iPhone4 vs iPhone 3GS - My Take

As a super-early adopter of the iPhone4 (Apple actually sent me one the day before launch date!), I'm often asked by current iPhone 3GS users if the iPhone4 is worth the upgrade. Now that I've had mine for nearly a week, I'm pasting a recent email response to just this type of inquiry so I can just point folks to this post!

**********************************************
June 29, 2010

W-
Stopped by the AT&T store and confirmed that I can upgrade my iPhones basically for free ($200 fee, but I can probably sell the phones on craigslist for around that amount).

Now, do I do it? I would love to get Chuck’s input/advice 3GS vs 4. The 4’s I played with at the store seemed nice, but I did notice scratches on the glass which I have not seen on the 3GS. Not sure about other issues, battery life, speed, durability, etc.

Scott

**********************************************
June 10, 2010

S–
First, I assume you’ve already updated your 3GS to iOS4? If not, you may want to, because a lot of the functionality marketed for the iPhone4 (multi-tasking, folder management, unified email/threading, etc…) are not specific to the iP4, but part of iOS4—which is a free download for the 3GS. You probably already know this, but figured I’d mention just in case.

Aside from iOS4, iP4 has an outstanding display compared with the 3GS, longer battery life (ie. I can get through almost 1.5 days now, versus not quite making a full day with the 3GS), better camera (including front-facing camera), faster processor, use of iMovie for editing video on your iPhone (only for iP4—which is surprising to me), and it’s new video call functionality called ‘FaceTime’. The FaceTime functionality is limited in usefulness by the need to have both phones on wifi (and both have to be iP4’s)—so it’s more for showing off than any real practical use unless you have specific calls pre-scheduled with folks. I haven’t seen any issues with the glass (it’s supposed to be better than the 3GS, though), and the iP4 ‘feels’ more solid and state-of-the-art. So, I assume more durable.

From my perspective, if you love your 3GS but also
• have a need to do a lot of video capturing and want it in HD, or
• have to have 20% longer battery life, or
• have a need to do video conferencing with another iP4 user who is on wifi,
then go ahead and get the iP4. Otherwise, I’d stick with the 3GS and wait another 6 months for a new iPhone announcement--say January-ish!

Also note that, with the iP4, there are reception issues due to the fact that the stainless steel band that goes around the phone also serves as the antenna, so when you hold the phone in a way where your skin bridges the gap between the lower left hand pieces—you will slowly see a deterioration of your cell reception. I have the ‘apple bumper’ that goes around my phone, so this is not an issue for me…but you may not want to shell out the additional $29 for the bumper.

If you don't truly love your 3GS or hate AT&T (I keep wavering in and out of this camp), move over to an Android OS device, which I foresee taking over market share and app development in the next 3 years. The new Droid X looks very nice!

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Chuck

Musings of GC - April 5, 2010

I decided today to write up a pseudo-stream of consciousness post today, with random fodder on things going on over the weekend...

RODDICK
Congrats to Andy Roddick for winning the title at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. This tournament will always be 'The Lipton' in my mind, and is probably the most prestigious non-major out there. He showed the ability to change strategies in the middle of matches (serve and volley against Rafa!), and looks like he's going to be a force in the Majors this year! Go Andy, Go!

REDS
Red's Opening Day is today! I'm still amazed at the level of enthusiasm the whole city has for Opening Day--given that they haven't been relevant (ie. playoffs) in over a decade. Good luck to the Reds...their pitching should keep them in games this year--but where are the runs going to come from?

GOLF
Had my first two golf rounds of the season a few weeks back, and it was ugly. Shot in the 90's on both days (94 at Royal Links in Vegas, 90 at Boulder Creek in Boulder City). Amazingly, I was outstanding off the tee, and it was my short game that blew chunks--specifically anything where a wedge, touch and creativity was needed. I'm looking forward to playing more this year, since we decided to increase our golf membership at Ivy Hills now that Wendy has committed to playing more this year!

iPAD
Got the iPad over the weekend. I admit that I was very skeptical about this device when I first heard Steve Jobs announce it in January (come on...it's just a jumbo iPod Touch!), and I loved the following edited video of the announcement--stripping the announcement down to only adjectives. Talk about vomit-inducing sappiness! How in the world could this thing be 'magical'?




