Gator Sports

It's been four months since the Florida Gators football team last took the field against Oregon State at the Las Vegas Bowl. As many recall, it wasn't the best showing as Florida fell 30-3.

For the first time since that loss, the Gators are set to take the field tonight as Florida puts on its Orange and Blue Game, which is set to showcase what Billy Napier, his staff and the Gators have worked on during spring camp, which got underway in early March.

"Certainly, excited about all of the Gator Nation showing up," Napier said. "Really great opportunity, free admission, 7:30 under the lights, great weather, hopefully, and looking forward to watching what I think is a team that has worked extremely hard."

As Napier said, admission to Florida's spring game, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m., is free. However, those who aren't able to make the Thursday night showcase can catch the game on ESPN+ and SECN+ or listen on floridagators.com.

Readers can also follow along with the game as Gatorsports.com provides updates live from The Swamp below.

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9:55 p.m. | Team Orange wins on a last-second field goal

After missing his first two kicks from 24 and 47 yards out, Trey Smack splits the uprights from 46 yards out to lead Team Orange to a 10-7 win as time expires.

9:18 p.m. | Heading to the fourth

An uneventful third quarter comes and goes as neither offense manages to find the end zone in the third.

Both the Orange and Blue squads gear up for the final quarter of action as Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down" plays through The Swamp.

8:51 p.m. | Gators land 5-star commitment

Class of 2024 safety Xavier Filsaime, the second-ranked safety in the 2024 recruiting cycle, commits to Billy Napier and the Gators during half time of the spring game.

Filsaime ranks in the top 30 for 2024 recruits.

8:41 p.m. | Halftime

After one half of action, the Orange and Blue teams are knotted up at 7-7.

Play is set to resume in 15 minutes.

8:37 p.m. | Orange Team knots it up just before half

With just 13 seconds left to play in the first half, Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz finds Kahleil Jackson slanting towards the end zone, good for a 10-yard score. Trey Smack would follow with a successful PAT try.

The game is tied at 7-7 with 13 seconds to play in the first half.

8:10 p.m. | Blue Team scores

From 16 yards out, quarterback Jack Miller connects with Marcus Burke for the first score of the night. The Blue Team traveled 82 yards during the scoring drive. Adam Mihalek's PAT is good.

7-0, Blue over Orange with 8:48 to play in the second quarter

7:59 p.m. | End of the first quarter

It was a slow-rolling first quarter as both teams' offenses sputtered. Quarterbacks Graham Mertz (2-4) and Jack Miller (1-4) continue to share snaps for the Gators.

Meanwhile, both squads have combined for three sacks.

7:34 p.m. | Kickoff

Adam Mihalek, a member of the Blue team, kicks it away to the Orange team. Trevor Etienne returns it out to the 25-yard line.

7:28 p.m. | The Gators take the field

Using both tunnels, the Florida Gators take the field, running past Billy Napier, who was the first out of the home team tunnel.

7:25 p.m. | Lauren LeMasters is honorary Mr. Two Bits

The University of Florida's student body president Lauren LeMasters leads The Swamp in the Mr. Two Bits cheer ahead of tonight's Orange and Blue game.

7:00 p.m. | Nearly 300 recruits pile into The Swamp

While hosting the Orange and Blue Game on a Thursday night might not have been a popular choice for fans, it seems to be paying off on the recruiting front as Billy Napier and the Gators have 290 recruits in attendance for tonight's game.

Where and when is the 2023 Orange and Blue Game?

When: 7:30 p.m. ET Thursday, April 13

Where: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville

How can I watch the Florida Gators Orange and Blue Game?

Live stream: ESPN+/SECN+ (subscription required)

How can I listen to the Florida spring football game on the radio?

Online radio: floridagators.com

In 1876, poet and author Sidney Lanier declared Gainesville a “place of much resort for invalids” and described Green Cove Springs as a popular winter resort where the mineral-laced waters could cure “rheumatism, gout, Bright’s disease of the kidneys, and such affections.”

The notion that many of Florida’s springs had spectacular healing powers was widely accepted at that time and attracted health seekers to our state even before it became a state in 1845.

The belief of Florida’s healing waters is even embedded in our foundation myth: the tale of a Spanish explorer searching for youth and renewal in an elusive spring. Historians widely agree that Ponce de León was not in fact seeking a fountain of youth when he landed on Florida’s shores in 1513.

