Sept. 11, so many things happened that year. This game isn't life or death, but I definitely remember sitting in my room with my old roommate, Ingle Martin, putting everything in perspective.
You can't grasp it. It's not life or death, but it's damn near close. You invest so much into this program and the winning, to have a loss in your home stadium in front of your family, in front of your friends, it hurts.
I just remember that it was my first start, and being so excited and just being so thrilled to be out there with those guys like Andra Davis and Alex Brown, being able to be on the field with them and get a chance to win a bowl game. It was real exciting, especially being an 18-year-old freshman.
When I was a kid, you came to the Florida games and it wasn't a matter of if they were going to win. It was a matter of how badly they were going to win. The talent we have on this team and the coaches we have, there's no reason that shouldn't be the expectations here.
In a football sense, this is it. This is the game. You know how special and important this game is. This game is something you mark down every year, and you know you need to start off and get this game.
I remember everyone walking into the locker room after that game. I sat right there on the edge of the tunnel and watched it. Tears were almost rolling down my eyes, I hated it so bad. It ate me up. It was like a knot in your stomach watching that. I won't ever forget that.
He was the leader of our class. And that's the way it all started, with us losing our leader.
It's a chance for us to win a bowl game ... something we haven't done around here for a while.
This is now, this is a new team, a new coaching staff. We're going to be ready to play, I'll tell you that.
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