This is the third year of the Student Mr. Two Bits contest.
Student Mr. Two Bits: Chris Yanes
Tuesday, September 13, 2016 | Football, Chris Harry
Last year's runner-up came back with a vengeance.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Like most fierce competitors, the loss lingered with Chris Yanes for days.
"I have to admit, I was pretty crushed," he said.
That's what happens when someone's Mr. Two Bits hopes and dreams are dashed.
Yanes, then a first-year graduate student, finished second in the 2015 student body tryouts to play the role made famous decades before by George Edmonson. The prize, instead, went to a sophomore finance major named Michael Cizek and all Yanes could do during the run-up to last year's game against East Carolina was stew about it.
And get fired up about it.
"It motivated me to come back even stronger this year," Yanes said. "Like the saying goes, when you get knocked down, you have to get back up. That's what I did."
And that's why Yanes will be on the field Saturday before No. 23 UF (2-0) takes on North Texas (1-1) at the "Swamp." He climbed off the mat and put together a campaign — and video — that earned him the Student Mr. Two Bits nod for 2016. Yanes, 23, graduated with a degree in architecture in 2015 and now is pursuing a pair of masters degrees in architecture and urban planning.
But he's also a four-generation Gator.
So this weekend will be his chance to bathe in those orange and blue roots while paying homage to a tradition nearly 70 years in the making. He follows Steve Spurrier and the 2006-07 UF basketball teams in this season's Two Bits pecking order, but Yanes harbors no illusions of challenging the energy those guys brought to the proceedings.
"Those were legends who have done amazing things here," Yanes said. "All I want to do is give the most authentic Mr. Two Bits performance since George Edmondson was here. He embodied everything about what a true fans is all about. That's what the fans deserve; a chance to cheer the way George did it."
A year later, Yanes gets that chance, too. Here's betting it'll be worth the wait.
"I have to admit, I was pretty crushed," he said.
That's what happens when someone's Mr. Two Bits hopes and dreams are dashed.
Yanes, then a first-year graduate student, finished second in the 2015 student body tryouts to play the role made famous decades before by George Edmonson. The prize, instead, went to a sophomore finance major named Michael Cizek and all Yanes could do during the run-up to last year's game against East Carolina was stew about it.
And get fired up about it.
"What I do comes from the heart"
— Christopher Yanes (@CYanes4TwoBits) August 22, 2016
-George Edmondson #StudentTwoBits #Yanesville2016 pic.twitter.com/oF8RWs1Y1t
"It motivated me to come back even stronger this year," Yanes said. "Like the saying goes, when you get knocked down, you have to get back up. That's what I did."
And that's why Yanes will be on the field Saturday before No. 23 UF (2-0) takes on North Texas (1-1) at the "Swamp." He climbed off the mat and put together a campaign — and video — that earned him the Student Mr. Two Bits nod for 2016. Yanes, 23, graduated with a degree in architecture in 2015 and now is pursuing a pair of masters degrees in architecture and urban planning.
But he's also a four-generation Gator.
So this weekend will be his chance to bathe in those orange and blue roots while paying homage to a tradition nearly 70 years in the making. He follows Steve Spurrier and the 2006-07 UF basketball teams in this season's Two Bits pecking order, but Yanes harbors no illusions of challenging the energy those guys brought to the proceedings.
"Those were legends who have done amazing things here," Yanes said. "All I want to do is give the most authentic Mr. Two Bits performance since George Edmondson was here. He embodied everything about what a true fans is all about. That's what the fans deserve; a chance to cheer the way George did it."
A year later, Yanes gets that chance, too. Here's betting it'll be worth the wait.
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