Hello and welcome to the 2025 edition of Fansville Field Trips! If you are unfamiliar with this series, here is our mission statement:
I have a friend group that attends one big non-Tech college football game per year and we intend to document those experiences here. You can expect some fun tailgating stories, some hot takes, some fawning over stadiums, and some ramblings about “atmosphere”, but most importantly you’ll find the honest account of a few guys on a quest to experience all that the wild
and wacky world of College Football has to offer.
If you’re interested in the previous written installments of the series, check them out here:
- 2024: Colorado vs Utah (includes recaps of 2023 and 2022)
- 2021: Wisconsin vs Nebraska
- 2019: LSU vs Florida
For this 2025 edition of the weekend I look forward to all year, the fellas decided to journey down I-75 to the humid home of Steve Spurrier and Tim Tebow, Gainesville. While we’ve already seen a Florida team as part of this series, this was our first opportunity to see the Gators in their home environment and the Swamp did not disappoint.
Weekend Timeline
Thursday, 12:20pm: Bill picks me up and we head to Chick-fil-A before going on to get Stephen. There is of course traffic on 75.
Thursday, 2:26pm: After getting Stephen and changing into his truck, we stop for ice and gas station snacks. I get some candy that describes itself as “innovation in licorice” and it’s delightful.
Thursday, 3:08pm: Stephen has recently watched LotR for the first time and is debriefing us on his thoughts. Not a big Frodo guy.
Thursday, 4:45pm: We discuss how many FBS teams we’ve watched in person. I’ve seen 32, Stephen is at 39, and Bill is at a whopping 50.
Thursday, 6:15pm: We arrive at the Airbnb to find Joe already here playing Pokémon. The house is pretty standard, with the defining feature being a sectional about 3 feet in front of a 90 inch television. It’s softly raining, I think this is the forecast for most of the weekend.
Thursday, 7:08pm: Jack arrives, and we head to downtown for dinner at Cry Baby’s. This was a cool little spot; it felt very casual and comfortable, and the food was excellent (I’m a sucker for homemade tater tots).
Thursday, 8:55pm: We bop across the street to Arcade Bar, which was recommended to us by our waiter at Cry Baby’s. It’s a pretty standard barcade, which is to say that it’s perfect. It’s split across 3 levels and what appears to be two separate apartment buildings. Confusing layout aside, it’s a neat little spot and we have fun with skee-ball and Big Buck Hunter.
Thursday, 9:45pm: We move to the upstairs area at Arcade Bar where there’s apparently going to be karaoke? Joe and I both hate karaoke and are not excited about this, but the drinks are very cheap and the other fellas want a turn at singing.
Thursday, 10:00pm: Karaoke starts and it’s an eclectic crowd to say the least. A few highlights:
- A guy named “D Train” kicks it off with Valerie by Amy Winehouse.
- 10:07pm: Song 2 is a guy screaming Tenacious D.
- 10:24pm: Someone is doing Stacy’s Mom and using a screamo/metal voice to do his own backing vocals. It’s honestly very impressive.
- 10:55pm: Bill’s turn has finally arrived and he belts All The Small Things, a classic crowd-pleaser.
- 11:21pm: A girl very boldly does Titanium, an insane choice.
- 11:38pm: Two girls do Nickleback’s Rockstar and I don’t think they’ve ever heard the song before.
- 11:59pm: A guy in sunglasses and full kimono is absolutely screaming LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR, it’s at this point that I start to think I’ve entered an alternate universe.
- 12:05am: Stephen gets up there and absolutely crushes Should’ve Been A Cowboy.
- 12:10am: Jack sings If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys and brings the house down, it’s time for us to head out.
Friday, 9:45am: We grab coffee at 108 Vine, a cool little coffee and plant store. There’s also an occult section in the back.
