Gators ready to kick off 2002 under Zook
As the Florida Gators get set to kick off the 2002 season, there are a lot
of differences, as well as a lot of similarities to past seasons. The
ol' ball coach, Steve Spurrier is gone to the NFL. The Gators had never
even won the SEC championship until Spurrier arrived and began
dominating the conference. He won an average of 10 games a year over
his 12 year career, 1 National Championship in 1996, and 6 SEC titles.
He is replaced by Ron Zook. It will be very odd to not see a visor
being thrown around on the sideline this season, but Zook seems up to
the ultimate challenge...following a legend.
Despite the coaching change though, many things stay the same. Top
among those are the expectations. Even without Spurrier, expectations
are still running high, and nothing short of an SEC Championship and a
BCS Bowl will be considered a success. The Gators have a very tough
road ahead of them, facing defending national champ Miami in the Swamp
in the second game of the year, and later in the season road games at
perennial top 10's Tennessee and FSU. They also host LSU and Auburn,
travel to Mississippi and face Georgia in Jacksonville. But as usual,
the Gators are up to the challenge and have the talent to reach those
high expectations.
The Gators return junior QB Rex Grossman, the first time UF has had the
leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy since 1996 when Danny Wuerffel
took home the award and a national championship. Also returning is star
RB Earnest Graham. The Gators were 10-0 with Graham in the lineup last
year and 0-2 without him. Their WR core is as talented as ever if
young. Taylor Jacobs, Orange Bowl MVP, is the lone returning starter,
but the Gators have a host of young talented receivers poised for
breakout years such as Jacobs had last year and Jabar Gaffney in 2000.
With Zook being a defensive coach, the Gator D should be very strong
this year, but have no worries about any end to the fun 'n gun offense
either. Zook will let offensive coordinator Ed Zaunbrecher run the
offense. Zaunbrecher coached Byron Leftwich and Marshall last year in
the same style of high octane offense the Gators always had under
Spurrier.
The Gators come into the season only ranked #7, their worst preseason
ranking in years. This is almost completely due to the change in
coaches. This may actually help UF though as for once they're not the
overwhelming favorite that every team gears up for every week. And we
might just find out that 2 Z's can be turned into a lot of W's. The
test will come September 7th against Miami, the first regular season
meeting between the in-state rivals in almost 20 years. That game has
been targeted as Ron Zook's funeral if the Gators don't play well, but
it may just be his coming out party instead...and a strong warning to
the SEC and the rest of the nation that the Gators are still at the top
as always and are looking to once again take their place as SEC
Champions. Despite the loss of Spurrier, that's exactly where the
Gators expect to be in December...what other team actually lists their
conference's championship game as a regular game on their schedule every year?
MyGatorWorld.com
ESPN.com: College Football