However, after having mine for over 2 days, I retract my cynicism. The iPad is definitely going to change the game of personal computing. The first thing to realize is that it's target market is not really techie, gadget geeks like myself--it's for the normal, non-techie consumer. It's very easy to envision the entire population of average folks having a similar device to consume media--newspaper, magazine, web content, video all to be accessed with their tablet. iPhones are merely complementary accessories to the tablet. Not sure how long before tablets become the norm (5 years?), but definitely the tablet market will finally begin to take off this year--and consumers are going to reap the benefits of R&D departments in all the big manufacturers trying to get new, innovative product lines to fill this newly created demand for tablet devices. Hooray!

ZINIO
One of the reasons I'm excited by the iPad in the short-term is that it leverages the Zinio app much better than the iPhone does. The race to how content is created and served up has started, and Zinio already provides digital content to the iPad for many magazines, periodicals, newspapers--so they seem to have a head start. Regardless of who wins the digital content race, the consumer viewing platform of the future is currently Apple's to lose.

SCARY TV
Ugh. I thought the Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati was in bad shape and in need of renovation--but the Tappan Zee in NYC is way worse. History Channel program that aired over the weekend on the 'Crumbling of America' highlights the T-Z bridge as the poster child of bridges on the verge of collapse. Beware, Hudson commuters!

EASTER WEEKEND
Celebrated Easter with the family and neighbors... Started out at 6:30am with the girls waking up early to get into their Easter baskets/presents.




Candy is to Kids, as Bloody Mary is to Daddy! Good times! This helped us survive a special Easter Time Warner service disruption--but this one was caused by neighbor John. He cut our service off while edging out the new landscape 'feature' we're jointly putting in to hide our utility boxes. To John's defense (kinda), those stickers plastered all over the utility boxes that say 'Call before you dig!' are a bit faded in areas!

GATOR FOOTBALL
Sounds like the Gators spring practice is going well, with few injuries. Defense should be stout next year--which will be needed as the Offense continues to carve out it's identity. John Brantley will be well-known nationally by the end of the year.

TIGER WOODS
It appears that Tiger is staying on the down-low at Augusta, sneaking in Sunday and seemingly being humble and apologetic. Homey screwed up. He knows he has a problem. Sounds like he's working on addressing the problem. The humanizing of the Tiger brand has already started, and I hope he wins the Master's and balls his eye's out at the end. More importantly, I hope that those tears are real and not contrived.

TIM TEBOW
Because I get asked nearly daily, let me go on record to say that I think Tim Tebow will be a playoff quarterback--but only if he gets a year or two backing up a QB star today: Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, or even Carson Palmer. If he goes to a team like Buffalo and is thrown to the wolves right away, he will not do well--short and long term. Regardless, though, Tebow WILL play in games this year regardless of where he goes... more than likely in a special offensive package, ala the 'Wildcat'. Will he be a HOF'er? Probably not. Will he make folks sick of hearing his name in the media for another 5 years? Absolutely.

Just What Urban Meyer's Doctors Ordered

Urban Meyer’s doctors should be somewhat relieved.

While they probably can’t be too happy that he has yet to officially start his leave of absence, clearly his actions in the recruiting arena over the last two weeks are paying off with big dividends—and ultimately may lead to the healthy recovery that he knows he needs.

Last week, going into the two biggest high-school all-star games in the country, the Florida Gators already had the #1 rated recruiting class in college football, with stud recruits like Jonathan Dowling, Demar Dorsey, Mack Brown, Ian Silberman, and Leon Orr having already firmly committed to the Gators.

However, Urban Meyer’s work on the phones and his coaching staff’s work in the field (Meyer didn’t travel much after the Sugar Bowl, instead sending out Steve Addazio and his staff for in-home visits) yielded major results over the last two weeks.

