GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The first event on the Florida 2018-19 sports calendar was a soccer match last Aug. 17. Volleyball and football, of course, were soon to follow and the athletic year was off and running, jumping, hitting, somersaulting, throwing, etc.
It's become a annual tradition here at FloridaGators.com, in wrapping and putting an Orange & Blue bow on it all, to look back on the most indelible moments provided by both Gators teams and individual athletes. You may have different lists (everybody will), but during this "Year In Review" we give you ours.
* Today: Top 10 team moments.
* Wednesday: Top 10 individual moments.
Better read quickly.
Football practice starts July 26, then we start all over again.
1
Peachy exclamation point
The Florida football team surged to four victories to end the regular season, a streak that on top of a signature midseason defeat of No. 5 LSU vaulted the Gators into the
Associated Press top 10. The reward was an invite to the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, one of the prestigious "New Year's Six" games, to face No. 7 Michigan, which only 15 months earlier thoroughly demolished UF, 33-17, in the 2017 Advocare Classic in Arlington, Texas, at a game that wasn't nearly as close as the score might suggest. That previous game, however, had been under the watch of
Jim McElwain and his former coaching staff, which also had faced
Jim Harbaugh and his Wolverines in the Citrus Bowl to conclude the 2015 season with an even less competitive result (a 41-7 blowout loss). UM, this time, got UF's first team under
Dan Mullen and the contrasts were as stark as the final numbers on the scoreboard. In a 41-15 trampling of the Wolverines on Dec. 28, the Gators tallied more yards (427) than the two previous Michigan meetings combined. Quarterback
Feleipe Franks accounted for 247 yards of total offense, plus a pair of touchdowns, while defensive back
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson intercepted a pair of second-half passes, returning one for a score in UF's most lopsided bowl victory in 17 years. Franks, a season after throwing for 1,438 yards, nine touchdowns and seven interceptions, finished his third-year sophomore season with 2,457 yards passing, 24 touchdowns and just six interceptions, while rushing for another 350 yards and seven TDs. Just as telling, the offense that had finished 109th, 107th and 100th (out of 129 teams) the three previous seasons, respectively, rocketed to 42nd in Mullen's first season. He became the third coach in college football history to win 10 games in a Power Five program debut season after inheriting a team that won less than five games the year before. It was a stunning cap to the 2018 calendar year, and for Florida football, it was the greatest moment since …
2
A long-awaited Seminole moment
UF coach Dan Mullen rejoices in the aftermath of the program's first defeat of rival FSU since 2012, a resounding 41-14 road rout at Tallahassee last Nov. 24.
To say the Orange & Blue natives were getting restless for a win over rival Florida State would be like saying Gator Nation is
somewhat passionate about its football team. It had been five years since UF defeated FSU, the longest drought for the Gators in the series that dated to 1958, and, frankly, they'd rarely been competitive along the way. On Nov. 24, Florida went to Tallahassee and took out more than 1,800 days of frustration with a 41-14 beatdown of its cross-state rival. Franks threw for 254 yards and three touchdowns, while tailback
Lamical Perine had a 74-yard second-quarter touchdown run to ignite the rout on his way to a 129-yard afternoon. UF not only pummeled FSU on the scoreboard, but on the stat sheet too, out-gaining the Seminoles in total yards 536 to 293. Florida's first win over Florida State since 2012 (and just the second in the previous nine meetings) marked the Gators' most lopsided margin in the series since a 37-10 blowout in the "Swamp" on
Tim Tebow's "Senior Day" sendoff in "The Swamp."
3
Softball at SEC Tournament (and beyond)
Senior slugger/stalwart Amanda Lorenz raises the SEC Tournament championship trophy after the Gators shook off their No. 6 seed and rolled to a second straight title by beating regular-season champion Alabama, 2-1, in the final.
