On to the Goal

With the conference basketball tournaments in full swing and the NCAA’s just days away, football news has been scant of late, particularly for teams (like Florida) who have yet to begin spring practice. Thus, this edition of “Links” just barely warrants the plural form of the word. Here are the Morning Links. All two of them.

Jonathan Phillips gets his Buster Bluth on

The return of Phillips is by now old news, but Ben Volin provides a few more details about Phillips’ return to the Gators. The most interesting point, however, is that Phillips has already received his master’s degree in real estate. So what will he be doing in the classroom in the upcoming year? (Emphasis mine):

“Being granted an extra year and being able to play this year is just crazy,” Phillips said by e-mail. “I didn’t even expect to be playing last season and was planning on going to law school. Football at Florida for me after arriving on campus started off bleak, but has turned into a dream come true.”

“Plus, my mom is really happy I am going to get three degrees from UF.”

That’s right. Three degrees. Count ‘em. Jonathan Phillips: the Buster Bluth of UF.

Rivals 100 is out, Gators doing well so far

Ah, and you thought it was over for awhile didn’t you? Nonsense. Recruiting — and the inordinate amount of media attention devoted to it — never ends.

Face it: As a devoted college football fan, you are the virtual equivalent of the 30-something guy with a mustache and leather jacket who sits by himself at high school football games even though he doesn’t have a son and/or relative on the team. It’s OK,. Just accept it and move on.

Anyway, Rivals has released the first iteration of its Rivals100 list, and Gator recruits are well accounted for so far, with three players on the board having verbally committed to Florida:

• #5, athlete Matt Elam (West Palm Beach, FL — Dwyer)
• #47, defensive back Jonathan Dowling (Bradenton, FL — Southeast)
• #58, defensive back Victor Hampton (Charlotte, NC — Independence)

Elam, the top committed prospect so far, may project as a safety, so if by some miracle all three stay committed to the Gators until February of next year, that’s one hell of a defensive backfield shaping up. Just 21 players in the top 100 have given a verbal commitment to this point, and only Texas (six) has more commits than Florida, though none on the Longhorns’ board are rated higher than #48.

All of these “commitments” are subject to change (yes, even that of the steadfast Elam), but a good start is certainly preferable to a bad one.

No news is good news

It’s a bit of a slow news day in Gator-land, at least up to this point. After the chaos of the past few days, that might not be a bad thing. Also, no news is especially good news if you believe the Internet message board rumors about mercurial junior defensive tackle Torrey Davis (he of the possible championship-saving fourth down goal-line stop against Oklahoma). Of course, the last bit of official news we heard about Davis was that the coaching staff wasn’t giving up on the talented former five-star recruit. But then again, if the optimistic offseason chatter surrounding a player is, “We’re not giving up on him! He still might be on the team!”, you never know what you might find in your Google Alerts. We’ll stay tuned…

The competition is “wide” open… haha, get it?

So what, dear Gator fan, are you supposed to read on a (hopefully) slow news day? Would you be interested in… a preview column?!? GatorCountry has you covered with their breakdown of the competition at wide receiver, the best adjective for which is clearly “wide open.” I’ll be stuck using a lesser synonym when I inevitably resort to a preview of the receiving corps. One of the most interesting points of the article was the talk about depth at tight end, as the article speculated that redshirt freshman T.J. Pridemore (6-3, 240) could move over from fullback.

I plan on covering this issue in more detail soon, but I’m not certain there’s a huge distinction between the second tight end and a “fullback” in the Gator offense. The position, occupied by departed senior Tate Casey last season, is better described as “lead blocker.” In other words, if a guy like Pridemore does see the field, calling him a “tight end” versus a “fullback” may just be a difference of semantics. And that’s a role that any number of guys could fill, maybe even… Matt Patchan?

Whither Cam Newton?

What will become of former Gator quarterback Cam Newton now that he is at Blinn Community College in Texas. If you’re Scout-tastic and can get behind the paywall, I’d love to know.