During yesterday’s U.S Army All-American Bowl and last week’s Under Armour All-American Game, the Gators received a bundle of verbal commitments during the live telecast of each game. DE Dominque Easley (NY), WR Chris Dunkley (FL) committed during the Under Armour game, while DE/TE Ronald Powell (CA), LB/RB Matt Elam (FL), and DT Sharrif Floyd (PA) committed during the US Army game. The nicest touch was seeing the US Army in the background doing the Gator Chomp during Ronald Powell’s commitment.

This brings the totals for the current 2010 Florida Gator recruiting class to 24 commitments, with a staggering 15 coming from ESPN 150 players. With the Gators still in the running for undeclared 4-star and 5-star players like offensive linemen Seantrel Henderson and Matt James, quarterbacks Jackson Jeffcoat and Andrew Hendrix, top linebacker Jordan Hicks, and receivers Christian Green, Ivan McCartney, Kadron Boone and Kyle Prater (who may be wavering on his USC commit with the recent Pete Carroll news), this class is truly stacking up to be one for the ages, and perhaps the best class ever.

So, even though Urban Meyer has continued to go in to the office following the Sugar Bowl (going against what Florida’s Athletic Director Jeremy Foley intended), it is clear that by doing so he has been able to not only salvage a very good recruiting class, but rather grow it into an all-time great one.

My best guess is that Urban Meyer will continue to go into the office and make calls to recruits up until National Signing day on February 3^rd.

But after this class is signed, sealed and delivered, I hope Meyer takes some real time off, not only relaxing with his family and close friends, but also truly thinking about the personal changes he needs to make to ensure that he can continue to lead the Florida Gator football program while eliminating the high-levels of stress it brings to him.

My opinion is that Meyer brings a lot of stress upon himself throughout the football year, mainly because he is very ‘hands on’ as the head coach, and truly invests every ounce of energy he has directly into his players and coaches. To ultimately reduce his stress levels over the longer term, Meyer needs to figure out how to effectively incorporate the word ‘delegation’ into his personal management style as CEO of the Gators. Giving up coaching special teams would be the first step. Trusting his staff to handle more of the day-to-day decisions would be another step he could take. How to delegate in a way that works best for him is something that only he can do, and I'm sure that is what he means when he says he needs to take time to "figure it out".

However, regardless of whether Urban Meyer figures out how to change ‘HOW’ he manages the team, one thing is for sure… With the talent in the Gator’s 2010 recruiting class, his stress level should be greatly diminished over the next three years—which is just what the doctor ordered!

A Day at the Cincinnati ATP Event

The 2009 quarterfinals at Cincinnati's premiere tennis event was just too good to pass up. With the Western & Southern ATP Master event occurring every August here in my own backyard as the last big tune up to the US Open, I somehow managed to not attend a single match this year... that is until I saw the men's quarterfinal schedule.

The top 4 players in the world all playing on the same court that day made it a must see event, so I took a half-day of vacation and sprung for box seat tickets to go see Andy Murray play Julien Benneteau, Roger Federer play Leyton Hewitt, Novak Djokavic play Gilles Simon, and Rafael Nadal play Tomas Berdych--all on a sun-filled day in Mason, OH.

First, this event is outstanding. The amount of access to the greatest players in the world is mind-boggling. The crowds are large, but not overwhelming...with easy access to watch players warm up on the side practice courts, interact with them, get autographs, etc. Try doing this at the US Open where you are lucky to catch a glimpse of the top players... let alone interact with them.

The Murray match started things off with a surprise, as Andy's serve really let him down in losing the first set. He scrapped back against Benneteau to win the second set (with set point being a monster 53 stroke rally that ended with a standing ovation--even though Benneteau completely choked on an easy overhead to win the point), and simply wore down Julien in the third set. Murray's serving woes would continue to exist the following day in his semi-final match against Federer (double fault on match point!), and unless he gets more consistent with his serve in the next two weeks, I can see Murray getting ousted in the 4th round of the US Open. He is moving well, and hitting his ground strokes as fluidly as ever, but hitting only 50% of his first serves and double digit double faults will be his downfall if it continues in New York.

