Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In less than two weeks, hundreds of reporters, bloggers and television types from around the country will converge on Atlanta, as the Southeastern Conference moves its Football Media Days extravaganza from Birmingham, Ala., to the region's largest city. The event, of course, previews the upcoming football season, but also will represent the unofficial start of the league's 2018-19 athletic calendar. 

Before that, though, it's become customary here at FloridaGators.com to use this quiet time of summer to reflect on the past year of UF athletics, both from a successful team standpoint (below) and for remarkable individual accomplishments (coming Friday). It was yet another campaign that ended with the Gators claiming the GateHouse Media SEC All-Sports Award, for the 12th straight season, as well as finishing third in the Learfield Director's Cup standings that tally the nation's best overall programs. UF got there thanks to 12 top-five rankings at seasons' end.

Our choices, of course, are subjective and subject for debate. We welcome that, as we recall yet another eventful (at times unforgettable) year of University of Florida athletics. 

1
FOOTBALL OVERHAUL  The 2017 season had taken a turn south with a couple back-to-back home losses by a combined three points; the first came courtesy of a missed extra point against LSU (a week after the Tigers lost to Troy State), and the second a come-from-ahead faltering against Texas A&M that evened UF's record at 3-3. The bye week followed. Then came a press conference when Coach Jim McElwain made veiled references to some associated with his football program having received death threats. Against players? Against coaches? He wouldn't say. That became a problem. And so did the product the Gators rolled out five days later against third-ranked Georgia in a 42-7 blowout loss when UF trailed by three touchdowns after the Bulldogs ran just eight plays. The final score marked Florida's worst defeat in the series since 1982. Barely 24 hours later, McElwain was gone as head coach and defensive coordinator Randy Shannon was put in charge to finish what turned out to be a 4-7 season that marked just the second losing season in 37 years. Four weeks (and a dalliance with Chip Kelly) later, the Gators named Dan Mullen, by way of Mississippi State, as the school's 27th head coach. The move reunited Mullen with UF athletic director Scott Stricklin (his AD with the Bulldogs for nearly seven years) and returned Mullen to the place he helped guide to a pair of national championships (and tutored Tim Tebow) as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2005-2008. Mullen went 69-46 in nine seasons at MSU and along the way led the program to its first No. 1 ranking in school history (plus an eventual berth in the Orange Bowl) in 2014. He did it with an imaginative offense the likes of which will be a welcomed sight for UF fans used to the fireworks of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, after four seasons of stagnancy under Will Muschamp and three more with McElwain (whose offenses finished a woeful 112th, 116th and 110th, respectively). Upon his arrival, Mullen instituted an immediate culture change by implementing a more structured and accountable strength/conditioning program, emphasizing the program's history by bringing back former players to speak to the current ones, and made having fun a priority in the annual spring game. A new era of football was launched.  


2
VOLLEYBALL'S GREATEST SEASON   Those who recall the 2003 run to the NCAA final may disagree, but Coach Mary Wise's 27th season on the UF sidelines was the finest in program history, and, like that run 14 years prior, ended with a 3-1 loss in the NCAA title match, this time to Nebraska, an opponent the Gators defeated earlier in the season. Why was the most recent season better? Because the quality of volleyball, both in the SEC and nationally, is better now. The Gators not only shared the league crown in 2017 (with Kentucky), but went 30-2 overall, including 8-2 against ranked foes, with consecutive wins over Pac-12 powers UCLA, Southern California and Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. UF was led by a sensational senior class, starring SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-America middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan, along with Carli Snyder, Caroline Knop and Shainah Joseph. In their first season playing at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, matches were lively with a tremendous homecourt advantage, as UF averaged more than 3,000 per game, including a school-record 7,723 in the season-opening upset of No. 1 Texas. 


