Monday’s Man of the Hour – All Everything Player Trey Burton

Introducing the Man of the Hour...

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Well, Gators fans, another Monday has arrived. After a weekend spent dealing with drunk people and hangovers, brunches and bizarre trips to the bathroom, it is back to both the grind and the coffee grinder. Another Monday means another forty hours in the office. Another Monday brings another series of life’s stresses, noises, and traffic jams. TPS Reports (at least on Office Space) and PTA Meetings. Happy hours and/or happy family dinners, depending on how one might feel after this week’s opening workday.

If you’re starting to fall asleep at your desk, at the wheel, or with a bouncing child on your knee, then cheer yourselves up, Gator Nation. There’s more to the weekends than drinks at the Grog House over in midtown Gainesville. What more, you ask?

Trey Burton’s domination of the toothless Knoxvillians, that’s what, you silly Gators fans!

Raise Those Glasses Gator Nation

Brett Davis-US PRESSWIRE

The Florida Gators kicked off a season filled with more question marks than your blowhard boss after you minimized the Tetris game you had going on your computer screen.

But that’s old news.

Florida played like they were at a board meeting against Bowling Green, making sure their PowerPoint presentation was just good enough to show the Gators faithful that the team was, well, just good enough to win a football game.

Against Texas A&M, freshly minted first-stringer Jeff Driskel nailed down the starting job in very much the same manner one turns a series of cold calls into money making sales: Not with a Hail Mary pass, but with a series of solid, sustained drives. He never panicked, he acted like he was always in charge even when he wasn’t and eventually he led the Gators to a victory. Wouldn’t it be fun if making a sale was just as fun in actuality as opposed to simply metaphorically?

In the Gators’ Week 3 contest in front of 102,000+ Volunteers faithful, Driskel again showed he was up to the task, but (and ya gotta love the Monday work metaphors) like any good board of directors, he shared the burden with his teammates, and this time it was a different Gators star to step to the forefront and dominate the Volunteers throughout the Saturday night victory.

Ladies and gentlemen, rouse yourselves from those dreaded Monday blues and take a little extra pride in your Florida Gators football team before looking ahead to Kentucky and LSU.

Take a little time out of the end of your work day to celebrate the “studliness” of playmaking tight end, halfback and wildcat quarterback, Trey Burton.

Freshman Sensation, Sophomore Slump

Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Burton came into Gainesville with a bang in 2010, looking every part like the heir-apparent to superstar playmaker Percy Harvin. Not only did the dude rack up 11 rushing touchdowns in just 75 rushing attempts as a freshman, but he also caught one more and added 83 passing yards as well.

Not bad for an 18-year old, if I do say so myself, and of course, I do say so.

Like a person who wakes up on a Sunday next to the wrong person, however, Burton came out of the playmaking party that was his freshman year and woke up to a horrible, year-long Sunday hangover. Amidst a turnover in the team’s coaching staff, having to try to catch passes thrown from the hands of one of two true freshmen quarterbacks, Burton’s production fell off dramatically in his second year with the program.

Through most of 2011, one can assume he was usually pretty upset come Mondays, very much in the same manner as the rest of Gator Nation.

Fast forward to the 2012 season, and past the old news that is the team’s first two victories on the season, and Burton has already made significant strides in erasing the unpleasant memories of the 2011 season; just like some random college student would spend any Sunday trying to erase the memories of an interesting Saturday night.

If there ever was a reason to raise either one more cup of coffee – or a happy hour cocktail – for this Monday’s Man of the Hour, this is it.

Trey's Back!

Randy Sartin-US PRESSWIRE

On Saturday in Knoxville, Burton put on a performance fans in Tennessee will never be able to drink enough to forget, when he went off for not only one big touchdown run out of the wildcat formation, but two.

To open the scoring, Burton showed off a bit of savvy and field vision, but by the time the Gators were heading into the locker room down 14-10 at halftime, that score was – you guessed it – old news.

In the second half, very much like the team’s win against Texas A&M the week before, the Gators played much better, gradually chipping away at the Volunteers lead through the early going in the third quarter.

However, following a total, epic failure of a fake field goal attempt, it was the team’s defensive front that would rise to the occasion first, forcing star quarterback Tyler Bray into a few terrible passes and a subsequent three-and-out. The punt gave the Gators the ball back on their own 20-yard line after it sailed into the end zone.

That is when it happened.

No need for coffee to wake up from those doldrums, not when, on the team’s very first play on the drive, Burton raced through the right side of his offensive line and into the teeth of the Volunteers secondary.

But we as Gators fans all know the Vols don’t have any teeth.

One side-step and one monstrous stiff arm later, and Trey Burton was not only headed into the end zone, but also once more into the collective consciousness of Gator Nation.

Here’s to another huge year for Trey, just like his freshman campaign for the Gators.

I personally am going with coffee on this busy Monday, what is your drink of choice as the workday winds down?