night, and Cap headed north toward his car. He passed celebrating Gator fans, everywhere – just getting started – as he walked. It was going to be a wild night in Gainesville.

He drove slowly, bumper-to-bumper, in the neighborhood, through a continuous flow of walking fans, past happy revelers in the yards, and out onto University Ave. Then joining the traffic west to the Shell station on west Newberry, where he filled his tank, and rolled onto I-75, north.

Rearview Mirror
As he cruised through the night, searching for scores on the radio, Cap looked back on gameday at Florida. University Ave., Century Tower, The HUB, the J. Wayne Reitz Union, “The Brew,” Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – “The Swamp,” Gator Walk, The Fightin’ Gator Marching Band, Mr. Two Bits, Al and Alberta, The Orange and the Blue, “We Are The Boys,” the chants, UF Alma Mater and “The Chomp.” Gator football is Old South passion and SEC intensity – a contagious fever of unbridled enthusiasm. Cap knew he had to go back to “where the old Gators play.”

"Gator Bait!"
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“This is the beauty of college football. Passion and petulance is so pervasive, one loss could be devastating."
- Matt Hayes,
The Sporting News