Friday, 10:30am: We head over to campus to do our traditional walk around/bookstore visit. It’s a lovely campus – there’s a lot of tree cover and some cool mid-century modern buildings. The bookstore is enormous, the coolest merch I found was a Peanuts/Gators crossover. Campus is also crazy packed and we learn that it’s Family Weekend.
Friday, 11:45am: We stop for lunch at Fehrenbacher’s, our first of many DDD recommendations. It’s absolutely delicious, but Jack overestimated his spice tolerance. I purchase a shirt that’s a play on Metallica’s …And Justice For All (And Sausage For All) that I plan on wearing a lot.
Friday, 12:30pm: Full of cured meats, we arrive at Ironwood for our 1:00 tee time. It’s Bill against the other four of us’s best ball and he’s also spotted us six strokes. Bill is good at golf.
Friday, 1:25pm: A few holes in and we’re treated to a 15 minute monsoon, welcome to Florida. Stephen is convinced the rain storm has shorted our golf cart – the thing won’t budge. We call the pro shop and they send us a new cart, while also driving away in our perfectly-functional old cart. Difficult to tell who’s at fault: man or machine.
Friday, 1:50pm: Bill has already gained four strokes through four holes.
Friday, 4:25pm: Somehow we pull off a miraculous comeback and win by one stroke. We’re probably all sunburnt and yet still wet from the rain. Wet clothes and a glaring sun make for a sweltering environment and we’re ready to head back home for cold showers.
Friday, 6:45pm: Taking another DDD rec, we arrive at Germain’s for dinner. This was maybe our favorite place – everything was awesome and we left full and happy. The chicken birria egg rolls were sublime. Equally awesome t-shirts.
Friday, 7:40pm: We leave Germain’s and walk over to Cypress & Grove Brewery for beer and live music, then a few games of pool. This was another great place – all the beers we tried were awesome, and the music and pool made for a great atmosphere. The band of mostly older gentlemen played us off with a rendition of Purple Rain that had the crowd swaying.
Friday, 9:20pm: Not content to end our evening, we head back to the campus area for a last drink at Loosey’s. While walking around, we notice that we’ve passed at least five separate jiu jitsu places – what’s up with that?
Saturday, 11:30am: After a slow morning of watching Gameday, we make our way over to campus to find a tailgate. The first bar we approach, an Irish Pub conspicuously adjoined to the Catholic Church across from campus, is charging a $20 cover – no thanks.
Saturday, 11:45am: We find a sponsored tailgate with free drinks. Kyle Pitts is apparently scheduled to show up later but we’ve gotta move on to see the Gator Walk in a bit.
Saturday, 12:59pm: Stephen says hi to DJ Lagway’s parents as they arrive very late to the Gator Walk.
Saturday, 1:45pm: At a different tailgating area we find a million sponsor booths giving out free swag. I come away with a shirt, hat, towel, magnet, and coozie. I’m committed to carrying it all around for the rest of the afternoon I guess.
Saturday, 2:05pm: I horns-down a guy waving a Texas flag, it feels powerful.
Saturday, 3:30pm: kickoff. Abridged game notes as follows:
- This place is very orange, very blue, and very loud.
- After opponent penalties the whole stadium chants MOVE BACK YOU SUUUUCK.
- There are about three separate downpours in the first half. I am very glad I decided to leave my camera back at the house.
- Halftime thoughts: Florida defense is winning this game for them, Texas only has 87 yards and their lone score was off a turnover.
- On 3rd and 9 from the Texas 26, Napier calls a run up the middle for 4 yards before settling for a FG and the stands immediately break out into a FIRE BILLY chant.
- YouTuber Sketch has been 10 feet in front of us for like an hour in enormous gold chains. He’s taken pictures with just about every 12 year old in a 100-foot radius.
- HEYYYYYY BABY, THERE AIN’T NO EASY WAY OUT. God I love a stadium sing-along.
- A “reminder: stay off the field, you will be arrested” has been shown on the scoreboard several times, I hope that doesn’t jinx it.
