Pat Dooley’s ‘Friday Fivesome’ August 20th

This is the penultimate Friday Fivesome as we have tried to help get you through the hot and boring summer months to get to football season. One more next week and then we will be in Game Week for the Gators, and I will start writing my Grading the Gators feature every Saturday that I will do my best to get in within 30 minutes after the end of the game. I hope you have enjoyed these, and we’ll try to end with a bang, not a whimper.

1. I was thinking about this the other day, about the most famous numbers in Florida history. Because whenever you pass the statues, you see them. But it’s funny how those three numbers have not been good luck to very many players. The number that has produced the most studs is No. 1, which makes some sense because everyone wants that number. The Heisman numbers, not so much. The funny thing is that Jeff Cardozo and I had this conversation on The Tailgate about baseball numbers and I told him I don’t know many because you can see the faces of the players and he got angry because he loves baseball. In football, you have to know the numbers. In fact, when I was young (you know, back at the turn of the century), we used to get the rosters and memorize them all right down to the second-team linemen. Of course, we were all a little nerdy about football which may explain our lack of dates.
2. So, here is a short list of the players who wore No. 1 in order of how I would rank them at UF:

* Percy Harvin (although he started out with No. 8)

* Reggie Nelson(although he started out with No. 32)

* Kadarius Toney (although he started out with No. 4)

* Jabar Gaffney (although he switched to No. 10 after his freshman year)

* Kiewan Ratliff

And I am not including guys like C.J Henderson, Wayne Fields, Vernon Hargreaves III, and Jack Jackson. It’s a No. 1 world.

3. Let’s look at the best to wear Tim Tebow’s old number since he left Florida, which is only the last 12 seasons including this one. Jacob Copeland wore it, but, of course, he is now wearing No. 1. Loucheiz Purifoy. And now Anthony Richardson and Derek Wingo. Maybe the most famous player at UF to wear it since Tebow was Eddy Pineiro, and he wore it because Judd Davis told him fans would be wearing his No. 15 jerseys in the stadium.
4. Danny Wuerffel’s No. 7 was a special number worn by a special player. Since he left UF, it’s not a long list of great players who have worn the digit. Will Grier for a half season, Duke Dawson. Cornelius Ingram. Both Brock Berlin and Jesse Palmer, two quarterbacks who couldn’t hold the job. No offense guys. I’m just saying it isn’t a list of who’s who players. It is now worn by Jeremiah Moon, who I believe will have a breakout season this year.
5. That brings us to Steve Spurrier’s 11. Of course, the number was retired along with Scot Brantley’s 55 until Spurrier came back to coach and unretired the numbers. The most significant No. 11 that Spurrier coached was linebacker Ben Hanks. He gave him the number because he fought so hard to get him into school. The most famous of all was last year’s No. 11 Kyle Trask (now wearing No. 2 for the Bucs). There were some good players who wore it in the Urban Meyer era such as Jordan Reed and Riley Cooper. And later there was Demarcus Robinson. So, not bad. Today, it is worn by linebacker Mohamoud Diabate and quarterback Jalen Kitna. Kitna is only the second QB since Spurrier to wear that number.