I'm looking forward to kicking people's asses again.

Sunshine Network ( basically a Florida version of Fox Sports Net) is showing a replay of the 1997 Florida-Tennesee Football game. For those of you that don't remember this year was the beginning of the Doug Johnson Era. It's interesting to watch Johnson now when you think about how good he looked in the early part of the 1997 season. Florida was ranked #1 at the time and Johnson actually looked like a true heir apparent to Danny Wuerffel at the time. Of course, this was a just an aberration, as it soon became clear that Johnson had about as much feel for the quarterback position as..say...me. This year was the beginning of the collective worst four years of my football life. Just amazingly frustrating. Obviously the Zook Era was worse, much worse but it only lasted three years. Which is good because I probably would've killed myself this fall if it had gone on any longer. A few other things that I find noteworthy about this game:

- Jacquez Green was the only real quality college receiver on this team and saw alot of double coverage this year. It really didn't matter though, even with Johnson and a fat walk-on throwing to him he put up terrific numbers. Numbers like: 61 rec for 1024 yards and 9 tds. He also ran for a touchdown and took back two punts. All in all, a hell of alot of fun to watch.

- This Tennesse team was loaded. Not all of of these guys panned out in the NFL but they all came in as highly regarded prospects. Just look at some of these names: Manning, Jamal Lewis, Peerless Price, Leonard Little, Terry Fair, Raynoch Thompson, Shawn Bryson, Marcus Nash, and Dwayne Goodrich. These are just the names that I've heard throughout the replay. I'm sure that their are plenty more guys who I'm missing. Florida had Green, Fred Taylor, Jevon Kearse, and Mike Peterson but neither Kearse or Peterson were guys you would game plan for at that point in their careers. Winning these games didn't seem all that amazing at the time but it definitely does now.

- This edition of the Volunteers featured not one, but two murderers. For anybody who doesn't keep up with this sort of thing they are the aformentioned Leonard Little and Dwayne Goodrich. They sure do run a tight ship up in Rocky Top.


- This was Peyton Manning's last game against the Gators and consequently, his final chance to defeat Florida. Alas, Peyton lost again and took the collar for his career against the University of Florida. 0-4. In my opinion this fact was as or more instrumental in Mannng losing the Heisman Trophy to Charles Woodson as anything that Woodson did.

This leads me to a story from my friend John http://wwww.johnvanvleet.blogspot.com/. John was living in Knoxville during this time while in high school. He was a at a play or some type of school function where everybody was being quiet and respectful and all of that other crap. Well, some dude in the crowd was listening to the Heisman ceremony on the radio. When Woodson was announced as the winner he stood up and screamed out (in deeep southern drawl), "Peyton lost the Heisman! Peyton lost the Heisman!".

Have some drinks tonight, you've been a real snooze lately.