3
MEN'S TRACK DOES IT AGAIN 

NATTY CHAMPS! #WeChomp pic.twitter.com/pr6fqhF4uz

— Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) March 11, 2018

National championships are to be celebrated, of course. In the case of Coach Mike Holloway's track and field teams, they're now, frankly, expected. Obviously, that's not fair, but it's also reality, thanks to the place Holloway has taken his program. When the Gators captured the 2018 men's NCAA Indoors title on March 10 it marked UF's eighth national championship since 2012 — far and away the most of any Division I sport in that time — and the program's first indoors crown since 2012. UF joined Arkansas, Texas-El Paso and Oregon as just the fourth men's program in D-I history to claim at least four NCAA indoor and outdoor titles. The star of the show was sophomore Grant Holloway, who defended the 60-meter hurdles championship he won as a freshman (just the fifth in the event's history to do so), winning with a time of 7.47 seconds, the third-fastest time ever clocked by a collegian. Holloway also finished second in the long jump to become the first D-1 male to finish first or second in both the hurdles and long jump at the NCAA Indoor meet. He wasn't done. Holloway also teamed with Kunle Fasasi, Chantz Sawyers and Benjamin Lobo Vedal to finish third in the 4x400 relay. UF got 13 points in the triple jump by way of runner-up KeAndre Bates and fourth-place finisher Clayton Brown. Meanwhile, what else can be said about Coach Holloway? The 58-year-old, who in May signed a 10-year contract extension that figures to keep him at UF for the rest of his career, became just the fourth coach in D-1 history to win at least four indoor and four outdoor NCAA titles. His eight NCAA championships now rank fourth among D-1 men's coaches since 1970. And it was UF's 20th top-two finish in 31 NCAA championships since Holloway took over the program in 2003. No other program in the country has more than nine such finishes in that span. The "Mouse" definitely roared in '18. Again.


4
FRESHMAN USHERS SEASHOLE OUT IN STYLE 



Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium was numb. A two-run, two-out homer in the top of the seventh had given Texas A&M a one-run lead in the decisive Game 3 of its NCAA Super Regional showdown with Florida. The Gators got a couple walks in their seventh, but with a trip to the Women's College World Series in the balance they were down to their last out, down their last strike. Freshman Jordan Matthews, who struggled at the plate for most of the second half of the season, fouled off three pitches to stay alive and keep the anxious home crowd on their feet in hopes of a miracle. And that was when Matthews crushed Trinity Harrington's 2-2 pitch over the left-center field fence, off the KSP scoreboard, for the most dramatic and meaningful walk-off moment — a 5-3 victory — in Florida softball history since Ali Gardiner's grand slam against Alabama put the Gators in the 2009 WCWS title round. The play not only jettisoned UF to Oklahoma City, but was the last swing at KSP before the demolition of the ballpark (as we know it) to make room for an $11 million renovation scheduled for completion in time for the 2019 season. The play paved the way for a ninth trip to OKC over the last 11 seasons, all under Coach Tim Walton, who also got one of those nifty 10-year contract extensions after finishing the season 56-11, winning the SEC regular-season title for the fourth straight year and getting his team to college softball Mecca once again. 


5
WHACKY BOUNCE SENDS BASEBALL BACK TO OMAHA



Keeping with the walk-off Super Regional theme, Austin Langworthy didn't wait until the last at-bat ever at McKethan Stadium for his dramatics — though there's always next year (more on that down the list). But in a decisive Game 3 against rival Auburn that had already yielded a rare steal of home for the Gators, Langworthy broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the ninth when he ripped a fastball from Tigers reliever Cody Greenhill toward the right-field warning track. Auburn's Steven Williams appeared to have a chance to make a play, extending his arm at the ball as it fell toward the fence. The ball, though, hit off the cuff of Williams' glove and careened over the fence to give Florida a 3-2 win that sent the Gators to the College World Series and the crowd at the "Mac" (not to mention in the UF dugout) into a frenzy. Make that a school-record four straight trips to Omaha for Coach Kevin O'Sullivan (yeah, he got one of those 10-year extensions, too). Florida did not win a second straight national championship (the Gators were one of the last four teams standing, though), but any season that ends in Omaha is a banner one.  


6
GATORS COMPLETE RARE SWEEP OF KENTUCKY  Florida and Kentucky were charter members of the SEC and first started playing basketball in 1933. UF had won just nine times — ever — in Lexington, but got the 10th with a tough-as-nails 66-64 win on Jan. 20 with ESPN GameDay crew among the 24,000-plus inside Rupp Arena. Six weeks later, the Gators hosted the Wildcats in the regular-season finale, on Senior Night for point guard Chris Chiozza and forward Egor Koulechov, the grad transfer from Rice, and rolled to an impressive 80-67 victory at the sold-out and rocking O'Dome that gave Florida its first sweep of UK since the 2014 Final Four season, and just the sixth in program history. The outcome made for a fantastic finish for Chiozza, who broke the team's all-time assist record in the game, and completed a run of three straight wins over ranked opponents to end the season, and significantly up the Gators' postseason resume.


