On this date in Gators history: Aug. 31, 2002
Friday, August 31, 2012 | Women's Swimming & Diving, Chris Harry
Rex Grossman passed for 337 yards, Earnest Graham rushed for 182 yards and the 20th-ranked Gators ushered in the Ron Zook era with a 51-3 blowout of UAB.
The first game in 13 years without Steve Spurrier on a UF sideline saw Grossman, the Heisman Trophy runner-up the season before, hit 16 of his 26 passes, including a couple touchdowns to Taylor Jacobs, who finished with eight catches for a school-record 246 yards.
The first play of the game was a 58-yard Grossman-to-Jacobs bomb down the right sideline, a play -- and call -- reminicient of the Spurrier years.
"I really wanted to call a fullback draw," Zook said with a grin.
The game carried double the emotion for Zook. It not only was his first as a head coach, but came with his cancer-stricken father, who flew up from south Florida, in the house.
As Zook ran out of the south end zone tunnel after his team was introduced, he pointed to his dad in the Florida Field stands.
"I knew where he was," Zook said, fighting back tears after the game. "I wasn't going to run out of the tunnel in front of the team, because I didn't want to get emotional. But the fact that he was here -- I wanted to do that.''
