First, the set-up. I got to Gainesville on Friday night, looking forward to an awesome three day weekend. Cherrie and I met up with Ed at Gator Nights, where we ran into Ray and Jenn, and we all went to make some leis in preparation for the season opener against Hawaii. After my failed attempt at making a lei (Cherrie's was much better), we waited in the ridiculously long line to see the very awesome Iron Man film. I'll probably catch a lot of flak for this, but I actually enjoyed this film more than I did Dark Knight. I think it was Tony Stark's personality that really made it awesome for me. I don't want to spoil anything though, so I'll leave it up to you to see what I mean yourself!The plan for Saturday morning was to get up early so we would be able to park near the library before the game, then walk to the stadium from there about an hour or so before the game. However, since we were up till almost 3AM watching Iron Man, that didn't really happen. We headed out to campus at about 9:30 instead, and already, traffic was packed on University Avenue. After considerable circling, I decided to do what I always did back in the days when I went to school here - park on the lawn behind the Engineering building. Ed met up with us there, and we walked over to the Reitz union to grab some food before heading to the stadium to pick up our tickets from the Engineering block representative.
Unfortunately, we were supposed to go to Gate 3 of the O'Connell Center (UF's basketball dome), not Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, to pick up our tickets. Gate 3 is also arguably the most inaccessible gate of the O'Connell Center. After circling the entire dome, we finally arrived at Gate 3... but no one was there! After about 30 minutes, it started raining! Finally, with only about 10 minutes left before kickoff, the Engineering block representative showed up and gave us our tickets, and we rushed back to the stadium only to find that our seats were just one row from the top! Fortunately, the seats were relatively centered in the field - plus, if you've ever been to a football game, the players always look huge on the field, regardless of how far you are sitting.
After the disheartening loss to Michigan in January's Capital One bowl, it feels pretty good to come back and beat the snot out of last year's loser in the Sugar Bowl, the Hawaii Warriors. Without their run-and-shoot guru of a coach in June Jones and NCAA record smashing gunslinger Colt Brennan, Hawaii was reduced to little better than your typical directional school as the Gators routed them 56-10, scoring 8 touchdowns in about 30 minutes of game time, in every way imaginable, before the second and third string teams went in and allowed Hawaii some dignity.
After a slow (and swelteringly hot) first quarter, despite not having Percy Harvin, who was out with a heel injury, Brandon Spikes, Cornelius Ingram (out for the season with an ACL injury), and other tight end Aaron Hernandez, Tim Tebow commanded a formidable spread attack throwing for one touchdown, and letting his team do the rest. UF scored two touchdowns on interception returns, one by hard-hitting Major Wright and another that went 80 yards by Ahmad Black. Brandon James scored on a 1-yard run and on a 74-yard punt return that bounced some 15 yards in front of him before he fielded it. Chris Rainey struck from 33 yards out, Jeff Demps, the fastest high school athlete in U.S. history, scored on a 60+ yard run, and backup Cameron Newton punched one in as well. Tebow's single passing touchdown came on a 40+ yard pass to Louis Murphy, and didn't have to do much more after that.With Miami on the horizon next week, it would be awesome to see a similar performance - with the shellacking we took in 2004s Peach bowl and the horrific waste of a 20+ point lead in 2003, not to mention that we haven't won against Miami since 1985, I'm really looking forward to a great game and season!
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