Fatherhood and Football

As the weeks went by, Davey continued to grow. He started to spread out from the "fetal position" and started opening his eyes more. And when he was six weeks old, he started smiling for real.

"Yeah," said Zach. "Yeah, Davey! You're smiling at your mommy and daddy!"

"And by now, it's a real smile," said Ginger.

"Sure is," said Zach. "You know, I think Davey has a good combination of features. He looks quite a bit like Dave, but with my darker hair and your eyes."

"Really?" said Ginger.

"Yes," said Zach. He got out his small photo album and said, "Look at this. This is a picture of Dave as a newborn."

Ginger looked at the picture. The resemblance to Davey was there, but she pointed out, "Lots of newborns look alike, though."

"I know," said Zach. "But it's still cool."

Ginger looked at the picture again and said, "That bigger baby sitting on the bed, is that you?"

"Yes," said Zach. "My hair was lighter back then, but that's me."

"Aww," said Ginger. "You were so small."

"Well, remember, Dave and I are Irish twins," said Zach. "So I didn't even turn one until a couple weeks after Dave was born."

"It looks like these pictures were taken just seconds apart," said Ginger. "In this first one, you seem to be looking at Dave and studying every inch of him and in the second one you're looking back up at your mom, smiling."

"Yeah, I am," said Zach. "Mom always said when she saw the picture of me studying Dave so intently after he was born, she had a feeling that the two of us would always be close."

"Well, she wasn't wrong," said Ginger.

"No, she was not," said Zach. "In fact, one of my first words was an attempt to say 'Dave.' Mom was wanting me to say 'Ma-ma', but I ended up saying, 'Day', which my parents always felt was an attempt to say my brother's name, despite being barely a year old."

"That's so cute," said Ginger.

"Dave and I were always the best of friends," Zach continued. "We were always put together and wanted to do everything together as well. We did have rivalry over little things, though, like always trying to race to the car to get to the front seat first. I hope, if Davey is lucky enough to have a brother someday, that they'll be just as close as Dave and I were."

"Let's wait a couple more years on that, though," said Ginger.

Just then, Davey woke up to eat, ending their conversation.

The 2015 season was due to start soon, and Zach was hoping that the Gators could build on the improvement they had had in 2014. And now that he was a new father, he had even more reason to play well.

The season opener was against New Mexico State on September 5th. When the Gators managed to get a play after the kickoff, Zach grinned, remembering the rainout against Idaho in 2014 and thought, Already an improvement, then.

With a blowout win, the Gators next had to play East Carolina. Although Zach's dad and Nanny were in the stands, as they had been the previous week, Ginger and Davey, just like the week before, were back home. Since the first two games of the season were night games, they had decided that Ginger should stay home with the baby, as they were worried it would get too late for him.

After beating East Carolina, the Gators then went up to Lexington and continued their winning streak against Kentucky. Then they would go back down to Gainesville to play Tennessee. And this would be a special game for Zach. It would be the first time Davey would attend a game. Since the game was at 3:30 and not at night, Ginger was going to bring him.

Before Zach left, Ginger told him, "Davey will be there to cheer on his dad!"

"Can't wait," said Zach with a grin.

When Zach stepped out on the field, he looked up in the stands and found his whole family. He even saw that Davey was wearing a little Gator outfit. He smiled and waved to them.

The Gators ended up having a wild, dramatic comeback against Tennessee, which got them into the rankings. But the next game would be tough. Florida would be playing Ole Miss, who was ranked number 3 in the nation.

The morning of the game, Zach told Ginger, "The Gators are now 4-0! A win today would really start getting us noticed."

"I bet," said Ginger.

Zach took Davey and said, "Some of the guys are starting to see Davey as a good-luck charm."

"Come on, that's ridiculous," said Ginger. "Davey has nothing to do with whether you win or not. What about last year?"

"By the end of last year, he was there, technically," Zach pointed out.

"You did lose some games while I was pregnant with him," said Ginger.

"Whatever you say."

The Gators surprised everyone by beating Ole Miss 38-10, which propelled them to number 11. And then they enacted a measure of revenge on Missouri by beating them 21-3 to improve to 6-0 and move into the top ten. Coming up was a showdown against LSU.

However, Florida was dealt a blow days before the LSU game when their quarterback was suspended. Florida ended up losing to LSU, but rebounded to beat Georgia on Halloween. A narrow win against Vanderbilt the next week assured the Gators of the division title and a spot in the SEC championship game.

"Can you believe it?" asked Zach, as he held Davey, who looked up and smiled at him.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" said Ginger. Could you imagine the Gators being in the title game?"

"No," said Zach.

After a win over South Carolina, the Gators looked lackluster in an overtime win over FAU. Zach showed some frustration as well.

"At least you still won," said Ginger, handing Davey over to his father.

"I guess you're right," said Zach. "Coach was a little weird after the game, though."

"Really?" asked Ginger. "What happened?"

"He was a little miffed at the press conference," Zach started. "He was talking about the game and then he suddenly went off on a tangent and started talking about dead fish." Zach and Ginger burst out laughing as Zach continued, "Even I didn't get that one. No one did."

"At least it gave you something to laugh about," said Ginger.

Thanksgiving was five days later, and Zach and Ginger had all the family over to make Davey's first Thanksgiving special, even though he was only four months old and wouldn't remember it.

Two days after Thanksgiving, the Gators lost to Florida State. Although a loss to Florida State always hurt, they didn't have time to brood about it. The SEC championship game was coming up. The Gators would be playing mighty Alabama, and although it was a long shot, if they won, they could go to a major bowl game, which would be quite a feat considering the modest expectations they had had coming into the season. As the team left for Atlanta, Zach just hoped the Gators would do well enough to impress the voters, though he knew that would be easier said than done. But he also wanted to think that anything was possible, and if anyone in the SEC could take down the Tide, it would be Florida.