Gators v. RedHawks (2010/09/04)

My dad, sister, brother-in-law, and I went to the University of Florida Gators versus University of Miami (Ohio) RedHawks game last Saturday. I carried along a Fujifilm J10 point-and-shoot camera and my Nikon D2Xs with a Nikkor 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 G lens to take some photos.

We got there a bit early to try to find a parking place not too terribly far from the stadium. Mike dropped the rest of us off, and we settled down in a plaza at 1st Ave and 20th Street. There was quite the cavalcade of fans streaming through there as we waited for Mike to show up again. That included this pair of guys who were taking fandom to a whole other level.

Back in 1980-82, I’d have been one of the folks down at the sidelines taking photos for the Independent Florida Alligator. For this game, I was up in Section 13 instead, which is a ways from the field.

The game was scheduled for a noon kickoff. It was a partly cloudy day, which meant that we baked in the stands. I sweated profusely. My dad, who stayed relatively dry, says I get that from mom. There were times when the Nikon got a bit uncomfortable to touch, being all black.

I was interested to see just what sort of images I could get from the stands using a consumer-grade lens, if not a consumer-grade camera. So the remainder of the photos go some way toward demonstrating that.

Now, about the game… Football is not something I have any sort of deep knowledge about. But I’ve been going to UF Gators games for 40+ years now, so I’ve seen a bit of everything. The Gators v. RedHawks matchup was one of the weirder games that I’ve seen. What the Gators communicated to the world was a mix of messages comprising individual talent but some poor team coordination, and some unpreparedness. The RedHawks marched down the field and put three points on the board with a field goal, obviating the “Bleacher Report” prediction of a possible shutout. The Gator defense denied the RedHawks any touchdown all day, but ended up allowing four field goals.

We saw a lot of the RedHawks’ quarterback getting the pass off. Either the RedHawks are better than pundits were giving them credit for, or we UF fans have some definite rough times ahead.

And another thing we saw a lot of was UF quarterback Brantley handing the ball off to Demps. What we got was a bunch of small yardage plays and one touchdown run, IIRC.

At the far end of the field, Brantley connected with this receiver at the 5 yard line. He turned and ran it in for six points.

We were also fortunate to see a scene like the above four times in the game, IIRC. Because the defense did so well at making turnovers, we had the curious experience of seeing a Gator total yardage figure that, for much of the game, was less than the Gator score.

I think the above is my favorite photo from the game. The RedHawk coach on the sideline emotes well.