The passing of one of our greatest Gators ever reminded me of a thread we had many years ago on this same topic. Since then, we've had three different head coaches, another national title, and some um....not so great years, so maybe now is the time to reflect on the past a little (and cheer up since so many seem to be in the doldrums). Try to explain your picks if you can.
Here's mine:
-Ray Graves: brought us a decade of success that we had never seen before. Brought us Spurrier and our first Heisman. Became the first of only two coaches to beat Bear Bryant in Tuscaloosa (promoting Bear to accurately speculate that we were a sleeping giant just waiting for the right coach). Granted, his level of success today would be considered unacceptable by our standards today, but he actually helped create the groundwork for the standards.
-Steve Spurrier: not much exposition is needed here. The man is the greatest Gator to ever live and the day he retires from coaching and can come back home will be a great day for all of us.
-Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow: they both represented greatness and did so the right way. Between the two of them, we have 3 national titles, 6 SEC titles, many awards including Two Heismans as well as ending their careers as record holders in several categories. Not to mention of the 5 one loss seasons in the modern history of our school, they are responsible for each one.
My alternates would be Charlie Pell and Urban Meyer, both fall of my list due to the way they left, but both brought us out of the depths of bad coaches (Dickey and Zook) and both continued the work of the greats (Graves and Spurrier).
My honorae mention is Galen Hall because I've always felt he got a raw deal (I understand why) but he was a good man, a good coach, and did the best he could with the devestating sanctions around him. I don't know a Gator who doesn't feel at least somewhat similar to that. (That said....his firing DID get us Spurrier....soooo....)
Here's mine:
-Ray Graves: brought us a decade of success that we had never seen before. Brought us Spurrier and our first Heisman. Became the first of only two coaches to beat Bear Bryant in Tuscaloosa (promoting Bear to accurately speculate that we were a sleeping giant just waiting for the right coach). Granted, his level of success today would be considered unacceptable by our standards today, but he actually helped create the groundwork for the standards.
-Steve Spurrier: not much exposition is needed here. The man is the greatest Gator to ever live and the day he retires from coaching and can come back home will be a great day for all of us.
-Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow: they both represented greatness and did so the right way. Between the two of them, we have 3 national titles, 6 SEC titles, many awards including Two Heismans as well as ending their careers as record holders in several categories. Not to mention of the 5 one loss seasons in the modern history of our school, they are responsible for each one.
My alternates would be Charlie Pell and Urban Meyer, both fall of my list due to the way they left, but both brought us out of the depths of bad coaches (Dickey and Zook) and both continued the work of the greats (Graves and Spurrier).
My honorae mention is Galen Hall because I've always felt he got a raw deal (I understand why) but he was a good man, a good coach, and did the best he could with the devestating sanctions around him. I don't know a Gator who doesn't feel at least somewhat similar to that. (That said....his firing DID get us Spurrier....soooo....)