UF's softball season was being labeled as a "down year," both externally and internally. Who could argue? The Gators finished .500 during the league's regular-season schedule, with the 12 losses the program's most since 2002. UF entered the conference's postseason tournament as the No. 6 seed, playing on the first day, which marked more uncharted territory for Coach
Tim Walton. No matter. First, the Gators erased a four-run deficit in a comeback, opening-round, walk-off defeat of South Carolina, then handed the ball to
Kelly Barnnhill. The senior ace basically turned cyborg in wins over a trio of ranked opponents — LSU, Auburn and regular-season champ Alabama — as Florida blew up the bracket and captured a second straight tournament crown. In doing so, UF also vaulted into a top-eight national seed for the NCAA Tournament, which kept the Gators at home through regional and Super Regional play, the latter being a rugged best-of-three series defeat of league rival Tennessee. Barnhill recorded every out of the UF-UT series and won both games, including the emotional walk-off clincher courtesy of a game-winning single from
Jaimie Hoover that sent the Gators back to Oklahoma City for the 10th time in 12 years. In other words, just another year ("down" or not) for Walton and his ladies.
4
The 'Mouse' that always roars
Dueling Holloways -- "Mouse," the coach, and Grant, the superstar -- mug for the camera and pose with the hardware after the NCAA outdoor in Austin, Texas earlier this month.
The expectations are what they are, and UF Coach
Mike "Mouse" Holloway gladly lives with them. And meets them. The Florida men's team — again — claimed the national title at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Ala. It was the program's second straight indoors crown and the fifth since 2010, as well as the ninth overall (both indoors and outdoors) over the previous 10 seasons. Superstar junior
Grant Holloway won the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 7.35 seconds, breaking the American record formerly held by a trio of athletes, including UCLA icon
Greg Foster (1987). It was Holloway's third straight win in the event, and if that wasn't enough, he then sprinted to victory in the 60 meters with a time of 6.50 seconds, making him one of just three collegians in history to complete the 60/60 indoors sweep (one of the others being
Willie Gault, of NFL Chicago Bears fame). The Gators also got points, among others, from
Hakim Sani Brown (third in the 60),
Clayton Brown (fifth in triple jump),
AJ McFarland (fifth in weight throw),
Ryan Clark (sixth in the 400),
Benjamin Lobo Vedel (seventh in the 400),
Thomas Mardal (seventh in weight throw) and
Jhonny Victor (eighth in high jump).
Chantz Sawyers teamed with Lobo Vdel, Holloway and Clark for a third-place finish in the 4x400 relay. More hardware for a very crowded trophy case. Three months later, NCAA Outdoors ended with the Gators finishing second to Texas Tech, and Holloway again stealing the medal-podium show with a third straight title in the 110-meter hurdles.
5
Men's Tennis reaches Final Four
Senior McClain Kessler Gator Chomps during UF's 4-0 steam-rolling of No. 6-seed Baylor at the NCAA Championships in May at Lake Nona, Fla., on the way to the program's first appearance in the national semifinals in 14 years.
The UF men's tennis team posted a relatively routine record of 19-10 in 2018 in advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships. The Gators came back for Year 7 under Coach
Bryan Shelton knowing they were much better and deeper in 2019. Led by a mix of senior
McClain Kessler, sophomore
Oliver Crawford and freshman
Sam Riffice, UF compiled a sparkling record of 25-4, won the program's first outright SEC title in 16 years, then held serve on the home court for three NCAA rounds, including a riveting and revengeful defeat of league rival Tennessee, to reach the Elite Eight for the second year in a row. Once at the NCAA site in Lake Nona, Fla., the No. 3-seed Gators waxed 6-seed Baylor, 4-0, to advanced to the Final Four for only the third time in program history, and for the first time since 2005. Florida fell to eventual national-champion Texas by a 4-2 count, but a new bar was set for Shelton's program.
6
Nembhard dagger stabs LSU
An all-around lack of consistency, some injury issues, a starting unit dominated by freshmen, not to mention some downright ugly midseason losses, had the UF men's basketball team in a precarious position relative to its chances for a third straight NCAA Tournament at-large berth. The Gators, though, put together a mini-streak late in the year, including a big overtime upset at LSU. The Tigers would go on to win the SEC regular-season title and were the No. 1 seed in the league's postseason tournament at Nashville, Tenn., for a quarterfinal matchup against the Gators. LSU had a 13-point lead in the second half when UF began mounting a rally behind two of those freshmen: point guard
Andrew Nembhard (20 points, 6 assists, no turnovers) and forward
Keyontae Johnson (16 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists). UF led twice by three in the final minute, only to see LSU's 6-foot-11, 255-pound forward
Naz Reid bury a 3-pointer to tie the game. That's where things stood, knotted at 73 with 13.2 seconds left, when the Gators exited a timeout with a plan of flattening out the offense and letting Nembhard go to work off a ball screen. But the Tigers threw a 1-3-1 full-court zone press at the Gators, forcing UF to scramble in the open floor. Three passes into the possession, Johnson got the ball in the right corner, shot-faked his man and drove into the paint, where three LSU defenders converged. Johnson pivoted and fired a pass to the top of the key for Nembhard, who walked into a perfect rhythm 3-pointer that swished with just one second left on the clock. The Gators had their second upset of the SEC champs and with a berth in the tournament semifinals added one big-time notch to their NCAA resume. Two days later, UF got the March Madness invite for the third straight year under Coach
Mike White.