Lane Kiffin needs to bring the heat

Joseph Goodman says the Tennessee coach is a disgrace to sleazy recruiting in the SEC. I couldn’t agree more. Where’s the paper bag full of 20’s and the no-show job at a tractor dealership?

Doing morning links every day sounds like a great concept until you arrive at work to a heaping stack of work on your desk. (Or whatever our digital-world equivalent is to that tired old cliche.) Then, just to make things especially fun, the Carl Johnson thing broke loose. I covered that in my previous post, so here is today’s legal-free batch of links.

Phillips granted sixth year of eligibility, will return in 2009

This story is almost 24 hours old, but it’s a pretty big one: Jonathan Phillips will be back with the Gators in 2009 following an SEC decision granting him a sixth year of eligibility. Phillips missed most of the 2007 season due to a medical hardship.

This is fantastic news for Florida. Phillips hit 12 of 13 field goals and 78 of 79 PATs this past season and gained experience kicking under pressure, including hitting a 27-yarder to put the Gators ahead for good in the fourth quarter of the BCS Title game.

Prior to the waiver, Caleb Sturgis was likely to start at placekicker. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given the sophomore once inspired Urban Meyer to liken the sounds of his kicks to a bomb going off, but Sturgis did kick eight kickoffs out of bounds last season and has yet to attempt a field goal as a collegian. With Phillips back, the Gators return both starting specialists, junior punter Chas Henry being the other. Now if the Gators could just find a way to bring back James Smith and Butch Rowley…

Gators land a tight end commit! No, not that one…

He’s not Orson Charles, but the Gators picked up a 2010 commitment from Tampa Blake tight end Michael McFarland. As always, seeing as this is an unofficial, non-binding decision from a 17-year-old, I couldn’t be more excited about his certain Gator stardom. There’s not much yet about McFarland that isn’t behind a paywall, but a quick scan of his offers per Rivals reveals at least some upper-tier interest from the likes of Auburn and Carolinas North and South.

OK, now on to THAT tight end…

Remember all that praised heaped on Orson Charles for being a standup guy throughout his recruiting process (including some from this guy?) Well, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate that, if only a bit. From Ben Volin:

Charles said that Hevesy, who left his job as tight ends coach in January to join Dan Mullen’s staff at Mississippi State, was one of the biggest reasons Charles isn’t a Gator.

“John Hevesy, when he came, that was just horrible. That turned things around,” Charles said Sunday evening in a phone interview. “He just wasn’t a good recruiter. He wasn’t really recruiting me, just calling me once a month.”

If that’s the douchiest thing Charles said during recruiting, that unfortunately makes him a pretty good guy by today’s standards. You know, besides the whole signing with Georgia thing.

Doc Saturday questions the veracity of your fake 40 time

I’ll admit, when I saw this picture, my FAKE!-sense was tingling, too:

OMGZ FAKE!

In a way, Doc Saturday just said what all of us were thinking. That is if you think the 40 is a highly dubious measure of football speed and that the purported times of 16-year-olds listed on recruiting Web sites are even more suspect. In other words, if you’re an honest, realistic person.

I’m back from vacation and this blog is back from hiatus. Hopefully such outages will be rare in the future. I’ll still be traveling a bunch in the coming months, but I’m working on finally getting my laptop fixed to a point where I feel comfortable lugging it on airplanes. Take that, wedding season. OK, enough with the excuses. On to the (just barely) morning links.

*Gasp!* Urban Meyer says naughty words!

Urban Meyer was in Pennsylvania for a Nike Coach of the Year Clinic and — shocking absolutely no one who has ever spent more than five minutes around a football coach — dropped a bunch of s-bombs in his nearly two-hour speech that touched on “football and family.” The quotes included in the article were typical Meyer-speak — calculated and intelligent with hints of arrogance abundant confidence, but devoid of anything that could evoke controversy. (In other words, decidedly un-Spurrier.)

However, a few of Meyer’s comments, by inference, are relevant to the Carl Johnson situation:

During his session with the coaches, Meyer talked a lot about families.