After some quick shopping in the vendor tent area, I settled in for the 2nd quarterfinal match. Roger Federer playing former #1 Leyton Hewitt was the big draw of the day, and the Swiss flags were out in force. Watching Roger in person does not disappoint, as his effortless groundstrokes (always with pace and depth) are just amazing...and he makes it look so easy. Leyton put up a good fight, but ultimately Roger wore him down for a straight set win. I was actually surprised at how many unforced errors the Australian had on his backhand side--once his most consistent side. Leyton's patella injury also seemed to slow him down a bit, but I expect him to play into the 3rd round of the US Open. Roger, on the other hand, appears to be back in top form. Approaching the net to shake Hewitt's hand after winning match point, Roger lobbed a ball into the upper stands directly into the middle of a section that was holding a "Shhh...Genius at Work" bed sheet plastered with the Swiss cross--an obvious message of 'thank you for your support' from Roger. Federer's precision with this lob was just as impressive as his man-handling of Hewitt.

The Djokovic-Simon match was close throughout, with "The Joker" winning the pivotal points for a straight set win. I was surprised at how skinny Simon is, and wonder about whether he has the endurance to go deep in the US Open. He also has an awkward starting stance with his knees locked... can't be good over the long run. Novak wasn't overpowering, but just did not make many mistakes and was moving extremely well. I'm expecting a deep run at the US Open for Djokovic.

The final match with Nadal-Berdych was a coming out party for Rafa, as he finally showed some of his 2008 form and movement. Didn't appear that his knees were bothering him any longer, and he wore down a sprite Berdych in straight sets. Although Rafa would lose the next day to Djokovic, I think he'll make it to the semi-finals at the Open... but don't expect him to win his first Grand Slam in Flushing Meadows.

On a side note, I cannot say enough about this event and, specifically Roger Federer. I have always been a Federer admirer, as I truly believe that he is the greatest player in tennis history (15 Grand Slams...and counting!). But watching him spend nearly a half-hour after the match signing autographs for the sea of fans awaiting his exit from the player's lounge was impressive and surprising. Many players rushed through the autograph-seeking masses with nary an acknowledgment (Tsonga got a resounding 'BOO' from the crowd when he rushed through after his doubles match without signing anything, not even for a little boy wearing a Tsonga shirt holding a new oversized tennis ball for signatures), the amount of time and the level of interaction from the world's #1 was amazing (even though I'm sure he wanted to get back to his wife and baby twins at the hotel). Roger is truly a class act in every way.

I highly recommend this event to the avid tennis fan, as it would be hard to find a tournament with the amount of fan access to all of the world's best women and men tennis players in the world. Practice courts are never overwhelmed with gawkers, and where else can you chat up with Brad Gilbert (left image) as he's hitting balls with fellow ESPN commentator Darren Cahill (Brad won this tournament in 1989, defeating Stefan Edberg in the final). The Cincinnati ATP event claims to be the oldest professional tennis tournament in the United States (to have not moved to another city), and it is truly a gem of an tennis event.

The results from my day of tennis gawking brought dream semi-final matchups between the top 4 players in the world, with over 20 grand slams between them all!! With each player playing well, this sets up for an exciting 2009 US Open!

It's Official: Gators Consensus #1 In Pre-season College Football Rankings

Today was a glorious day. One I look forward to every year!

This morning I stopped by the local grocery where I occasionally stop for coffee before work. After I grabbed a venti Pike Place, I passed by the magazine aisle -- and there they were, in all of their wonderful, colorful, glossy gridiron glory... 2009 pre-season college football magazines from Lindy's, Athlon, and The Sporting News!!

