When the news came down that Reggie Bush was getting his Heisman back, I couldn’t help but wonder if the death of O.J. Simpson had something to go with it.
I could connect the Southern Call part, but that was as far as it could go.
So instead, I bought the Heisman Trust and its lame explanation that the landscape of college football has changed so drastically, we give up.
But then, the wheels started turning.
I began to think of the wrong things that have happened to Florida over the years. Not that the program didn’t make mistakes that deserved to be punished. But if we are handing out pardons and granting immunity like we were in the White House, there are some things I’d like to see rectified.
In fact, there are at least 12 I could come up with and that leads the latest Dooley’s Dozen, 12 wrongs I would like to see righted (even if they were wrong back then).
Florida won it fair and square on the field with a freshman quarterback in Kerwin Bell and got the two monkeys off their backs – Georgia and the SEC crown.
It was quite the celebration when the Gators came home from Lexington and the plane dipped a wing to show the players a stadium full of fans.
Of course, that summer Vanderbilt and Tennessee argued that Florida should be stripped because the Gators had committed 59 NCAA violations.
The vote was 6-4 to strip. Hey, the landscape has changed so much that almost all of those violations would fall under NIL deals today.
Florida remained on probation and knew going into the season it could not compete for the SEC title.
Still, the Gators went 9-1-1 for the second straight year. They tied Tennessee for the SEC championship at 5-1 and beat the Vols head-to-head.
But rules are rules, right? Unless you give up.
So, let’s give up and say that Neal Anderson and Ricky Nattiel and the guys deserve an SEC trophy to go along with that New York Times one they received the previous year.
Steve Spurrier would give me a tongue-lashing on our podcast if I did not mention the 1990 team, which he still considers the first team to win the SEC.
Somehow, having a grad assistant drive paperwork to Palatka doesn’t sound like something that would today be punishable.
The news broke a few games into that season and the great minds at Florida decided to go ahead and take their fate rather than wait until the following year.
This is why for many years the 1984, ’85 and ’90 teams were recognized on the south end zone wall.
I have always had a difficult time figuring out what to do with J-Will whenever I do rankings because he only played 20 games in a Gator uni.
Think about this – you can get a medical marijuana card and walk into a dispensary and there is nothing wrong with that. And it’s on the ballot to be completely legal.
Talk about a changing landscape.
Williams was suspended at the start of the season for testing positive at Marshall and after 20 games of Globetrotter plays he tested positive again.
And that was it.
Let’s bring up Teddy Dupay.
His dismissal from the team during his senior year is a press conference I will never forget, Teddy standing there with a wrinkled dress short and a tie reading a short statement.
This is a fine line here because Dupay was accused of giving a fellow student inside info on the Gators.
That can still get you suspended or even banned, but who knows when that will become legal?
Changing landscape, right?
As long as we are going to go back in time and fix the mistakes that were made, let us travel back to 2003 when the Gators were treated to ACC officials in Gainesville.
That’s the way they did it (although it was changed after this debacle) back then with the officials and these guys were clueless.
How many Florida fumbles were not fumbles? How many times did FSU fumble and there was no call?
We have instant replay now. Let’s go back and declare the correct winner.
Vernon Maxwell’s reputation isn’t the greatest in the world. But you saw him score a bunch of points.
Before they disappeared.
Florida was tough on its native son by removing two seasons of scoring from one of the best players in basketball history.
Maxwell was retroactively deemed as ineligible for his final two years at UF. So, instead of being the all-time leading scorer, he is 53rd.
If we are going to right some wrongs, let’s start with the media guide and get his points back.
You have to have been around in the 1980s to understand how bad Florida football was before Pell came to Gainesville.
He fixed the weight room, got the stadium expanded, started Gator Clubs around the state and got the boosters organized like nobody had ever before.
A lot of people see him as a villain because the newspapers (back when there were real newspapers) camped out in Gainesville. Eventually, the NCAA got Pell and forced him out.
Like that would happen today.
Back when I was a student at Florida, we would take our covered wagons to the game (I’m kidding, of course) and have a few too many libations.
Back then, there was a lot going on.
One thing that was going on – the Banana Man.
We would chant (Go bananas! Go, go bananas!) and he would dance on the dugout roof of the opposing team.
As long as we are rectifying, I want him (or her) back.
It is ridiculous that he did not win it in 2001. It stays with me.
Eric Crouch was a really good player. But Rex should have won the Heisman. Crouch threw for seven TDs and 10 interceptions. He was drafted as a wide receiver.
But Grossman and Miami’s Ken Dorsey split the Southern vote and Crouch won.
Let’s give a second one to Tim Tebow. The year after he won it the first time, Tebow led Florida to the national title game but the guy going against him – Sam Bradford of Oklahoma – was handed the stiff-armed one.
Tebow finished third and maybe you think I shouldn’t fuss. But who had the most first-place votes? Tebow did with 309. Not only was it more than Bradford, it was 43 more than runner-up Colt McCoy.
C’mon man.
OK, so Antonio Langham forced Alabama to forfeit eight wins in 1993 because he had signed with an agent and applied for the draft.
Let’s do some digging and maybe we can find that he really signed with an agent before the 1993 SEC Championship Game.
That also would have made him ineligible and Florida can add another SEC title to its trophy room.
OK, I’m begging now.
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