[gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] Dooley's Dozen: 12 worst divorces in Florida football history
Surprised Cam Newton is not on this list.
Helen
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 11, 2024, at 1:36 PM, Shane Ford <goufgators01@gmail.com> wrote:
-- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorNews" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gatornews+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gatornews/5FC54410-F3DE-4AEF-BB26-C9DB6574C38C%40gmail.com.
So, if I do this list again in two or three years, it could have six or seven new names on it. At least.
Players come and players go, and we are all rooting for laundry. But sometimes, the split is less than amicable.
And sometimes it gets repaired.
That's why I had a difficult time with Emmitt Smith. He left Florida early, which was fine. Then, he told the media in Dallas he was more of a Seminole and Hurricane fan than a Gator.
Then, he was back in the fold and the Ring of Honor. Now, he's mad at Florida again for, well, this column is not about the politics of this state.
Anyway, let's get to the latest Dooley's Dozen, the 12 worst divorces for Gator football.
Brock Berlin
-- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorNews" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gatornews+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gatornews/5FC54410-F3DE-4AEF-BB26-C9DB6574C38C%40gmail.com.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Man, what a big deal it was when Spurrier signed him. I even have a picture of my infant daughter being held by Rex Grossman and Berlin (it was my wife's idea). He was the top recruit in the nation.
But Grossman was just better and Berlin transferred to Miami. There, he beat the Gators in an epic comeback at the Orange Bowl in the second game of the season in 2003. After a Miami touchdown, he did the Gator chomp/throat slash.
Then, he beat Florida in the Peach Bowl, although that was more about Florida's coaching staff lying down than anything.
Trevor Etienne
Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun
This is complicated, like most divorces. Schools were after Etienne after his freshman year to jump in the portal, but he came back. Everybody loved him.
But the money was too good to not transfer to Georgia.
That is one bitter pill.
It got worse when he said on a podcast, "I could either be RB2 on a losing team or go somewhere and possibly be RB1 and win a natty."
He's not wrong.
But he had better be happy Brandon Spikes doesn't have any more eligibility.
Charley Pell
-- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorNews" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gatornews+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gatornews/5FC54410-F3DE-4AEF-BB26-C9DB6574C38C%40gmail.com.
Scott Halleran /Allsport
Nobody did more to build the infrastructure of Florida football than Pell. He started Gator Boosters, organized Gator Clubs around the state and forced his coaches to attend them and improved every aspect of the stadium from the weight room to the south end zone expansion.
Pell coached in some of the biggest wins in Gator history in the early 1980s.
But you know what happens when you cheat. You get a divorce. Especially if it happens multiple times.
Emory Jones
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
He was going to be the next great quarterback at Florida, Dan Mullen's first recruit. And when Kyle Trask was finished, he was anointed.
But Jones knew that everybody wanted Anthony Richardson in there and when Mullen was canned and Billy Napier was named coach, Jones jumped into the portal.
He ended up at Arizona State, then transferred again to Cincinnati.
His record as a starting college quarterback was 9-15. Just thought I'd point that out. Maybe I'm the one who is bitter.
Terry Dean
USA TODAY Sports
Let me start this out by saying that Spurrier and Dean have patched things up and are friends today.
But back in 1994, whew.
Dean, the quarterback for the nation's No. 1 team, was not only benched for Danny Wuerffel, but he was also ostracized from the team.
I'll never forget Dean standing in his locker area after the game telling the media that Spurrier had told him he would get pulled if he didn't play well.
We never got into the locker room again. And that was it for Dean, who had been recording his thoughts and actually turned it into a book detailing the pain of that season.
Urban Meyer
Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
You knew this one was coming. The Meyer split from Florida was so weird it was almost comical. He resigned, then came back, then resigned again.
Meyer told me on "Another Dooley Noted Podcast" that he regretted everything about the way he left Florida. But the bitterness was not as much that he and Florida divorced as much as it was that he remarried so quickly.
There are still people to this day who are convinced that Meyer planned to go to Ohio State all along.
I think the Gator Nation, which for a long time was split on Meyer, has softened enough to put him in the Ring of Honor.
Will Grier
Ed Zurga/Getty Images
Some quarterbacks leave because they don't get enough playing time. Some don't like the coaches.
And then there was Grier.
That solemn press conference when it was announced he was suspended for a year for taking a banned substance was mind-numbing. Florida was 6-0. How could he do something like that?
It didn't get any better during the offseason when Jim McElwain and a meeting with Grier and his father and let them know he wasn't in Florida's plans.
The whole thing was weird.
Antonio Callaway
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
This was not a bitter divorce. It was just a sad one.
Callaway was one of the best receivers and returners to ever play for Florida. I still get chills thinking about the 2015 Tennessee game.
But he couldn't stay out of trouble. The end came when he was suspended for the 2017 season and declared for the draft.
Unfortunately, his issues followed him to the NFL. He only played in 25 games, one more than he played in at Florida.
Darren Hambrick
Brian Bahr/Allsport
It is never good when a relationship ends in violence. That was the case with one of the best athletes to play in the history of the program.
You probably know the story of Hambrick going after a teammate at a team dinner in the Superdome. He disfigured Anthony Riggins with broken glass after an argument over a card game on the team bus.
Spurrier kicked him off the team, obviously, and Hambrick went to South Carolina and played against the Gators.
Good player. Bad dude.
Jeff Driskel
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Driskel was the quarterback of a team that went 11-2 and still is considered one of the most vilified quarterbacks at Florida.
Maybe it was the early ESPN piece about how he was the next Tim Tebow. Maybe it was the bad turnovers in a crushing loss to Miami in 2013.
But when he broke his fibula against Tennessee, that season went south fast. Still, when he returned, he was hampered by a bad offensive plan and fans wanted Treon Harris. (They got him and then he got suspended.)
After playing in the Birmingham Bowl, he transferred to Louisiana Tech and threw for 4,000 yards and is still in the NFL.
So, he got the house in this divorce.
Dan Mullen
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Where do we start with Dapper Dan? The implosion was not like anything I have ever seen, from being this close to a playoff berth in the COVID season to getting fired before the next season was even finished.
But the real bitterness is in the aftermath.
Not only did Mullen leave a roster with massive talent craters behind that Napier is trying to clean up, but Gator fans have to see him on TV all the time.
It's like a Housewives episode.
Aubrey Hill
Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
This was a tough one because Hill, an excellent wide receiver at Florida, was so happy to be back at his alma mater. In fact, he came here to coach with Muschamp on Christmas Eve of 2010, leaving Miami behind.
But when his name came up in the Miami recruiting scandal, Florida was quick to act and let him go right before the 2012 season. He also received a show cause for two years from the NCAA.
I talked to Aubrey several times in Gainesville after it all went down. The whole thing broke his heart. He passed away after a quiet battle with cancer in 2020.
Sent from Shane's iPhone
Go Gators!
-- -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorNews" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gatornews+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gatornews/5FC54410-F3DE-4AEF-BB26-C9DB6574C38C%40gmail.com.
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