4 years

In my previous column I wrote how everyone should watch the Senior Bowl this weekend to see Chris Leak one last time and his dynamite spirals. Well Saturday rolled around and I was planning to do just that but as it turns out it wasn't on TV up in Canada and so I missed it. Apparently by all accounts of the game and the statistics I didn't miss much. Now looking back I'm kind of glad I missed it. I want to remember Leak in the Florida blue and Orange winning the National Championship, not in a crummy all star game trying to audition for the NFL.

It's weird how fast time flies by and one more reminder of this is the college career of Chris Leak. Seems like a couple of months ago I was reading how the Gators signed the number one high school recruit in the country and remember thinking that a couple of National Championships were in the bag. Everyone thought this way, Leak was practically the most dominating high school quarterback in memory breaking all of the passing records and winning the State Championship at Independence high in North Carolina. From the first game I watched him he became my guy. From the way he used to jump up and down as Freshman before going into play to the aforementioned tight spirals. He always seemed to play with an enthusiasm that the current QB (Ingle Martin) didn't have. Even though his freshman year was not outstanding in the wins and losses department it didn't matter. We had found our QB of the future.

Then a weird thing happened or slowly happened. Sophomore year his numbers were better but the wins losses stayed the same. Slowly you could see that enthusiasm start to disappear and all the pressure seemed to get to him.

Junior year came around and brought a new coach and a new system so a decline in stats was understandable but there was still too many losses. By this time he just seemed old and wore down. Word was that he was distant from his teammates and that he couldn't succeed in the new system. In three years he went from the best quarterback prospect in the country to a player that was replaceable because an offensive system took precedent.

When senior year started it was a reversal of fortunes. There was a new QB recruit who was the best prospect in the country (Tim Tebow) who had a great enthusiasm and who the fans all loved. Still my alliances fell and still fall with Leak. Must have been tough to give everything to a school for three years only to see everybody embrace a True Freshman when three years ago you were a better prospect than he was. But it all worked out in the end. Leak has the Florida passing records, the national championship and the respect. Even though I'm excited for the Tim Tebow era it's still a shame I won't ever be able to watch Leak play for Florida anymore. A feeling I'm sure many of you go through with your favorite college players. Four years or even less in many cases goes by very quickly. So my advice to everyone at Ohio State and Texas is to watch as many games as possible because Oden and Durant aren't going to be around much longer. Maybe its a good thing so that we don't take for granted what we have like the Colts with Manning but I would kill to be able to watch him play for one more year.