2008 Florida Gators

The 2008 Florida Gators were a highly successful college football team, but also controversial. They had a 13-1 record and won the SEC championship and national championship. The team included NFL prospects like Tim Tebow and Aaron Hernandez. Tebow won the Heisman Trophy and gave a famous speech about playing hard. However, during the season, 21 players were arrested or charged with crimes, including DUI, fighting, and burglary. The team's coach, Urban Meyer, did not hold players accountable. Hernandez later went on to be indicted for murder and committed suicide in prison. The team's success and the involvement of a Christian athlete like Tebow has led to increased attention and controversy around the team. We got the New South Bandits here. I'm Benny. I'm Jake. I'm Jordan. Today we'll be talking about the 2008 Florida Gators Although they might be one of the best teams in college football history They're also one of the most controversial The Gators went 13-1 during that season while beating six top 25 teams by a combined score of 256 to 85 They also won the 08 SEC championship and 08 national championship This team consisted of many NFL prospects such as Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, the Patsy Twins, Carlos Dunlap, Brandon Spock Will Hill, Marcus Gilbert, Aaron Hernandez, Joe Hayden, and Janoris Jenkins During that season Tim Tebow became the first sophomore to ever win the Heisman Trophy That trophy recognizes the most prestigious college football player of that year This is also the season the video of his post-ham speech where he said the following I'm really sorry. You know, we were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal. Southern Florida's never done here But I promise you one thing a lot of good will come out of this You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season And you never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season You never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God bless This speech led to Florida making a tear through college football Which we've already talked about them winning the 2008 SEC championship and the national championship But during that season 21 of the players were arrested or charged Many people never heard about it because it was pushed under the rug and not many were prosecuted Some of the known players to have been arrested would be Carlos Dunlap who was charged with second-degree misdemeanor of DUI Genorges Jenkins who was charged with misdemeanor of fray which is fighting in a public domain and resisting arrest outside of a nightclub Then you have Riley Cooper who was charged with misdemeanor resisting an officer and failure to comply with police Campus Police cited Cooper for not getting out of the way of a moving car upon police's orders Also in the recent past teammates of Riley Cooper's have came out and said that he was a known racist on the team Now bringing in yet Cam Newton who was charged with felony counts of burglary, larceny and obstruction of justice November After he was allegedly stealing a laptop from me at Florida Cedar Now the most infamous player on that Florida team would be Aaron Hernandez who was questioned in connection with the September 2007 Gainesville shooting. The Pouncey Twins and former safety Reggie Nelson also spoke to the police But Hernandez just 17 at the time of the incident Did the description of the man who fired five shots into a car wounding both passengers? Aaron Hernandez was known as a troublemaker because head coach ever Meyer was told by several teammates He could not trust him because of his violent clashes after his father passed away when he was 14 This caused Meyer to visit Hernandez anytime he went home. Years later in the interview ever Meyer spoke by and said this He had a positive drug test and set out a game We knew that every time he went home and that was a concern of mine every time he would go to Connecticut I'd have players of my team say watch this guy, you know, watch when he comes back And so I'd visit with him during that interview is the year 2014 Whenever Meyer was the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes And this was when Aaron Hernandez was indicted for first-degree murder in the death of his friend Odin Louie Hernandez went on to be prosecuted for the murder of Odin Louie And he was sent to life in prison, but this led him committing suicide in 2017 Although this was the most known arrest and prosecution of the Florida team since the 2008 season 41 of the 121 players on the roster have been arrested and prosecuted Urban Meyer and the University of Florida did not hold their players accountable for their actions These problems continued throughout the season but were overlooked because of the team's successful winning Urban Meyer resigned in 09 because of quote-unquote health problems Even though he went on to coach, Ohio State later in time Meyer has been known to have many misconducts and arrests throughout his many years of coaching In recent years a lot of news has broke out about this team because the amount of arrests and felons upon the team This has been getting a lot of notice because the team was led by one of the most non-christian athletes Tim Tebow Many people have came out about this team being led by a preacher with inmates and non-felons being teammates and coaches This has led to people even wanting a 30 for 30 documentary about this team because of everything that's gone on and it being so controversial Thank you for listening to our TED talk. New South Bandits out.