A Letter to Gator Football

Dear Gator Football,

Four years ago I came to Gainesville to start my freshman year. To say it was not what I expected is an understatement. My freshman year on campus was plagued by COVID-19 related restrictions. Classes were online, bars and restaurants were closed and buildings required masks inside.

Attendance at sporting events was limited and masks also needed. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was a ghost town despite the fact that the team had two Heisman trophy finalists and won the SEC East. It was sad, but that hadn't stopped me from realizing I was living out a dream that I had long been waiting for.

I grew up in New York, almost as far away from SEC football as possible. My family members attended small schools in the Northeast with little to no school spirit. I grew up knowing exactly where I wanted to be: a football school.

My grandparents moved to Gainesville when I was young and since then we'd visit them and each time I would ask to go to campus. I loved walking into or past the stadium or poking my head into the O'Connell Center just to get a glimpse of what one day would be where I went to school. I was a Gator fan.

My brother and I posing for a photo in front of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Flash forward years down the line, I began to take visits to schools. What once was just my dream school became my actual first choice. I was in London, England when decision day came around. My family didn't know that was the day decisions were released, so I quietly returned to my room and there it was. I was accepted to the University of Florida.

It didn't take long before I decided to attend school in Gainesville and it was the best decision I ever made. Four years and 50 games later, it's all over.

Gator football has given me memories and opportunities that I will never forget.

From my first game in that empty Swamp, to my last in a crowd of 90,000+.

The view from my seat in the Gators' final game of the season against Florida State.

This past Saturday was surreal, emotional, overwhelming and disappointing all at once. I'd be lying if I said I was not frustrated and upset with the result. But I'd also be lying if I said I was disappointed in this team.

Since I arrived in Gainesville in 2020, I watched a team that appeared to be headed in the perfect direction almost collapse. I witnessed a locker room fall apart and a team's culture completely shift for the worse.

I witnessed the hiring of Billy Napier, someone that was not on anybody's radar to take the head coaching position.

I witnessed another culture shift, this time for the better.

I announced games in The Swamp, I announced an incredible comeback in South Carolina and I attended the Florida-Georgia game in the same press box that some of my idols were in.

I met Bradley Beal, Steve Spurrier and countless others.

I attended some of the best football games in recent memory. I could not hear myself think as I stood front row at the Alabama game a few years back. And I saw myself in a similar situation when Florida upset Utah to open the season a year ago.

I'll tell my kids about each one of these memories and I will die with these memories etched into my brain forever.

I would be remiss to not mention Gatorbait Media. So many of these opportunities came as a direct result of the chance that Buddy and Brenden gave me. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself asking the head coach of the Florida Gators questions at a press conference, or walking onto the field post game, or sitting in on a press conference with the starting quarterback of this great school.

To Buddy and Brenden, I cannot put into words how thankful I am for that opportunity.

It's sad to see my time as a student coming to an end, but I end my time with so much gratitude and even more great memories.

Over the course of the 50 games for which I was a student, the Gators went 25-25. I am confident in the direction this team is headed even if others are not.

And I'm confident that the Gators will once again rise to the top of the SEC and the top of the nation.

Sincerely,

Matt Quartararo