ONLY GATORS…still alive after two years!

By Adam Silverstein
October 7, 2011

It’s been two years – two years and six days to be exact – since I first turned the light on at ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive headquarters and, well, we’re still alive.

What started out as a passion project has turned into something that continues to amaze and humble me day-in and day-out. Never did I think that an idea that popped into my head and a name I wrote on a piece of paper back in 2009 would not only materialize but become an endeavor that is continuously taxing and rewarding at the same time.

Many of you started following us through Twitter as @OnlyGators began months before OnlyGators.com ever existed. As our following slowly grew, I hoped only that the website would satisfy the 2,000-or-so people who chose to read my tweets and trust me for information about the Florida Gators.

Just a few months after the website began, Twitter readers were only a portion of our daily audience. I was surprised how quickly the site took off but considering it started days after Tim Tebow suffered his concussion and just months before Urban Meyer resigned for the first time, perhaps it should not have been much of a shock.

If you’ll allow me to humble-brag for a minute, I feel it is worth noting that OnlyGators.com has amassed more than 4.2 million visits since Oct. 1, 2009. This is our 2,500th post and sometime today the site will register its 15,000th reader comment. Our Twitter account has amassed more than 35,200 tweets and ballooned to over 13,500 followers. (Every number mentioned has more than doubled since 10/1/10).

[EXPAND Click here to expand and read the remainder of this post.]Whether you’ve been with us from the very beginning or just started logging on here recently, I sincerely appreciate your support and dedication as well as all of the time you have spent on this website when you otherwise could have been working on getting a promotion or spending time with your loved ones.

Please indulge me once more as I wanted to take a moment to thank some people and organizations for supporting us over the last two years. Thanks to Brett, Dustin, Rebecca and Jesse from Acceleration.net for keeping us up and running.

Much love to Erin Andrews for her constant support and generosity, and thanks to many, many other Gators – such as Jack Youngblood, Kevin Carter, Alex Brown, Danny Wuerffel, Mike Peterson, Cornelius Ingram, Joe Cohen, David Nelson, Dorian Munroe, Al Horford, Chandler Parsons and Taurean Green (just to name a few) – for opening up your lives to us at one time or another for our in-depth interviews.

Thanks to Mark Wheeler of Rivals/InsideTheGators.com for bringing me on board and helping me reach an even larger audience, and much appreciation to both Abe Gordon from SiriusXM and Marc Ryan from 100.3 FM The Ticket for putting me on the air on a regular basis. Thanks to dozens of major media outlets including CBS Sports, ESPN, FanHouse, NBC Sports, Sports Illustrated, The Huffington Post and USA Today (just to name a few) for either sourcing or linking to posts from the site.

And thank you to all of my friends, family and colleagues I did not name (you know who you are) for your advice and support.

This may be a bit too much of a reflective post considering we are not going anywhere any time soon, but I’ve always believed in remembering how you started and appreciating what you’ve accomplished along the way.

As Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference.”

While there is no blueprint for what I am trying to accomplish here, there are some exciting possibilities on the horizon for OGGOA over the next few months including one project in particular that I sincerely hope will come to fruition sooner than later.

Here’s to another year!

Adam Silverstein
Owner, editor[/EXPAND]

22 Comments

  1. scooterp says:

    Congratulations and Great Work, Adam! Checking out OGGOA each day is almost like brushing my teeth each morning – automatic. Keep up the good work!

  2. Gator Rob says:

    Congrats. Great Site.

    I sent this to ESPN. Maybe a piece on here about Gator Qbs First game vs LSU

    I did some research and Florida QB’s in their first game vs. LSU. History has a UF win on their side this weekend. As since 1983, Only 2 Loses by a first year guy vs LSU. More on those 2 below.