- The best sequence of the game: Texas false started twice in a row and then Arch threw a bad pick on the third play.
- Got a good “Wreck ‘em Tech” from someone who saw my hat.
- Napier’s time management nearly gets the Gators in a lot of trouble.
- Time runs out on the Texas comeback but it’s a bit anticlimactic since they needed to review if Arch fumbled on the final play or not.
- One guy rushed the field and was promptly arrested, turns out they were not kidding.
Saturday, 7:38pm: Texas guy walking away from the stadium: “we gotta fire someone”.
Saturday, 8:45pm: The only place available for dinner was a Japanese steakhouse and it turns out that’s exactly what we all needed. The fellas are blissfully drowning in fried rice and yum yum sauce.
Saturday, 10:30pm: We watch a bit of the late slate but everyone is pretty tired and files off to bed.
Sunday, 12:30pm: Culver’s for lunch in Valdosta feels like the spiritual end of the trip (it was my first time and it was delicious).
The Actual Game
The game itself was a ton of fun, with most of the enjoyment being derived from Arch Manning running for his life from the Florida defense all afternoon. It felt like he got sacked 25 times in this game; the Gators were all over him from first whistle to last and he just could not make enough plays all on his own. On the other side, Florida’s offense was pretty vanilla but effective; they worked their way methodically down the field on several drives and never met much resistance. DJ Lagway looked perfectly solid and his receivers made more than a few impressive plays on the ball and after the catch.
Despite the win, some of the sources for the frustration with Napier were definitely on full display. Playcalling was at times some of the most one-dimensional football you could imagine, and his time management over the final seven minutes or so was positively head-scratching. My gut reaction is that this game says more about Texas than it does about Florida. The gameplan from the Longhorns seemed to be “expect Arch Manning to escape from four defenders and throw a 30 yard pass on every play”. I could maybe see a team doing that with a veteran play-maker QB, but I’m not sure why they thought it was a good plan for a young guy that’s clearly struggling to adjust to the big leagues. I feel bad for the sheer mountain of expectations that this kid is carrying.
Favorite Anecdotes and Personal Highlights
- There was a guy from NY in the row in front of us who started chatting with us, describing how this is the loudest place he’s ever been, and his comparison was the Islanders in the early 70s. The same guy after finding out we’re all Tech grads asked “you’re not in the SEC right?”, and then later asked us “what song is this?” as Mr. Brightside played. He also left with about 8 minutes left to watch the rest of the game from his hotel. Unbothered king.
- The crowd reaction to Texas false starting twice in a row and then coughing up a bad interception was amazing. From the savage MOVE BACK YOU SUCK chant straight into pure elation, everyone was so locked in on making sure Arch Manning had the worst possible day.
- I saw a Texas guy get horns-downed by a man in a carved pumpkin helmet and orange overalls (no shirt). Spooky season indeed.
Stadium Impressions
The Swamp is cool as hell, plain and simple. The orange coloring is super unique, and the stands are right on top of the field (not to mention incredibly steep). It’s a one-of-one: nothing about it is generic and I think that’s what makes it so fun. I also cannot overstate how loud it was; there were 90k people in attendance and every single one of them was super invested for the entire game. It manages to feel both gargantuan and hyper-local at the same time.
Another huge thing was how convenient the tailgating was. Everything was right outside the stadium, which is also right on the main road that has all the bars and restaurants and whatnot; we could walk between all the different areas super easily while never straying too far from the stadium itself. While this made it easy to lose Stephen as he wandered off to talk to someone, it did also make it easy to find him again.
Final Thoughts
This was another fantastic trip in the books, I think everyone had an awesome time. Good food, a fun environment, and a fun game is certainly a recipe for success and Gainesville delivered them all. I highly recommend making the trip down for any Jackets looking to hang out with like-minded people that despise adult men barking. There’s no telling where we’ll end up next year; we talked a bit about either heading to the Big 12 or back to the midwest but nothing has been set in stone yet.
