Re: The Hurricanes

July 22, 2008

Mr. Urban Meyer
Head Football Coach
The University of Florida
C/O University Athletic Association

P.O. Box 14485

Gainesville, FL 32604

Dear Coach Meyer,

I am writing you this note so that you can consider something as you prepare for the 2008 season. As you know, Florida has many great rivalries including the ones against fellow SEC schools and, of course, Florida State. The Gators have had significant success against many of these schools, especially recently. One school we haven’t had any success against in more than 20 years is the University of Miami.

The second Gator game I ever attended, back when I was a UF freshman in 1987, was against Miami, in the Orange Bowl. We lost. Then UF didn’t play Miami again until January of 2001, in a bowl game. We lost that one as well. The Gators, coached by your predecessor, played Miami in 2002. Our former coach later recounted to an A.P. reporter named Eddie Pells that as he watched the Hurricanes come out of the tunnel and he told the person next to him “Fellas, in three years, we're going to look like that.” Needless to say with a coach worrying about the 2005 Gators, the 2002 Gators lost that home game in embarrassing fashion. The following year in the Orange Bowl, the Gators squandered a 23-point lead with 21 minutes to play. We lost by five. And finally, the last Gator game before you took over as Head Coach was a 27-10 Peach Bowl pasting at the hands of Miami.

You can’t underestimate how important the September 6th game against Miami is to the tens of thousands of Florida alumni and students from the south Florida area. Miami is rightly recognized as being one of the top football programs of the last quarter century and their fans never let us forget it. Additionally, there’s been bad blood between these two schools ever since the infamous “Gator Flop” of 1971. If you’re not familiar with this chapter of gator lore, I urge you to find out about it.

The last time the Gators beat the Hurricanes in football was on September 7th 1985. On September 7th 2008, I want to wake up in Gainesville with a terrible winner’s hangover.

Coach, in closing, I’d just like to urge you, your coaches and the players to give Miami the respect they deserve as an opponent that can ruin our season. Though their program has fallen on tough times recently, Miami is trying to reassert itself under coach Shannon and this will be Miami’s biggest game the year. Coach Shannon played on those Hurricanes teams that beat our Gators in 1986 and 1987 but he also played on the team that lost to UF in 1985. There’s no doubt he wants this game badly. Hopefully this letter will add a sense of urgency to the preparation for this game. Every game counts, of course, but in some games there’s more on the line than a simple W or L. Go Gators!

Sincerely


Henry Gomez