Gators and their fans whoop it after the stomping Ole Miss 38-10 last Oct. 3 at "The Swamp."
Looking Back: Ten Memorable Moments of Gators 2015-16
Friday, July 8, 2016 | Football, Chris Harry
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As is the case every year, there were plenty of instances to choose from.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Around these parts, the annual journey to Birmingham, Ala., and the preseason football hype that comes with SEC Media Days serves as a springboard into a new year of collegiate athletics.
And it all starts Monday.
But before launching into a new athletic season, let's take one more look back at the last one. Specifically, at 10 indelible moments that caused Gators everywhere to take notice.
UF athletic director Jeremy Foley at the news conference June 14, the day after his suprising announcement to retire, effective Oct. 1.
1) THE END OF AN A.D. ERA
The week began like any other as the fiscal year was set to wind down, but around 9:30 a.m. on Monday June 13, one of the most seismic developments in these parts over the last quarter-century shook UF athletics to its core when Athletic Director Jeremy Foley announced his retirement, effective Oct. 1. Foley, 63, just felt the time was right, with the overall program on the uptick. Only two days earlier, the men's track and field team had won the NCAA title, giving Foley 27 national championships on his watch, including three in football and two in men's basketball. In every season since Foley took over in March 1992, the Gators placed among the top 10 overall athletic programs in the country, won the Southeastern Conference's all-sports trophy all but one season and rated among best in the league at graduating athletes -- all the while never landing on NCAA probation in any sport. One of his last orders of business was finalizing the addition of a certain Gator icon's name to a certain campus edifice, as Steve Spurrier-Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin will be dedicated when the 2016 football season opens Sept. 3, a development so significant it could have made this list. Over the summer, Foley will serve as right-hand man to UF president Kent Fuchs and his search committee in finding a successor while finalizing a few items on his facilities wish list. After that, he'll remain one of the most passionate Gator fans for the rest of his life.
2) SWAMP GOES RETRO … TWICE IN 8 DAYS
On back-to-back Saturday nights, it felt like the old days, didn't it? When Will Grier found freshman wideout Antonio Callaway on what looked like a simple comeback route — albeit on fourth-and-14 — the Gators appeared to have a first down to keep a late-game drive alive. Instead, Callaway wheeled and outran the entire Tennessee defense for a 63-yard touchdown with 1:26 left that along with the extra point proved the difference in a pulsating 28-27 victory that conjured up visions of the way "The Swamp" used to be. A week later, No. 3 and unbeaten Ole Miss, with a road win at Alabama on its resume, came to town and got destroyed 38-10 in prime time behind four touchdown passes from Grier and a ferocious defensive performance. Even Coach Jim McElwain, in his first season, was in awe of the electric and magical atmosphere those two nights. His teams fed off the energy and provided a stark reminder — in case anyone had forgotten — just what this football program (and the house Spurrier named) was capable of.
Track coach Mike Holloway gets another Gatorade bath after getting another NCAA championship (his sixth), courtesy of his men's outdoor squad.
3) THE MOUSE TEAM THAT ROARED — AGAIN
Track and field coach Mike "Mouse" Holloway's sixth NCAA title may have been his most improbable. After placing seventh at the NCAA indoors competition in March and a disappointing sixth at the SEC meet in May (the program's worst finish since 1996), the Gators put it all together in Eugene, Ore., to run away with another crown. Senior Arman Hall won the 400 meters, juniors Eric Futch and TJ Holmes placed 1-2 in the 400 hurdles, while the team also got second-place points from triple-jumper KeAndre Bates. With those totals, UF needed only a sixth-place finish in the meet's final event, the 4x400 relay. Anchoring that race for the Gators was junior Najee Glass, who had been disqualified in the 400 earlier. Not only did he have something to prove, but Glass (like his race mates) ran with a purpose. That relay squad placed second and the celebration was on. UF became just the third program since 1992 to win the NCAA outdoor title after finishing outside the top five in the indoor meet.
4) BYE-BYE, BRIDGET Bridget Sloan was named 2015-16 SEC Female Athlete of the Year. Forgive us if we yawn. You see, Sloan just as easily could have been SEC Female Athlete of the Last Four Years, with super-starring on three straight national championship teams and capping her senior year with the All-Around individual title at the NCAA meet in Fort Worth, Texas. It was the second all-around crown for Sloan, now eight years removed from her silver medal as a member of Team USA at the 2008 Olympics in Bejing. To sum up, in her four UF years, Sloan was a six-time NCAA event champion and 16-time All-American. Oh, and on the final event of her career, the uneven bars, one judge gave her a 10. What a way to go out.
5) SMOKE ON THE WATER
Sophomore Caeleb Dressel took the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships by storm, winning both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events with record times -- 18.20 in the 50 and 40.46 in the 100 -- that set UF, SEC, NCAA, U.S. Open and American records. By the time the meet was over, Dressel had garnered seven All-America honors and was the NCAA Co-Male Swimmer of the Year after posting UF records in the 100 breaststroke, 100 fly and taking part in the 200 and 400 free relays, as well as the 200 and 400 medley relays. And, yes, you'll see him at the 2016 Olympics in Rio next month.
Maria Torres' personal-best 9-under gave her the program's first SEC women's golf champion in 13 years.
6) AVE MARIA
She was Coach Emily Glaser's first recruit and, perhaps fittingly, she became Glaser's first conference champion. The first UF women's women's golfer, in fact, to win an SEC individual crown in 13 years. Maria Torres, a junior from Puerto Rico, blossomed this season and showed impeccable timing with her maturation, carding the tournament of her collegiate career — a three-round tally of 9-under par at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. — to become just the seventh SEC medalist in program history; the first since Aimee Cho in 2003. She also helped the Gators to a second-place overall finish in the team standings, marking the squad's best since 2008.
