Pick any one RB in Gator history from 2 yards out to win the game..

Timbow.

 

Wow, some of these comments are showing my age.

Up the gut/between the tackles.
Rhett
Smith

Up and over.
John L./Hampton/Anderson

 

If you choose anyone other than Emmitt, it's because you never saw him play for the Gators. the man spent his entire time at UF somehow getting two yards when there was nothing there at all.

 

Jimmy Dubose- a powerhouse

 

Rhett
Smith
Williams

Eric Rhett hardly ever broke runs over 25 yards, but he got 3 yards every time, guaranteed!

 

I saw him play for the Gators, Also saw Rhett.. Emmitt was smooth and always got more yards than it seemed. Rhett was an angry wrecking ball. Emmitt ran on turf and the offense was molded around him. Rhett ran on grass in an offense that was pass first. I just enjoyed watching Rhett go to work. Maybe it was that we weren't playing Neanderball anymore, or the fact that we were kicking the SEC's teeth in.
Also I loved the story how on the bus to Jax Rhett was fired up and excited because it had been raining and was forecast for more rain, and he knew with Danny's arm he was going to run wild...and he did.
WITH OFFENSE GROUNDED, RHETT PICKS UP SLACK

"JACKSONVILLE — When he left the field at the end of Saturday's Georgia-Florida Regatta, Errict Rhett looked like the business end of a Roto-Rooter.

He was grit and grime from head to toe, his once-white jersey the supreme challenge for a detergent test. Shockingly, there still was something of a bounce in his step after slogging through and over the determined Georgia Bulldogs for 183 yards and two touchdowns in a Gator Bowl that on this dreadful day had been turned into a new tributary of the St. Johns river.

Rhett even had a broad smile and an embrace for assistant coach John Reaves, who has played a special role in fine-tuning this hockey puck of a tailback.

"Coach Reaves has been working to make me focus on reading the defensive fronts," Rhett would say 30 minutes after the 33-26 Florida Gators triumph. "Now I usually know where I'm going to cut even before the ball is snapped."


In a sharp departure from this era of Steve Spurrier high-tech football, Rhett led a Florida ground attack more familiar to some of the Gators' more traditional SEC cousins. In the Gator Bowl quagmire, Florida threw just 21 passes - fewest during Spurrier's four seasons back at UF - and ran 49 times.

"We sort of looked like a Georgia team, didn't we?" Spurrier mused.

That departure in style became obvious to Rhett at mid-morning when heavy rains pelted Florida's team bus as it approached the Gator Bowl. One access street had to be closed for high tide.

What was depressingly perceived by most as a miserable day looked like a grinning Rhett day to Errict. Wideout Willie Jackson leaned across the aisle and grinned at Rhett, thumbing toward the rains. They knew this day would belong to either Errict Rhett or Jacques Cousteau.

Equipment managers scrambled for long cleats and snorkels.

To properly prepare, Rhett intentionally "did a little flip on my butt" during pregame warmups to soak his pads and uniform.

Forty-one carries and four hours later, Rhett was being given the lion's share of credit for turning back Georgia and heroic Bulldogs quarterback Eric Zeier. Some of the 20 reporters surrounding Rhett's locker even broached the notion he is being overlooked for Heisman Trophy consideration.

A case can be made. In a pass-happy system, Rhett is the runaway leader in SEC rushing, the second-place guy a speck in Errict's rear-view mirror.

If Florida ever was in command of Saturday's lead-swapping scrum, it was the 10-point lead the Gators enjoyed after Rhett's featured series - a remarkable, 21-play, 80-yard march that consumed nearly 11 minutes of the third period. The drive was a Gators season high in terms of number of plays and time consumed, both by wide margins. Rhett battered Georgia's defense 13 times during the drive for 41 yards, including the final yard which he managed with a swan dive over left tackle.

But not even a 30-20 cushion with one period to play was comforting to Rhett.

"Not with that guy over there at quarterback," he said, alluding to Zeier. "It was phenomenal how quickly they could move the ball and get into scoring position. I don't know who's better, this guy or the guy (Heath Shuler) from Tennessee. I just know when he had the ball at the end, I was over there praying and hoping this wasn't Kentucky coming back to haunt us."

Florida pulled out a last-minute victory against the Gators in September and Zeier threatened to use the same dramatic script Saturday. But his last-gasp throw with no time remaining from Florida's 2 fell incomplete and Rhett headed to the locker room with one thing on his mind: food.

"I wasn't tired; I was hungry," he laughed, tearing into a boxed lunch. "The coaches told me to eat light this morning because of the early (noon) kickoff. Then at halftime, I was so busy changing to dry socks and shoes and getting my ankles retaped, I forgot to have a banana.

"You know how tough it is to be out there competing when you're hungry? When I was on the field, it wasn't so bad. But on the sideline, that's all I could think about."

Give that guy a sirloin.

On a team whose offensive style has become souffles and fancy sauces, Saturday's challenge called for a meat and potatoes guy. Errict Rhett was up to the recipe."

 

I've seen almost all of them, and there are no wrong answers, but watching Anderson fly over the dogs never gets old.

 

Don Goodman who played in early 1960s never lost a yard carrying the ball. But no, I do not pick him. From 2 yds out, I'd go with Fred or Errict. With all due respects, not Malik Davis.

 

This was going to be my answer too

 

Hey, while we're talking about some of the players from back in the day....
I watched some old games on youtube (Yay youtube) and noticed 3 things that went away

1) Tearaway jerseys (those were hilarious)
2) Big shoulder pads (I mean big)
3) Players hitting the oxygen tank like crazy...lol...(are players really that much better conditioned now)

Any more that I missed?

 

Glad you found that photo. That's what I was referring to in my last post. I think he took off around the three yard line and came down two yards deep in the end zone. How do you stop that?

 

If you only consider Emmitt, it's because you never saw Casares, Smith, Dubose, Jones, Anderson or Williams. Emmitt was the greatest overall, but not the best short yardage RB the Gators ever had. I'd take Casares, Dubose, Jones or Anderson (with Jones or Williams blocking) over Emmitt.

 

Wasn't that on the front page of the Times Union the next day? Might have also been on the cover of SI.

 

I have always thought of Emmitt as runner with great vision and instincts and Eric Rhett as a strong, hard hitting power runner. That said, the poster that said Emmitt always made 2 yards out of nothing was right. If it was my call and I HAD to have two yards I would choose Emmitt.

 

Emmitt or Dubose. Dubose was a tank. I have not seen anyone like Emmitt before or since. I cannot tell you how many times I saw him hit the line with no discernible hole and see him somehow come out for a decent gain. It was magic. If my hypothetical coaching career was on the line with that two yards, I'd call Emmitt's number.

 

Regardless of who you choose, much would depend on the offensive line. Or the lead blockers and wide receivers, if the play went wide. Nobody scores if it’s 4 or 5 against one.

Rick Casares was a beast. I know he played before most on this board were born, but I saw him play. He was almost impossible to stop on short yardage situations.

Sportswriters at a Texas newspaper once chose 10 football players who, in their opinion, could have gone straight from high school to the NFL. Casares was one of them.

 

I agree with Emmitt and Rhett as my first two choices, followed by a clustered group of Earnest Graham, Dameon Pierce, Neal Anderson.

 

I get the choice, but I was there for the Ole Miss game, so .....