But the indigenous people who inhabited our peninsula long before Europeans arrived found sacredness in nature and are thought to have had a particular veneration for springs. Legends throughout North America tell of Native Americans who bathed in springs for healing, and many springs such as Weeki Wachee and Wekiwa have names that originate in the Seminole language.

Northern tourists started coming to Florida for its health benefits as early as the 1820s, according to historian Tracy Revels, but it was not until 1840 that a number of spas “sprang up around the state’s freshwater springs.” Early spring-based spas flourished at White Sulphur Springs (White Springs) in North Florida and at Suwannee Springs, Orange Springs and Green Cove Springs.

After the Civil War, Gilded Age travelers continued to venture south to “take the waters” — the centuries-old term for the ritual of bathing in and drinking mineral waters. Many ancient cultures practiced ritual purification using water, and the Romans built elaborate structures around mineral springs, including the thermal springs at the city of Bath in England.

The tradition of “taking the waters” made its way from Europe to the United States at renowned spa communities such as Saratoga Springs, New York, and the mineral springs of western Virginia, visited by none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Many of our state’s renowned spring-based spas were in North Central Florida. The popularity of one, Marion County’s Orange Springs, peaked well before the Civil War, but you can still drink its water: Orange Springs water is bottled at a small plant near the spring today.

At its peak, Suwannee Springs near Live Oak had its own train station and a trolley to take visitors closer to the spa facilities, which included an elaborate 25-room hotel, cottages and a stone-bathhouse spring enclosure that still stands.

Worthington Springs, 20 miles from Gainesville in Union County, also had a large hotel adjacent to the spring, where the mineral water was said to be “famous for its cures of rheumatism, indigestion and kidney troubles.”

Healing powers were also promoted at Alachua County’s Magnesia Springs. A 1912 brochure published by the town of Hawthorne proclaimed that “there is no more healing water in the South for the stomach, bladder, kidney, and nervous diseases.” The waters were “laden with iron, magnesia, and Lithia,” according to the brochure.

Today, Central Florida springs remain popular for recreation and attract millions of visitors every year. They continue to be powerful economic engines throughout the region.

But many of Florida’s springs are threatened, and some have been lost forever. In 2004, the Gainesville Sun reported that the site of the Worthington Springs pool had become a parking lot. And there’s increasing evidence that springs, which historically attracted visitors for healing, might now be unhealthful, with elevated concentrations of nitrogen. An 8-ounce glass of water from Jackson Blue Springs has “the same nitrate level as six hot dogs,” a recent news article noted.

Now, “taking the waters” has a whole new meaning in Florida, as over-pumping the aquifer is one of the leading threats to our once-magical springs. For many years, people looked to those springs for healing. Now it’s time for us to heal our springs.

— Florida Book Award-winning author Rick Kilby will present “Where Healing Waters Flow: Taking the Waters in Florida” on Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Matheson History Museum. The 4 p.m. event is free, and parking is available on the east side of the Matheson, as well as the Law Office of Attorneys Folds and Walker, and the Kirby Smith Administration Center. For more information, call 352-378-2280 or email executivedirector@mathesonmuseum.org.

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It has been three years since Florida has played a spring game and Billy Napier has assured us that this is going to be played like a real game.

Which means some of it will not be pretty.

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And it won’t take long for the overreactions to begin.

Some things you see will never translate to Florida’s rugged 2022 schedule. Some of them will.

And it’s not like Napier and his staff will go off to an exclusive resort beach, put their feet up and sip frothy beers for the next month.

In fact, the next month is going to be critical for the 2022 football team because of the transfer portal.

In a perfect world, Napier will see all of the players he doesn’t think can contribute transfer out and players that can play transfer in.

But that’s for then and this is for now as the Gators get ready for their Orange and Blue debut.

Here are five things you shouldn’t worry too much about in the spring game.

Hey, I’m not saying you shouldn’t worry a little. But let’s remember that Napier has said he likes his first team on both sides of the ball, but behind them, well, not so much.

Anthony Richardson will get the start with the first-team offense and Jack Miller with the second. This is only the 15th practice for both quarterbacks under a new staff and it’s not like there are all kinds of talented skill players to get the ball to.

It could be a little rough.

Napier has stressed discipline and that is music to the ears of Florida fans who saw last year’s team finish 122nd in the country in penalties and 120th in penalty yards (out of 130 teams).