7
TRACK DOUBLE DIPS AT SEC MEET  

A good weekend to be a Gator.

2018 #SECTF Champions — women's and men's 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/6kBQgvGKTe

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) May 14, 2018

In a matter of minutes, the Florida men's and women's track and field teams swept titles at the SEC meet for the first time in school history. The women's 4x400 squad settled into the blocks knowing it had to finish ahead of LSU to lock up the first crown since 2008. The crew of Taylor Manson, Sharrika Barnett, Nikki Stephens and Taylor Sharpe clocked the second-fastest time in school history (3:27.3) and finished second to LSU's third. Cue the dog pile at the finish line. Twenty minutes later, the UF men's team heard that Alabama had scratched from the 4x400, a development that assured the Gators had the points needed to claim their first outdoors league crown since 2015. Holloway was the standout there, also, winning both the 110 hurdles and long jump. Sharpe was the big scorer for the women. In addition to the second leg of the meet-clinching relay, she won the 400 meters in a time of 50.69 seconds, breaking the program's 13-year-old school record. The plane trip home was a good one. And heavier than usual (what with all that hardware, and all).


8
HIGH-SCORING, EPIC, MARATHON CLASSIC IN PORTLAND



If you were still awake on the east coast, the game ended a shade after 2 a.m. — and what a game it was. Back and forth, 17 lead changes, 11 ties, two overtimes, 71 field goals and 216 points before Jalen Hudson and the Gators put a pulsating 111-105 win over reigning NCAA runner-up Gonzaga in the books at the prestigious PK Invitational in front of a raucous pro-Bulldogs crowd the night after Thanksgiving. Hudson, the Virginia Tech transfer playing in just his fifth game as a Gator, poured in a career-high 35 points, raining down eight of his 12 shots from the 3-point line. Chiozza had a career-high 26 points to go with 10 assists and eight rebounds. KeVaughn Allen added 23 points and went 11-for-11 from the free-throw line. UF, though, still had to rally from four points down in the final minute of regulation to stave off a dominant 39-point, 12-rebound outburst from Gonzaga forward Johnathan Williams, who was basically unstoppable in going 16-for-22 from the floor. The atmosphere at the sold-out Moda Center, home to the NBA Portland Trailblazers, was that of an NCAA Tournament regional final, with the Gators — playing 2,900 miles from home on a "neutral floor" only in name — persevering and making the plays down the stretch in one of the most riveting regular-season games in program history. 


9
MEN'S TENNIS SHOCKS NO. 1 WAKE FOREST  Florida was ranked 10th when it went to Winston-Salem, N.C., on March 30 to face the nation's No. 1 team. Wake Forest had won the National Team Indoor championship the month before, rolling through a conga line of top-10 Pac-12 heavyweights in USC, Stanford and UCLA. The Demon Deacons had waxed No. 18 Duke and No. 5 North Carolina early in their Atlantic Coast Conference slate when Coach Bryan Shelton and the Gators checked in. UF won the crucial doubles point to steal the match's early momentum. The score was 2-2 when Duarte Vale won on Court 5 to inch the Gators one point closer, and it was Oliver Crawford, on Court 3, after battling to a grueling 7-5 win in the first set, doing a 6-1 number on Skander Mansouri for the clinching point in a 4-3 victory. The outcome marked Shelton's first win over the nation's No. 1 team since taking over the Florida post after the 2012 season. UF went on to advance to the round of eight at the NCAA Championships for the second time Shelton's six seasons. The Deacons? They won their next 16 matches on the way to capturing the first NCAA title in program history.  


10
BLUEPRINTS FOR THE FUTURE  With an eye toward the future, the University Athletic Association announced on March 23 program-changing facility upgrades to three sports at an estimated cost of $130 million. The aforementioned renovation to the softball facility was first in line, with a new baseball stadium — on a new baseball stadium site — set to begin construction after the 2019 season, along with the construction of a stand-alone football headquarters that will (at last) move the team out Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Baseball, beginning in 2019, will play in a new $50 million stadium on the west side of campus, off Hull Road, across the street from both softball and lacrosse, while a new 130,000-square foot, $65 million football complex — with a dining hall for the use of all student athletes in the tentative plans — will go up in the area currently occupied by antiquated McKethan Stadium. The ambitious undertaking, Phases 2 and 3 of the UAA's grand capital improvement plan (following the construction of the Indoor Practice Facility, Hawkins Center and renovation of the O'Dome), was long overdue, but figures to be well worth the wait.