Never Become Complacent

The Florida Gator’s Football team is coming off a 2008 National football title and many programs would be satisfied with this success; not the Gators. In a article on ESPN.com, Head Coach Urban Myers speaks about the importance for a team to stay hungry and not lose its edge. Myers also says that the three most important things for a team to maintain to repeat as national champions are: maintain your edge, remain a disciplined team, and keep players healthy.

Many times a team with such a great deal of talent will lose its work ethic and desire to improve. Linebacker Brandon Spikes had this to say about the number of players returning from last year's championships team, “Yeah, we've got a lot of returning starters, but we've just got to keep grinding, keep getting better, the success we had last year was last year. People aren't going to care about none of that this upcoming season. We're going to have the target on our backs, and we know that. It feels good to know you're returning all those starters. But if we don't do all the small things we did in the past, it can all go down the drain. The national championship's not going to win any games for us next year."

The Gators realize how difficult it is to repeat as national champion. In 2006, they defeated Ohio State 41-14 in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl national championship game and then posted a disappointing 9-4 mark in 2007. One of the greatest advantages that Florida will have coming into this year is Tim Tebow's decision to return to school for his senior season in hopes to win another title. Tebow had this to say about achieving another national title in 2009, "If we see someone slacking off, we tell them we have to work harder. We lost a lot of leadership off that first team. We don't want to have it happen again. We're going to go out with the same edge and try to beat everybody."

"Our biggest thing is not getting complacent; when you've got two national championships already, it's easy to get satisfied. We've got All-Americans on this team, guys with All-SEC honors. It's easy, man. You say, 'What else can I do?' But nothing beats winning a championship." - Brandon Spikes-