7) AUSTIN & KEEGAN = DOUBLE TROUBLE
The No. 1-ranked women's tennis team was dealing with some massive disappointment after being ousted by rival Stanford in the round of 16 at the NCAA Championships. And it was only a matter of days before all the individual UF qualifiers were jacked from the singles draw. Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, however, refused to go quietly from the doubles competition. The nation's No. 3 duo, self-branded as "Fire & Ice" for their opposite on-court personalities, rolled throiugh the draw and made stunningly efficient 6-2, 6-0 work of a team from Cal in the finals to give the Gators their first women's doubles national championship since Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnoff in 2001.
8) SHELTON'S GUYS MAKE A STATEMENT
The road had been bumpy at times for Bryan Shelton since 2012 when he jumped from his secure post as a national-champion women's tennis coach at Georgia Tech to become men's coach at Florida. There was some disappointment (even underachievement) along the way. Then came that weekend in April when a bunch of guys who'd bought into the Shelton way finally were rewarded by playing their finest tennis of the season, winning the SEC Tournament title by upsetting No. 6 and regular-season champ Georgia in the finals. It was senior Gordon Watson, a freshman when Shelton arrived four years ago, who netted the match-clinching point in the 4-2 win and set off a celebration five years in the making — as in the last time (2011) UF won the league's tourney.
The last post-game news conference of the softball season was a tough one for Coach Tim Walton and catcher Aubree Munro.
9) NO. 1 ON THE DIAMONDS, BUT …
For the balance of their 2016 seasons, the Florida softball and baseball teams were ranked No. 1 in the nation, both playing marquee schedules in the toughest conference and positioning themselves for runs at national championships. In softball's case, a shot at a third straight; for baseball, that elusive first ever College World Series crown. Both clubs met crushing disappointments. Coach Tim Walton's softball team took a gut punch from hell when Georgia, trailing by a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh of a Game 2 Super Regional elimination game, hit a walk-off two-run homer off UF ace Aleshia Ocasio to end the season, as well as the careers of a quintet of battle-tested, championship ring-bearing seniors. The moment was positively numbing for the sold-out crowd at Pressly Stadium, as Florida became the first No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed ever swept in a Super at home and the first to fail to reach the WCWS in five years. Three weeks later, Coach Kevin O'Sullivan's baseball team, also the No. 1 overall NCAA seed and armed with nine players taken in the draft, was ousted from Omaha in just two games, including an opening-round defeat to Cinderella Coastal Carolina, which shocked the world by going on and winning the whole sha-bang.
10) WHITE, GATORS CATCH O'DOME FEVER VS MOUNTAINEERS
It had been 20 years since the UF men's basketball team played a game without Billy Donovan walking the sidelines. Mike White's first season produced 21 wins and a three-game run into the NIT, but the signature moment came Jan. 30 when ninth-ranked West Virginia and its top-rated defense in the nation came to the O'Connell for a high noon showdown as part of the made-for-TV SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Gators, who struggled with cockeyed shooting eyes the entire season, played off the energy of the sell-out crowd by making 53 percent from the floor, including 12-for-20 from the 3-point line (60 percent) and 24-for-31 from the free-throw line, in a smashing 88-71 blowout victory. Senior Dorian Finney-Smith, who broke up a mini-melee before the game when WVU invaded the Gators' space just before the national anthem, had 24 points and eight rebounds in the game.
Senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith plays to the Rowdy Reptiles (and a couple senior administrators on press row) after nailing a late 3-pointer in UF's blowout of No. 9 West Virginia.
HONORABLE MENTION
With host Texas ahead 7-6 in the fifth and decisive set, UF outside hitter Carli Snyder's kill shot landed — conservatively — a foot in bounds. Point Gators, right? Nope. The linesman ruled the ball was long and out of bounds, awarding the Longhorns with the rally point in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinal, with merely a Final Four berth in the balance. ESPN announcers replayed the sequence five times and were baffled by the call, so you can imagine how Mary Wise and her players felt. The call stood, however, the Longhorns went up 8-6, then 9-7, then 11-7 and, despite the Gators clawing back twice to tie, went on to win the match 17-15. Another spectacular Florida volleyball season ended just shy of the Final Four, but this cruel twist of fate left fans wondering why ... and what might have been. Note: This one was so egregious, we had to show it to you.
A couple newcomers, freshmen guards Eleanna Christinaki and Simone Westbrook, made mega-plays down the stretch to help the UF women erase a 15-point deficit against rival and No. 7 Florida State to beat the Seminoles 82-72 at the O'Dome.
Austin Hardin missed more field goals than he made for the Gators last season, but one he did make — an improbable 43-yarder with 2:22 to play against Vanderbilt — gave UF a teeth-gnashing 9-7 win that clinched the program's first SEC East Division title since 2009.
Soccer doubled up on the SEC, winning its 14th regular season title and its 11th league tournament title. The Gators, though, lost in NCAA Tournament third-round play at home to Duke 2-1.
Lacrosse did the double thing too, winning the Big East regular season and tourney championships and was the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, but a crushing second-round 14-13 overtime home loss to Penn State ended the club's season.
Freshman guard KeVaughn Allen scored 27 points, going 6-for-7 from the 3-point line on the road at Ole Miss, a stunning performance for a rookie playing just his third SEC road game.
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