I m not old enough for that one. Wes was my first cocktail party. I was however, lucky enough to live in San Diego in the 80s and watch Wes play with Dan Fouts. It doesn’t get mentioned, but that was one of the greatest offenses to ever play. They didn’t put up the numbers of some of the modern offenses because of how the rules were back then. But relative to how the game was played, they were amazing.
I guess I caused some confusion in the way I worded my posts. I ranked all the greatest Gators of all time by accolades. I then created another list from that one containing only players that I grew up watching. This list was pulled from the UF Athletic Association Hall of Fame, so it uses full names. For Gators not in the UFAA HOF I projected their ranking assuming they would be named Gator Greats in the near future. My personal list also includes professional football, so some Gator Greats are not in that list. Edited to correct an error listing Rex Grossman twice. Timothy R. Tebow 2006-2009 Emmitt J. Smith III 1987–89 Stephen O. Spurrier 1964–66 H. Jackson Youngblood 1968–70 Wilber B. Marshall 1980–83 Carlos Alvarez 1969–71 Wesley S. Chandler 1974–77 Daniel C. Wuerffel 1993–96 Rex Daniel Grossman III 1999-2002 Brandon Keith James 2006-09 Lomas Brown Jr. 1981–84 William Percival Harvin III 2006-08 Elliott Cornelius “Jack” Jackson Jr. 1992-94 Chas Henry 2007-10 LaShawn Maurkice Pouncey 2007-09 Louis Oliver III 1985–88 Michael W. Pearson 1999–2001 Joseph Frederick Weary 1994-97 Reggie Lee Nelson 2005-2006 Reidel C. Anthony 1994–96 Alex J. Brown 1998–2001 Kevin L. Carter 1991–94 Samuel L. Green 1972–75 Keiwan J. Ratliff 2000–03 David L. Little 1977–80 O'Cyrus Torrence 2022-22 Jason B. Odom 1992–95 D'Tanyian Jacquez "Quezi" Green 1995-97 John Barrow 1954–56 Isaac J. Hilliard 1994–96 Jimmy D. DuBose 1973–75 Brandon Spikes 2006-09 J. Broward "Brad" Culpepper 1988–91 Marcelino Huerta Jr. 1947–49 Frederic M. Abbott 1970–72 Guy D. Dennis 1966–68 James R. Jones 1979–82 Lee C. McGriff 1972–74 Richard R. Nattiel 1983–86 W. Lawrence Smith 1966–68 Steven O. Tannen 1967–69 C. Neal Anderson 1982–85 Raymond L. "Trace"Armstrong III 1989 L. Bruce Bennett Jr. 1963–65 Scot E. Brantley 1976–79 Glenn S. Cameron 1971–74 A. Cris Collinsworth 1977–80 Christopher P. Doering 1993–95 Lawrence J. Gagner 1963–65
Yeah. Engineers do that sometimes. I saw a couple articles online that randomly chose names and I figured there must be a more objective way to compare the greatest Gators so I started with the list of UF HOF members and started assigning points to different criteria. Going back to the original post, even though many forum members here are too young to remember Wilber Marshall, he is objectively one of the top 5 Gators of all time.
Fred Weary was always one of my favorites. Got his autograph one night in the Porpoise. Super nice guy, spent 15 minutes chatting with him. # 19 on that list.
I was Reeves and my little brother was Alvarez in the fall of 1969. Listened to the Flop on my transistor radio as Otis called the game. Reeves should have won the Heisman instead of Sullivan, that failure is Dickeys fault.
Reaves wasn't even in the top 10 in voting in 1971. His #'s were pretty similar to Sullivan's although he threw almost twice as many INT's as Sullivan did. Auburn was 9-0 when a lot of votes were most likely cast and hammering UF 40-7 that year probably didn't hurt his chances. Dickey did change up the offense, but Reaves had only 20 less attempts in 1970 than he did in 1969 and only 20 less in 1971 than he did in 1970. Also Alvarez's knee issues limited him as a deep threat as his career evolved. Reaves yards per attempt fell off each year he played at UF.
Since there is 79 Days left to kickoff...we honor the late great OL Mo Collins (1994-97). He was a three-year starter for the Gators (though he missed six games in one of those seasons because he was declared ineligible by the school), mostly at right tackle. He left early for the NFL draft and was a first-round pick in 1998.
