I remember when Steve Spurrier announced he was resigning from the University of Florida. I was sitting at work, pretending to get something accomplished, when a friend (a Florida State grad) called and asked if I had heard the news. The Ol’ Ball Coach was gone.
As a Florida alum, Spurrier was all I had ever known. When I first arrived on campus, Emmitt Smith was still our running back and Galen Hall was still our coach (yes, I’m that old), but it was Spurrier who instantly stepped in and redefined our football program. He immediately turned things upside down in Gainesville, owning the Southeastern Conference and winning a national championship in 1996. Yet suddenly, our decade of dominance was over. How could he ever be replaced?
This Saturday, I got a similar call, this time in the form of a text. It came from Webmaster Eddie Griffin, ironically another Seminole fan. His text read simply “Have you heard?”