    1983 – Kerwin Bell – UF a 31-17 win
    1988 – Kyle Morris – UF win 19-6. Ahh who is Kyle Morris you ask? He is some guy who handed off to Emmitt Smith.
    1990 – Shane Matthews – UF 34-8
    1993 – Danny Wuerrfel – Gators in a blowout 58-3
    1997 – Doug Johnson – LSU wins 28-21
    1998 – Jesse Palmer – Gators win 22-10 as he splits time with Doug Johnson
    2000 – Rex Grossman – Lopsided 41-6 Gator Win
    2003 – Chris Leak – Florida went into Baton Rouge with a true freshman quarterback and won 19-7
    2006 – Tim Tebow – 3 TDs including The Jump Pass is a Gator Win 23-10
    2010 – John Brantley – Gators lost 33-29 on a Fake FG

    And just for good measure…
    1964 – Steve Spurrier – UF 20-6

    Only Johnson and Brantley lost in their first games and both were controversial. Brantley lost on the fake field goal and Johnson tossed 2 INTs late in the game that LSU ran back for TD’s. Gators down 28-14. Johnson then drives 78 yards for the TD and it’s 28-21 LSU. Last possession of the game gators driving and it’s hail mary time for the ball game. Picked off by Raion Hill of LSU.

    http://mcubed.net/ncaaf/series/lsu/fla.shtml

    So even in the 2 loses, UF played very close games with chances to win it.

    Watch out in Baton Rouge with either Jeff Driskell or Jacoby Brisset in a Gator UPSET !!!!!

  3. Basshole says:

    Congrats, Adam, on two years of running the best Gator site out there. Here’s to wishing you many more years of success

  4. caligator says:

    Thank you Adam for all of your hard work! Keep it up and good luck with all future endeavors…
    LS-Who? GEAUX GATORS

  5. SaraGator says:

    Congratulations, Adam! Your passion and talent shows on this site and I thank you for keeping us updated for our daily fix. Well, for me it’s more than daily.

    Keep up the excellent job! And btw, love the quote by Jobs.

  6. Timmy T says:

    Congrats Adam, and thanks. Keep up the great work. Go Gators!!

  7. GatorCooken says:

    Best Gator site out there. hands down. well done sir

  8. 15,001 says:

    Thank you Adam.

    Gator Nation

  9. npgator says:

    Adam – congats! We appreciate your work and valuable information.

  10. Matt says:

    Congrats Adam, thanks for all your hard work and support for the Gators

  11. sjkoepp says:

    Congrats Adam! Thanks for this website and all of your hard work. I don’t know what I would do without it!

  12. Aligator says:

    Congrats Adam! Thanks for all you do!!

  13. goldengator says:

    Seems that I am parroting what others have already said, Congrats Adam!

    May I also add, that few sports journalists provide the kind of in-depth personal interviews you do and even fewer have content which rivals yours. I look forward to each and every interview. They are definitely what sets you apart as a Gator journalist. Thanks!

  14. Tony Smith says:

    Congrats! I love your blog. You do a great service for Gator fans. Great and balanced analysis!!!! Go, Gators!!!

  15. Daniel M. says:

    Better keep all this success stuff on the down low Adam. Once the newspaper overlords figure how out that you are gutting their readership things could get ugly. We all like to see you punch Bianchi in the proverbial nose but we don’t want to see you go MIA, CIA style.

    Seriously, MEGA-props to you and your website. I look forward to many years of reading and commenting here. Great things are on the way for Gator Nation. It will all be celebrated right here. Great job Adam.

  16. John S says:

    Congratulations, thanks for all the hard work. I appreciate having a site which discusses the good and bad of Gator Nation (thankfully more good than bad). I also appreciate your coverage of athletes and grads who move on professionally. It’s hard to come by that information.

    Thanks Again.

  17. G8TRKYLE says:

    Adam, congratulations…you are doing great work…

  18. g8ter27 says:

    Great job and congrats on your first two years! Look forward to many more.

  19. Mel Kiper, Jr. says:

    Where are my thanks? Not every site gets to boast that they have the best hair on ESPN frequenting their site.

    Congratulations, Adam, and keep up the good work.

  20. zurbo says:

    well done sil

  21. CeeThree says:

    congrats Adam.. sincere thanks for everything you do here.. I don’t remember how I first came across the site, I think someone posted a link on a message board.. but I’ve followed on Twitter for a while now, visit the site as often as I can, have participated in the Signing Day chat the last 2 years, and come to this site and/or Twitter first when anything goes down, as I know you’re always on top of it. Best of luck, and here’s to many more, for I don’t know what we’d do without em lol.

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