Buddy Martin Blog: Digging Deep For Some Sign As I Head To Gainesville For Billy Napier’s Baptismal.
Updated: Sep 2, 2022
This will be the 1,121st kickoff of a Gator football game. Seven-hundred-fifty-one of them were victories, 431 losses and 40 were ties. In my time as a Florida follower, fan, and journalist, I cannot recall a more highly anticipated opening game than the one we’re about to witness against favored Utah.
By BUDDY MARTIN
GatorBaitMedia.com Editor
The new sheriff has arrived just in time and, with the star pinned to his chest glistening brightly in the waning September sun, Billy Napier is about to be fully baptized in The Swamp. At a few ticks past 7 p.m. Saturday night, he’ll officially become a Florida Gator. A boy from Old Florida. He belongs to us now.
It feels brand new. Napier seems to be a genuine deal, chosen by destiny. Head Gator. There have only been 28 before him, and five of those were-place-holding interims. The very first Head Gator more than a century ago was Pee Wee Forsythe – yes, Pee Wee -- at a place called The Ball Park near downtown Gainesville.
This will be the 1,121st kickoff of a Gator football game. Seventy-hundred-fifty-one of them were victories, 431 losses and 40 were ties. In my time as a Florida follower, fan, and journalist, I cannot recall a more highly anticipated opening game than the one we’re about to witness against favored Utah. It represents more than just the start of a season. It’s a new beginning. About change. About hope.
This moment for Napier has been 43 years in the making and it represents the culmination of a big dream. You wonder what thoughts and emotions will flow through his heart, mind and body right before kickoff, which is when he says he’ll “probably take it all in.” One, for sure, will be that of his dad, the late Bill Napier, for 16 years the no-nonsense coach at Murray County High in Dalton, GA.
“All right, guys. The hays in the barn, so to speak,” Napier said before his final presser of the week, reaching back for that old, time-honored coach’s cliché which signals that just about all the prep is done. He did admit there were mental gymnastics ahead and he believes in the mantra “you keep studying for the test right up until the test.”
What a test! The only opening game that comes to mind for Florida even resembling the challenge against No. 7 Utah was 1969’s upset of Houston (Playboy ranked #1) in which Florida upset the favored Cougars 59-34 after the famed John Reaves-to-Carlos Alvarez TD bomb on the game’s third play.
There’s a conversation going on about “firsts” in the Napier era. Some of our readers-viewers-listeners have suggested that Napier pay homage to Steve Spurrier by calling one of his ball plays to start off the game.
There’s another new face in the broadcast booth, Sean Kelley, along with color analyst Shane Matthews, who filled in a few times last year for Lee McGriff. I got to wondering what Kelley’s first words might be as he replaces Mick Hubert. So I texted him the following:
“If I were going to Vegas to gamble on the first 2-3 words you’ll utter on air Saturday, which wud be the favorite?
1. “Hello Gator Nation …” 2. “I’m Sean Kelley…” 3. “Hi everybody …” 4. None of the above. 5. I have no clue.
He texted back: “Have not given that much thought yet. Ha-ha!”
How about: “The hay’s in the barn!”?
In my conversation with highly regarded handicapper Danny Sheridan this week, he noted that this game could make the Utes’ season. He predicted that a victory would vault them into the potential Final Four stratosphere after beating an SEC team on the road in a notoriously difficult environment like The Swamp. He noted that there were very few tough opponents on their schedule beyond possibly USC and Oregon. And by the way, unofficially he’s taking Utah and laying the points, but won’t gamble on that game.
For Florida, this re-boot is a bit of a reset, with Napier’s massive “army” taking over the last nine months and elevating the care-and-feeding of an athletic team to a new heights for success. His meticulous preparation and micro-management of each minute would seemingly qualify him as a good candidate for Stephen R. Covey’s updating of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change.”
The key word here being “success.” Let’s see how much of that he will muster.
Gator football, we hardly know ye anymore. But, oh what a glorious feeling to be going to Florida Field again — AKA Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, AKA Steve Spurrier Field. Same hallowed ground since 1930 when the new stadium held 22,000.
I started watching Florida football when I was 13. Although I couldn’t begin to count my trips to Gainesville I’ve made since I first went there in the early 1950s (it’s probably over 200). I do remember sitting there in awe of Rick Casares kicking field goals in pre-game warmups that I swear were flying over the small Coca-Cola sign atop the fence in the north end zone all the way to Ichetucknee Springs.
On Saturday, my son Brenden and cohort/friend Chris Spears will mosey up the highway north from Ocala about mid-afternoon toward our respective media assignments at Steve Spurrier-Florida Field. No matter how many times we cruise up US441/US301, there’s always a buzz in the air and a tingle of expectation.
Each time I trek from Ocala to Gainesville, I feel blessed. Nature’s landscape evolves over football season, from the shimmering green pastures of late summer to late fall, and the colors, alone, are breathtaking, morphing to muted browns and tans. It even smells different from August to December.
The pathways and corridors have changed a bit. Now there’s an interstate. Back then you had to drive through — not around — Micanopy and dodge the giant oak on the dead man’s curve, which some UF students tragically could not navigate.
The pace of traffic has quickened. Forty years ago, the Lions -- or some civic club -- sold boxed lunches of fried chicken on roadside in McIntosh. You could pull off, pick up a couple of boxes, make change and be back on the road in a couple of minutes.
And that was even before north-bound Gator fans could pluck their delicacies from Charles Seiler’s boiled
(and roasted) peanuts in North Ocala. My late sister Shirley and I often stopped at Charlie’s place and loaded up. Shirley was such a popular customer that they kept her “hall of fame” photo under glass. I may stop for a bag of boiled on Saturday just for old time's sake.
Back to the realities of 2022. This week we had to lay down our picks. Originally on Tuesday with my GatorBait team, I picked the Gators to lose to Utah on a missed field goal, 31-28. I said if the number in Vegas was 7.5 I couldn’t go “over.”
However, since being coached up by Sheridan – and saying I reserved the right to change my mind – I have a different view. Of course, it sounds like a homer pick. But I remembered two things:
1) The best team doesn’t always win.
2) I believe in magic and have seen it before in The Swamp.
I say the Gators make that field goal, go on to victory, 37-34, and win eight games in Billy Napier’s first season. There, I said it.
Buddy-you do good for a new guy. my first game was in 1946-I think-not sure of anything any more. It was against Vanderbilt at what was the Gator Bowl in Jax. Yea we lost-Dang
It's going to be exciting watching from Kenai Alaska, Buddy. Its great to be a Gator Bait Gator!
Thanks Buddy. Been making that same trek for years and years and will do also again Saturday. Always stop at Seiler’s for the boiled peanuts.
As a youth growing up in Tampa, in the early 60’s, my dad would always stop at the Brahman for dinner after the games. Long before I-75 was around! Go Gators!
Buddy, you have been and still are the best! Rut