Without hesitating, I snapped up a copy of each magazine--taking them from the back of the rack where the less 'violated' copies were (don't want to buy one that, GASP, has already been opened and read by someone loitering in the aisle, too cheap to buy their own). I paid for them in the self-check out line, popped the magazines in my work bag, and went off to work looking forward reading them.

Now that I'm home and have quickly reviewed each magazine (I'll give them a proper detailed analysis over the weekend), this year's magazines validated what I had already suspected since Tim Tebow declared that he was returning for his senior year... The Florida Gators will be the consensus favorites to win the natoinal championship going into this years' college football.

Each magazine listed the Florida Gators as the pre-season #1 team, referencing the Gators' combination of talent, returning starters (the entire first team AND second team defense is back!), coaching, and favorable schedule (no 'Bama, no Ole Miss, and only tough road game is at LSU). Now, realize that these magazines rarely pick the same team as pre-season #1... so the fact that they all agree on Florida reinforces the fact that the Gators SHOULD be playing in the Rose Bowl in January. Their agreement also makes me positive that the coaches poll and AP poll will also have the Gators in the #1 spot in late August.

However, while it was nice to see each magazine all thought my beloved Gators were the #1 team in the country, I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach that it's too good to be true. The 'what-ifs' started to sneak into my head. The Gators will be favored going into every game they play this year, but I don't think it's a slam-dunk like the magazines posit. College football has too many variables and moving parts during the course of a long season--and rarely does the consensus pre-season pick make it through unscathed (see Ohio State in 2006).

IF the Gators keep Tebow healthy (sure, John Brantley had a great spring, but is he ready to lead the Gators to national championship?), IF injuries don't hit the offensive line, IF our skill players don't fumble away a game (like they did against Ole Miss in 2008), IF the Gator defense doesn't get complacent with their incredible depth... it doesn't matter how good the team is on paper, there are always 'IFs' that can in the way.

I'm hoping the Gators whiff on the IFs this year to take their 3rd football national championship in four years.

Athlon Top 10:
1) Florida
2) Oklahoma
3) Texas
4) USC
5) Ohio State
6) Alabama
7) Penn State
8) Virginia Tech
9) Oklahoma State
10) Ole Miss

Lindy's Top 10:
1) Florida
2) Texas
3) Oklahoma
4) USC
5) Virginia Tech
6) LSU
7) Alabama
8) Ohio State
9) Ole Miss
10) Oklahoma State

Sporting News Top 10:
1) Florida
2) Texas
3) Oklahoma
4) USC
5) Ole Miss
6) Virginia Tech
7) Oregon
8) LSU
9) Ohio State
10) Oklahoma State

WHAT DO YOU THINK? ARE THE GATORS GOING TO RUN THE TABLE FOR YET ANOTHER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP?

A Night of Social Media Experiments

A funny thing happened on the evening of March 11, 2009. Two separate, unrelated 'experiments' were performed using social media and emerging Web2.0 technologies. What're the odds?

First, P&G hosted a "digital hack" night with CEOs and leaders of major companies in the digital marketing space. Executives from Facebook, Google, Nielsen and a wide array of other digital media-relevant companies joined select P&G marketing leaders in a special event to better educate themselves on how social and digital media can be better used by marketers. However, this was not your standard lecture/presentation event. Instead, it was a real-time contest between all 40 participants that were split into 4 teams of 10. The objective of the contest was to sell as many Tide t-shirts as possible in four hours by only using digital marketing tools like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, etc... All revenue from the t-shirts sold was to go to charity (specifically the "Loads of Hope" charity for disaster victims). Suddenly, Twitter and Facebook were awash with status updates and Tweets promoting the charity through 4 different websites (one for each team) that enabled folks to order their Tide t-shirts. The word "Tide" was in the top 10 of words twittered that night, and the four teams together raised $50,000 worth of shirt sales through viral digital marketing. The Tide brand then matched that amount for a total of $100,000 raised for the "Loads of Hope" charity. Not bad for four hours of focused digital marketing!