7
New coach, same result (but history made)
In his first year as head coach of the men's swimming and diving team, Anthony Nesty did his alma mater proud.
Anthony Nesty, in his first season as head UF men's swimming and diving coach, picked up where
Gregg Troy left off in leading the Gators to a seventh straight SEC title. Florida, on the heels of Troy's retirement in May 2018, scored 1,233 points at the meet and easily out-pointed second-place Missouri and third-place Tennessee, with terrific performances from the likes of
Maxime Rooney,
Robert Finke,
Grant Sanders, and
Kieran Smith. But take a bow, Coach Nesty, the former Gators All-American and Olympic gold medalist. He became just the second Gator ever to compete for a SEC championship-winning team at Florida
and later coach a SEC championship team at Florida. The other?
Steve Beeland, who as a player for the UF's men's tennis team won conference crowns in 1968 and '69, and went on to coach the UF women's team to SEC titles in '82 and '84.
8
A grand milestone
Coach Mary Wise, in her 28th season, accounted for 84 percent of UF's victories on the way to No. 1,000.
An otherwise routine four-set defeat of Arkansas last Nov. 4 turned historic, as the Gators joined Penn State and Nebraska in becoming just the third Division-I program to register 1,000 volleyball victories since 1984. Of those 1,000, Coach
Mary Wise led UF to 844 of them over her 28 seasons. The number "really just represents a passing of time, as well as the number of really talented players that have come through the program," Wise said in reflecting on the latest of yet another milestone achieved. "Would a round number be any more meaningful than, say a championship match or a coming-out moment from a player?" In the bigger picture, probably not, but one thousand of anything — especially victories — warrants acknowledgment.
9
Conference Dominance Continues for Lacrosse
Only the faces change when UF poses for its annual lacrosse conference championship photos.
Doesn't seem to matter what league UF plays in. Whether it's the American Lacrosse Conference, BIG EAST or American Athletic, the Gators win championships. By crushing Cincinnati 25-6 on April 27, Coach
Amanda O'Leary and her program clinched a ninth straight regular season LAX title, dating to 2011 (four in the ALC, four in the BIG EAST, now one in the AAC). A week later, Florida beat Cincinnati on its home turf, 15-9, in the AAC Tournament title game, giving the Gators a sixth straight postseason tournament crown (ALC in 2014, BIG EAST from '15-18, AAC '19). UF, which eventually lost to top-ranked North Carolina in second-round NCAA Tournament action, placed four players on the IWLCA All-Region teams in senior attack
Lindsey Ronbeck, junior defender
Cara Trombetta, sophomore midfielder
Shannon Kavanagh (all first-team selections) and senior mid
Sydney Pirreca (second team).
10
New Diamond Digs
A shot from center field at the grand opening of renovated Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in February.
On a beautiful, sun-splashed Feb. 8 afternoon, UF President
Kent Fuchs, Athletic Director
Scott Stricklin and baseball coach
Kevin O'Sullivan put ceremonial shovels into the dirt on the southwest side of campus, on a large swath of land once occupied by groves belonging to UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. With that, the ground officially was broken on the site of the $65 million Florida Ballpark (its name, for now), which will be home to the UF baseball team starting in the 2021 season. "It represents a great opportunity," Stricklin said. "You don't get the chance to do these things often and when you do you have to do it right." Just four days later, the UF softball team opened the gates to the renovated Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium (cost: $15 million) for an exhibition game against the Japan National Team. The new 360-degree concourse, chair-back and berm seating, plus outfield viewing areas were a huge hit with fans from the moment the ribbon was cut, while the players, coaches and support staff reveled in the new office, locker room space and amenity upgrades. "One of those hair-on-my-arms-standing-up type of moments," Walton said.