Spring games tend to be more lenient because coaches don’t want the game bogged down. Often, the officials are told to call only the most egregious of penalties.

On the other hand, Napier may want to send a message about discipline. But I think he wants the fans — and the recruits — to be entertained.

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Really, can you name the score of one spring game. Ever?

How about the last one, in 2019? It was 60-35 and saw touchdowns scored by Lito Sheppard and Chris Doering.

Spring games are always kind of weird in that way in that every touchdown or big play means someone failed on defense and every big defensive play means someone did something wrong on offense.

You are rooting for all of the laundry. Not many people walk into the game with a vested interest in who wins. And the ones that do probably have some kind of a bet.

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Yes, you want to see the players you hope will carry this team play well because it is a practice.

But often, the heroes of the day (or in this case, night) are players who are rewarded for being hard-working guys who rarely will see the field.

Or they are guys like Ian Skinner, who fought back from two knee injuries to light it up in the 2000 spring game. We were all ready to write the story when Steve Spurrier told the media Skinner wouldn’t be with the team next year.

He had tested positive for drugs and said someone slipped ecstasy into his drink.

There have been others like Chevon Walker, 74 rushing yards and a TD, who transferred away a month after the spring game. Or the 2015 game when Skylar Mornhinweg led the Orange in rushing and Jacob Guy in passing.

Or Christian Provencha throwing the game-winning touchdown pass for the Blue in 2011. Or Deandre Goins rushing for 45 yards while playing for both teams.

Spring games are mostly fun.

Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports

We get why the game is being played on Thursday night (recruiting, Easter weekend) and Florida is encouraging all Gators to show up.

But it is a Thursday and that reduces drastically the number of people who will come from out of town.

And so the estimated attendance will be in the middle of the pack in the SEC. And at some point, the SEC Network will show all of the attendances for spring games in a graphic and someone will say something about the Gator Nation not being excited about Billy Napier.

Relax.

The crowds for the real games are what matters. Not the free ones on a weekday night.

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Florida’s 2023 Orange and Blue game didn’t generate a ton of confidence in the new-look offense, especially at quarterback, as the game was decided on a 46-yard field goal from Trey Smack with no time left on the clock. Team Orange won, 10-7.

The spring game is always an interesting night for any college football team. Expectations are set for the coming season, but most fans know that what’s seen in April is rarely what you get in September.

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All eyes were on Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz, who is considered the favorite to start at quarterback over Jack Miller III, but neither signal-caller shined early. Both found a receiver for a score in the second quarter, but Mertz won the night finishing 18-29 for 244 yards over Miller’s 10 of 20 for 141 yards.

Billy Napier praised his defense in an attempt to make a rather boring exhibition appear more fruitful than it was.

“A lot of young players getting an opportunity to play,” Napier said when asked of his thoughts on the game during the fourth quarter. “New players, alright? Overall, the defense made it a lot harder. You certainly have to be pleased with that given where we’re at as a team. Unbelievable experience for this group. Great film to teach and learn from.”

It wasn’t the greatest or most inspiring spring game any team has ever put together, but Florida has the pieces to build a better team than it had a year ago. Losing Anthony Richardson hurt, but the defense has taken a step forward, and the running game should still be strong even if it wasn’t on full display tonight.

Here’s how fans and experts reacted throughout the night.

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For the first time in three years, Florida football will be playing in its once-annual Orange and Blue spring game on Thursday, marking the first time the fans will get a peek at the new program under nascent head coach Billy Napier. Originally scheduled for Saturday, the intrasquad scrimmage was pushed forward a couple of days to accommodate visiting prep recruits.

The downside of that move is that it will be more difficult for students and out-of-towners to attend the event. Fortunately, the action will be broadcast for the general public to watch, but if you happen to be in Gainesville and can make it to the Swamp, admission is free. Gators Fan Fest begins at 4:30 p.m. EDT and the Gator Walk will take place at 5 p.m. EDT, while the gates open at 6 p.m. EDT and the game is slated to start at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

For the best local Gainesville news, sports, entertainment and culture coverage, subscribe to The Gainesville Sun.

$1 for 6 months

The Gators plan some giveaways during the game for the fans, with prizes ranging from a throwback football helmet to a 2022 Genuine Buddy 50 Scooter. In case you are stuck at home on Thursday night, take a look below at how to follow Florida’s Orange and Blue game.

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

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