Then, a few hours after the P&G 'experiment' finished, I watched my new favorite Late Night host, Jimmy Fallon, take the stage with an idea for a Twitter-specific experiment. Right after Fallon's segment with the founders of Digg.com, he kicked off an experiment to see if he could get a participant in the studio audience by the name of Bryan Brinkman to become the most followed person on Twitter (citing that he wanted him to be more followed than Barack Obama--even though I don't believe the POTUS is actually the most followed any longer). Brinkman started with 7 followers, and as of this post (less than 24 hours later), Brinkman now has 25,367 followers. Still a ways from the 391,640 followers that Barry Obama has, but not bad for a simple shout out during Jimmy's new late night show:




Personally, I love Jimmy Fallon's show, as he seems to be creating a niche as the late night host who is bringing social media to the mainstream. Makes sense since his target demographic is the 18-25 age group who are all technically hip and fully immersed in these social mediums. His ratings thus far indicate that he's doing a great job of reaching that audience, as well as growing share with the older segment as well.

Both experiments were interesting, and I participated in both (yes, I am now following Bryan Brinkman and bought 2 Tide t-shirts from Team 2: blue for me, green for my wife). And they make for good press, promotion, yada yada. One lingering question I have, though, is why do we still need to 'experiment'? Isn't it already obvious what the power of social networks can have in influencing ideas and actions in the masses?

Regardless, I must admit each experiment brought an element of entertainment to my normally boring Wednesday night. I just hope my Tide shirts fit, and I'm about to stop following Bryan Brinkman because, well, he tweets way too much about things I just don't care about!

Gators' slim NCAA hopes stay alive

Phew! Hurdle number one has been overcome. Two more wins, and I think the Gators squeak into the tourney!

By beating the Kentucky Wildcats in the O'Dome today, the Gators' faint hopes for getting into the NCAA Tournament are still alive. After losing 3 straight to LSU, Tennessee and a horrible loss at Mississippi State, the Gators finally came through today in a must-win game.

However, I hope the NCAA Selection Committee just sees the box score and didn't actually watch the game, because it was a sloppy, offensively stagnant game played by two teams that were desperate for a win--and desperate for any semblance of an offense to show up.

Neither team looked like they belonged in the Big Dance, with double-digit turnovers and poor shooting by both teams. Regardless, the Gators had timely 3-point shooting, and a win is a win. Kind of nice to send Billy Gillespie to the NIT this year--as he did to the Gators last year.

The win by the Gators assures them of a first round game in the SEC Tournament on Thursday against Arkansas--a team that the Gators beat handily by fifteen points earlier in the season. If Florida can beat Arkansas again, they will play Auburn on Friday--a team that the Gators also beat earlier in the season by three points on the road.

Win those two games, and Florida should squeak into the dance with an at-large bid. Of course, it would be nice if they could win the SEC tournament, but at this point I'll settle for just having their name called on Selection Sunday.

I wrote an article earlier in the season forecasting that the Gators would be in this nail-biting situation due to their lack of size inside, and they've made me look somewhat prophetic. I still don't think the Gators will go far in the brackets even if they sneak in (and I think next year is the BIG year for Florida!), but getting into the NCAA tourney and losing early is still better than going to the Final Four of the NIT.

Just two more wins Gators... two more!

20 Years of Gator Athletics - Top Five Last Second Heartbreaks

Warning: Reliving some of these memories may cause headaches, heart failure, and a need to look at 1996, 2006 and 2008 football highlight films, or 2006 and 2007 basketball highlights

After having written a blog on the Top Five greatest Gator plays and hits, I decided to put together a follow-up list of the biggest heartbreaks in Florida athletics over the last 20 years. The list is football heavy (only one entry from basketball), and after listing them out, I was surprised to see that each of the football heartbreaks come from teams in our neighboring state of Alabama, and that Auburn was the source of most of my heartburn.

As usual, the list is highly subjective, so please comment with your own heartbreak memories!! Without further adieu, here's my...

