The Other Swamp
At UF, a great tradition for students is to pile into The Swamp on Saturdays.
And they do it on Fridays too. But not that Swamp. The one across the street.
The day before the game, UF students will gather at the local bar, which happens to have the same name as the stadium across from it, to eat and drink with their buddies.
We arrived at 4:15 to check out the atmosphere, and the place was already packed. It will stay like that for the remainder of the night.
There was live music and lively chatter about tomorrow's game. Not to mention the pure joy that has spilled over from last night's Rutgers victory.
"The excitement here is really for Spurrier, but yea, it's definitely a big deal now that Rutgers won," CSTV's UF Student Representative Harrison Markey said. "The ball's in our court, finally."
"I'm more excited about every game now that Rutgers won," Matthew Montag said.
"It puts UF that much closer to being in the championship game," Scott Rosa said.
If Florida wins out, do the Gators deserve a spot in that game?
"They do, honestly," Rosa said, "because if you look at the schedules, nobody plays a schedule like the SEC does."
The UF fans can't wait for tomorrow, now that much more is at stake. But they haven't forgotten about the Ol' Ball Coach, who might not get as good of a reception as he expects.
"He built the program so I'm kind of torn because I hate pretty much everybody that comes to play against us in The Swamp," Montag said. "I'm not going to boo him, but I'm definitely not going to cheer him."
Markey seemed less torn.
"I'm going to boo the heck out of him."
