Gator Band

@CoachJonSumrall Praying for peace, comfort, and hope for you and your family during this time of immense transitions for you all.

desirestreet.org sonofasaint.org illuminations.bible

@Sir_Pyro1 @AllKindsWeather You don't speak for the band

@AllKindsWeather Currently in the Band at UF. We’ll only play what we’re allowed to but if someone higher up than our directors give us the go ahead to play and taunt the other team we would absolutely love that (like with Penalty). Hoping Sumrall can pull some strings to let that happen!

I want to win games. Because, duh. We all do. But almost as important: I want to do it with SWAGGER. With an ATTITUDE. I want opposing teams and their fans DEVASTATED after playing Florida. Up 35-3? Clear the bench, put the backups in. And then you score that last touchdown. LSU has trolled the shit out of us with their band for years. If we beat them? You tell our band to play Neck in the closing seconds to make fun of them. FSU… same thing. We’re up 41-6, you score another touchdown and you make the band taunt them with their own war chant so our fans can mock them. And rest assured, that severed Seminole head will be back next year (maybe some toy spears our guy can snap in half too). Tennessee had a little too much fun taunting us with blowup alligators and chomping this year. We beat them? We play Rocky Top at the end to make fun of them. Georgia? We have a ways to go to catch up with them, one win isn’t gonna do it. But same idea: run the score up, walk the dog on a leash, sing To Hell With Georgia… etc. “But we’re supposed to be better than that, this isn’t nice or classy!” Great observation. That’s the fucking point. That is, quite literally, EXACTLY what we’re going for. Nobody’s arguing in favor of downright bad sportsmanship; there’s an obvious line between just being bad people and enjoying the fruits of your labor. But it’s time Gator football not only wins again, but becomes fun again. Time to go back to the days of Spurrier blowing you out on the field and then rubbing it in with presser soundbites, or Urban calling timeouts to rub in a beating you more than deserved. That’s how Gator football works. We score points in bunches and then we rub your face in it until our hand cramps up from doing it so much. If that’s not for you, go root for South Carolina or Illinois. Hoping Jon Sumrall is the guy who can get us back to those days. Because that’s the type of attitude that will do it. Go Gators!

@BenSasse We're all praying for you and your family during this most precious time!

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

@NewPalBand @BarryLHouser What are your other 3 links?? They could benefit a lot of teachers!!

@BarryLHouser This talk is one of four links I have in a file for days when I’m struggling to find the positive. She is SO inspiring.

THIS!!!!💯‼️

Mizzou fan to UF band members after landing in St Louis “You’ve come a long way to get you a— kicked.” Stay classy #Gators

@USEmbassyDublin @USAmbIreland Excited to bring the University of Florida Gator Marching Band to Ireland this week for performances in Cork St. Patrick's Parade, Limerick International Band Championships and Dublin's Merrion Square!! Come see us and say hi! @UF @Floridagators

Let’s Go Gator Band Fans!! Time to give!! givingday.ufl.edu/campaigns/gato…

@PresidentFuchs @PresidentFuchs Thank You, Sir for your gracious, genuine and humble leadership for the past 8 years! May the Lord bless you and Mrs. Fuchs the way you both have blessed us!!

@FLRecruits @coach_bnapier @FloridaGators @katieturner0087 @ScottStricklin NO!

Should The Gators get black jerseys in 2023👀

@USEmbassyDublin The Gator Band is coming to Ireland for three performances March 17 (Cork), 19 (Limerick) and at Merion Square in Dublin on March 20!! Hope to see you there!! Go USA! Go Gators!

"The committed person gets both the opportunity and the results." A Tiny Thought worth reading in the @farnamstreet newsletter this week. fs.blog/brain-food/oct…

Be someone who handles hard better.

UFPD says good bye and fare thee well to one of our own. Major William "Brad" Barber started his career with UFPD in 1996 and will end his career today, 2/28/2022. He retired as a Major, Assistant Director of Safety and Security. Let us all celebrate with Major Barber.

@GatorsFB YES!!!

The #UFuture is bright.

@AllKindsWeather @FloridaGators @GatorsFB @uflorida @SEC @GerreReynoldsVO @PresidentFuchs

One retweet = 1 vote!! #ProBowlVote  Go vote for me!

Scott Stricklin said he has no comment on the story The Alligator released regarding the emails from B.B. Staples Read the story here alligator.org/article/2021/1…

@AllKindsWeather @CoachDanMullen Thanks Coach Mullen for being a class act who always cared about the players and the students!!

@CoachDanMullen Thanks for 2018 LSU, 2019 Auburn, 2020 Georgia. Thanks for 3-0 vs FSU & Miami. Thanks for 3 straight NY6 Bowls and two top-10 finishes. Thanks for the 🏆🏆 in 2006 & 2008. Thanks for— at least temporarily— restoring the #GatorStandard. Thanks for everything, @CoachDanMullen 🤝