55 Days to Gator Football - # 55 Scot Brantley

[Escambia94]

55 –Scot Brantley, LB (1976-79)

Scot Eugene Brantley of Chester, South Carolina and Ocala, Florida is the most recognizable of the 1970’s Gator linebackers. He played under Doug Dickey and Charley Pell from ’76 to ’79. Scot ranks 2 nd on the career tackles list and has 2 of the top 7 single season totals. His brother, John Walter Brantley III (’75-’79), was a quarterback for the Gators in the late 1970s and his nephew, John Walter Brantley IV (’07-’11), is currently a quarterback for the Gators. Some say that his brain injury in ’79 was one of the key reasons (out of many) that the Gators struggled in that 0-10-1 season. For his ferocity on the field, Scot Brantley was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Association Hall of Fame as a Gator Great, and the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame.

 

[DRU2012]

He was a wildman, no doubt about it, and a whole lot of fun in an inspiring way, on and off the field. Famous for crazy-funny pranks, one he was most famous/notorious for was swallowing a live frog on the sidelines in front of spectators one time.
In '79, Pell's first year after Dickey exited having mostly left the cupboard bare, we basically had two known stars on the whole team: Cris Collinsworth ("the Cadillac", TE) on offense and Scot Brantley (LB) on defense. When Scot went down, it really hit the WHOLE team hard, deflated them, really--not just because he WAS that good (though he WAS), but as much because of his emotional leadership. His big personality kept that team loose when it needed to be loose and up when it needed to be up.

 

[Escambia94]

Thanks, DRU2012. I really need help from the more seasoned veterans in highlighting players from before the 1990s. There is little information out there, and my best source of information, the uncle that watched games with me, is in the hospital now. It will be a while before I can get some stories out of him.

 

[DRU2012]

I have to say, as an aside, that although it ACHED having to suffer through a 0-10-and-1 season (I was a lifelong Gator-fan who chose UF just to live and breath Gator Football), I was far from the only student who showed up for every home game (plus the Cocktail Party, plus, in my own case, a couple of road games too)--if anything, we partied EXTRA hard: that season at Florida Field (this was pre"Swamp"), the entertainment was mainly in the stands: smuggled beer and clouds of "-Green", passing braless coeds over our heads, and so on. When things began to turn around the next year, I remember a fellow fan saying aloud to no one in particular during a close game in the 4th quarter, "Man, I'm glad we're getting good, but it sure is nerve wracking...it was kind of a lot more fun not having to give a damn!"
He had a point, but I could only answer with the truth: "This is what we CAME to UF for!" I think the next year we were in the "Tangerine Bowl" (now the "Citrus Bowl", but back then it was played BEFORE New Year's), and the year after THAT (I had graduated and moved on) we opened by beating USC (the Trojans, not the 'Cocks) in Gainesville, truly announcing our arrival on the national stage. There were some bumps ahead, ups (like Emmit Smith) and downs: Charlie Pell, then Gahlen Hall drawing NCAA sanctions for the program, but even this turned out OK--it led directly to the hiring of the "hot young coach-of-the-moment", who also happened to be the near-legendary "Gator Prodigal Son", Steve Spurrier. Y'all know how that turned out.