Marriage, Mother Nature, Missouri's Misery and More

Christmas 2013

"Merry Christmas!" Zach said as he opened the door for everyone.

"Merry Christmas, Zach!"

As they all ate breakfast, Zach suddenly looked sad.

"What is it?" asked Ginger.

"This marks two Christmases without Dave," said Zach.

"You're doing fine, Zach," said his father. "Certainly better than I did after losing your mom. Remember?"

Zach nodded. Even though he remembered it well, it was a day he wanted to forget.

December 2011

Zach and Dave drove up to the cemetery. They were going to their mother's grave to leave some flowers.

As they approached the headstone, Zach saw a passed-out man with a beer bottle. He knew immediately who it must be. As Dave called out, "Dad?", Zach took a moment to snark, "Oh. Wow. Beer and roses. That's a nice touch." He was furious at the scene.

Their father sniffled. "I had 20 Christmases with her. Two without her is...Two Christmases without her."

He turned toward Zach and Dave and continued, "It's always the hardest in the holidays, and I know that I just make everything worse, and, um..."

As he trailed off, Dave spoke up. "It's okay, Dad," he said. "I forgive you."

Zach, however, was furious. He had had enough of this. "Two Christmases without her?!" he exclaimed in anger. "How about two Christmases without us? Your sons? We still could have been a family!"

"We are a family-" his father started, but Zach interrupted, saying, "We're not a family."

Dave tried to settle things down, saying, "Come on, Zach."

Zach was now furious. He yelled at Dave, "Why are you always sticking up for him?"

"Because he's our dad!" Dave yelled, clearly getting angry as well.

"No, he is not our dad! He's a drunk and a coward, and he is not my father!"

Zach then threw the vase down and stormed off, angrier than he had ever been.

"I'm so ashamed now of how I acted that day," added Zach. "It's a day I really want to forget."

"Well, you weren't wrong," his father told him. "For a little while there, I wasn't doing well."

"But you came around and realized your mistakes," said Zach. "That's all that matters." Nanny nodded in agreement.

"But I never had a Christmas without Dave," added Zach. "Except my first one, because I was only a few months old and too young to remember it." He paused for a moment and added, "Although I guess by that point, Dave would have been there, technically."

"By next Christmas, we'll be starting our lives together," Ginger told him.

"Yeah," said Zach. "Getting married in April, then maybe someday starting a family of our own..."

"I think, though, that we should probably hold off on that until at least our first anniversary," said Ginger.

"Good plan," said Zach.

On April 5, 2014, Zach and Ginger were married. The wedding was simple, but beautiful. Zach was glad that they had kept things simple. He had heard too many stories about brides going ultra-crazy and over the top with their weddings, and he was glad Ginger wasn't like that.

After the wedding, they found an on-campus apartment to live in. It was a pretty good size and had a lot of things they felt they would need. Zach pointed out that they didn't have to worry too much about housing costs, since he was on scholarship and the university was paying for it.

School was also going well. Zach had always tried to be a good student, and was doing well in his classes. It may not have seemed like it, but Zach took his academics seriously as well.

With the 2014 season soon to start, Zach sure hoped that this season would turn out better than 2013 had. But the start of 2014 would be delayed. Florida was set to play Idaho on August 30, but it was a night game. A series of thunderstorms was in the Gainesville area, and Zach was getting frustrated with the delays. It seemed that whenever it seemed that the storms were letting up, more lightning strikes would occur.

Finally, after a delay of nearly 3 hours, the game started. But after the kickoff, which set up the Gators in the red zone, lightning struck again. Zach was not surprised when they finally decided to just forget it, and no one else was either. The field was waterlogged and the conditions were not safe.

"Great game," Ginger said sarcastically when Zach arrived home.

"Sure was," said Zach. "A game where the only winner was Mother Nature."

"What are they going to do?" asked Ginger. "Are they going to reschedule, or what?"

"We haven't really decided that yet," Zach told her.

Ultimately, the game was cancelled and Florida would not play Idaho until 2018. Zach lamented this, saying, "2018? I'll be an old man by then!" Ginger reminded him, though, that that wasn't the case and he was only 21 years old. Plus, his Gator career would be over by then, anyway.

Florida's field was still wet the next week, but they were able to crush Eastern Michigan. Zach's running played a part in this. The following week featured a thrilling and exhausting triple-over time victory over Kentucky in a game that could only be described as a tale of two halves. It was 3-3 at halftime and 36-30 when it was finally over. Zach was relieved at the result. Florida hadn't lost to Kentucky since 1986, and he did not want to be on the team that ended that streak.

A disappointing if not surprising 42-21 loss to Alabama was followed by a win over Tennessee in which Florida barely managed to squeak by, 10-9. After a close loss to LSU, the Gators had their homecoming game against Missouri.

Since it was a night game, Zach managed to spend some time with Ginger that morning. Often during the season, he didn't have the opportunity to do this, but since Florida was playing at home and the game wasn't until 7, they had some time to spend together. Ginger wished him good luck and they said a prayer for a good game and no injuries on either side, as they did every week. However, this homecoming would turn into a nightmare.

Florida was awful. The defense played all right, but the Gators' special teams gave up two touchdowns and Missouri got two defensive touchdowns from Florida turnovers. Missouri was up 42-0 before Florida got on the board twice to make it a slightly more respectable 42-13.

Zach was shocked. He never would have imagined a game like this. It was one of the most humiliating nights of his life. It was so bad, Ginger didn't even try to crack a joke about it. All Zach could say when he finally got back was "Missouri, misery."

The Missouri humiliation led Zach to wonder what was happening to the Gators. It seemed like they were going on the same path as the year before. And with Georgia up next, things didn't seem to be getting any easier.

Zach privately didn't have a lot of hope for the Georgia game two weeks later. But the Gators surprised even themselves by beating the Bulldogs 38-20. Zach's running played a big part in the upset.

The Georgia win really saved the Gators' 2014 season. And the Gators seemed to right themselves with a payback win against Vanderbilt.

With two straight wins after the Missouri debacle, Zach was enjoying the season again. The Gators had finally seemed to right themselves. After all, beating Vanderbilt brought their record to 5-3, so they had already exceeded their win total from the year before.

Zach was glad that the Gators seemed to have righted their ship and that he had contributed to that. And the best news was still to come.