Top Five Gator Heartbreaks

#5 - Bama's 2nd chance XP
Alabama 40, Florida 39 OT - 1999

In the Swamp, this heartbreak moment took Gator fans to the extremes on the emotional meter three straight times at the end of the game as the #3 Gators took a 30-game home field winning streak into their game against #21 Alabama. In overtime, after a Gator touchdown, Jeff Chandler missed the extra point. On Alabama's OT possession, Shaun Alexander scampers in for a TD. The amazing part came when Chris Kemp trotted out and MISSED the game-winning extra point...or so we thought. Turns out the Gators were offsides, and given a second chance, Kemp kicks the game winner to beat Florida 40-39 in OT. Ugh.





#4 - Emmitt breaks down
Auburn 10, Florida 7 - 1989

On 4th and 10, Reggie Slack completed a 25-yard pass with 20 seconds left to defeat the Gators by three points... the defensive secondary breakdown on this one play completely erased a spectacular defensive effort and provided the backdrop for the infamous images of Emmitt Smith weeping on the sideline after going his entire college career having never beaten Auburn.







#3 - Blue Jays hit buzzer-beater
Creighton 83, Florida 82 - 2002

The only basketball game to make my list. In the 2002 NCAA Basketball Tournament, I was stunned when the #5 seed Gators lost in the first round to Kyle Corver and the Creighton Blue Jays on a last second 3-pointer that proved to end the college basketball career of Udonis Haslem. This loss, coupled with the first round exit to Manhattan two years later, caused many around the country to begin to question Billy Donovan's ability to win big games. Fortunately, the 2006 and 2007 national titles helped erase those silly insinuations.





#2 - Duval last second FG
Auburn 23, Florida 20 - 2001

Florida went into Auburn ranked #1 in the country with heralded QB Rex Grossman, RB Earnest Graham and WR duo Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney. However, Auburn kicker Damon Duval kicks a last second FG for Auburn from 44 yards out to defeat the Gators 23-20. Auburn only had 239 yards of total offense, but Gator turnovers turned out to be the key to the game, as Grossman was picked off four times, and a fumbled punt snap essentially gave Auburn a free touchdown.

After this loss, Florida would still play itself back into the National Championship picture late in the season, controlling it's destiny going into its final game of the season against Tennessee (a game that was rescheduled from earlier in the year due to a hurricane in Florida). Florida would lose to Tennessee by two points, and would have to settle for a win in the Orange Bowl against Maryland--in what turned out to be Steve Spurrier's last game coaching the Gators.





#1 - Patrick Nix to Frank Sanders
Auburn 36, Florida 33 - 1994

This was one of the most gut-wrenching game I attended at the Swamp, as I sat in the lower deck of the North end zone and watched Frank Sanders catch a last second floater from Patrick Nix to allow Auburn to break a seven game Auburn losing streak in Gainesville. More importantly, this knocked Florida out of the #1 ranking and kept the Gators from being in the National Championship picture that year (the same year that saw Florida choke in the 4th quarter against FSU in the infamous 31-31 tie in Tallahassee). Why we threw the ball on 3rd down with just over a minute left in the game I'll never know--as this was the only reason Auburn had enough time to execute their last drive...ending with this heartbreaker of a play for Gator fans.





Honorable Mention:

Ole Miss blocked XP in 2008 - This play would be in the Top 5 if Florida hadn't come back that season to win the National Championship after Tim Tebow's infamous 'promise'.

Missed FG in OT against Tennessee in 1998 - Gator kicker Collins Cooper misses a 34-yard FG in the first OT that would have tied the game... instead giving Tennessee a 20-17 win. Tennessee would go on to go undefeated and win the National Championship that year, Florida would go on to destroy Donovan McNabb and Syracuse in the Orange Bowl, and Bob Stoops would leave Florida to take the Oklahoma head coaching position.

Tennessee last second 50 yard FG in 2004 - Tennessee kicker James Wilhoit makes up for an earlier missed XP with a 50 yard FG to beat the Gators 30-28 in Ron Zook's last season as the head coach of Florida.



Do you have other heartbreak memories? Post them below in the comments!!


crh