Forrest Gump, The Greatest Coach Ever

            The title of The Alligator on October 18, 2010 read, “Gump Trumps: Urban finally fires Steve Addazio after the Gators’ second straight loss in The Swamp and third straight overall.  And an unlikely, but apparently qualified replacement has been put into place, Forrest Gump a former Alabama All-American, and current turf manager at UF.”  It was a joyous day on campus the day that Addazio was fired, however there was a lot of questioning about whether or not Gump was going to be a good replacement because he had never coached before, and didn’t seem like the brightest person in the world.  However, when the Georgia game rolled around he quieted all the doubters with a 70-10 old-fashioned whooping of the Bulldogs in which the offense was only stopped on a Mike Pouncey botched snap resulting in a turnover.  The Gators went on to win their next four games by a combined score of 267- 34, including huge wins over then number 10 South Carolina, and in-state rival FSU.  These wins miraculously propelled the gators into the SEC championship where they got a chance to avenge their 6-31 loss to Alabama earlier in the season.  Behind Gump’s amazingly simple play calling he was able to unleash the true talent of the team and lead them to a 31-6 victory that salvaged a season that at one point seemed like it was going to be an embarrassment for anyone associated with the team.  In a post-game interview when Gump was asked about how he chose to call his plays he simply replied, “I just opened up the book and pointed to a play and that’s what we ran.  That’s all I have to say about that.”  And another reporter asked him how it feels to win a championship he said, “good, I like winning.”

            I chose to write about Forrest Gump taking over for Addazio because even though Gator football might not be a big story nationally it certainly is a big deal to people on this campus and to me in particular.  I obviously had to alter the event greatly to have Forrest fit into it, and even talked about things that haven’t happened yet.  The post-game interviews showed Forrest reacting to his fame by being very humble, mainly due to his cluelessness as to how big of an event it was.  This is the same kind of reaction he had to the other big events he came across in the movie, like meeting the presidents.