His core values for the program are: 1. Honesty. 2. Always show women respect. 3. No drugs. 4. No stealing. 5. No weapons.

He said that if he hears of one of his players hitting a woman, even if it’s in self-defense, the player is gone from the team. Period.

In fact, even if he sees someone not opening a door for a lady, “I’ll jump on a kid’s (bleep). That’s the way I was raised.”

That’s not surprising given how quickly Jacques Rickerson was dismissed following allegations that he battered his girlfriend. I’ll reiterate that it’s too early to cast any judgment vis-a-vis Johnson, but speaking in general terms, it’s refreshing to hear such a strong, unequivocal stance from a truly bigtime football coach on this matter.

Speaking of law-breakin’ ex-Gators

Jamar Hornsby is spreading the love in Mississippi, if by love you mean alleged aggravated assault and petit larceny. Yes, yes, innocent until proven guilty, reserve judgment. Total non-sequitor, but did you know this guy already pleaded no contest to unauthorized use of a credit card? Of a dead girl? Who died in an accident with one of his teammates? Who was also the girlfriend of a different teammate? Good times.

UPDATE: This sounds like it may be ugly. Chris Low, quoting David Brandt of The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, (though interestingly not linking to this information) comes in with the following:

According to the arrest report, the complaint filed said Hornsby used brass knuckles while hitting another guy repeatedly in the head area, causing a fractured nose, busted lips, swollen jaw and other cuts.

The altercation started after Hornsby was involved in a minor traffic accident with another car in a drive-thru at McDonald’s around 2:15 that morning, according to police.

Houston Nutt is investigating (the O.J./real killers joke writes itself on that one), so if the allegations are true, we’ll see if “dolling out a brass-knuckle ass whooping in a McDonald’s drivethrough” is any less palpable to Ole Miss than “stealing a teammate’s dead girlfriend’s credit card.”

Meyer might be tight-lipped, but…

… you can bet that Lane Kiffin’s capricious February showboating will be on the mind of every Gator come September. Just in case you needed visual evidence, Gatortailgating.com obliges, with this photo from the Heavener Football Complex at UF:

Photo via Gatortailgating.com

Oh it’s on…

Bob Tebow is not afraid of you

Tim Tebow has arrived in the Philippines for a mission trip. The Philippines can be a volatile place, which is probably why missionaries want to go there in the first place. But Jeremy Fowler interviewed Tim’s dad, Bob Tebow, and the resulting quote is, well, straight gangsta:

“What are you going to do? Shoot me,” Bob Tebow said. “Great. That’s what I want. Best thing that could ever happen to me.”

In all seriousness, here’s hoping everyone stays safe and the Tebows can keep up the do-goodin’.

When I launched this blog on Tuesday, I remarked that late February was a terrible time to start a college football blog. True. You know when else is a bad time to start a college football blog? Four days before you’re scheduled to go on a week-long vacation. At least I’m going to Florida. Anyway, I might have regular Internet access, I probably won’t. So in the unlikely event that someone I don’t know personally is reading this site, I promise I haven’t quit. Anyway, some quick-hitting links and then we out.

Could Charlie Strong’s shot at head coaching come at… Florida?!?

I didn’t post this yesterday because I was thinking of making an extended piece out of it, but life got in the way. Interesting item, however, from Andrea Adelson of the Orlando Sentinel: Should UF follow the hottest trend in coaching and make Charlie Strong its coach-in-waiting? Remember, this is merely speculative offseason fodder, but I would come down emphatically in the “no” camp, at least for now. If you look at the other schools who have gone the coach-in-waiting route, all of the incumbent head men are getting up there in age or tenure or both:

• Florida State: Bobby Bowden, age 79, entering 34th season at FSU
• Kentucky: Rich Brooks, age 67, entering 7th season (coached from 1977-94 at Oregon)
• Maryland: Ralph Friedgen, age 61, entering 9th season
• Oregon: Mike Belotti, age 58, entering 16th season
• Texas: Mack Brown, age 57, entering 12th season

Florida, with 44-year-old Urban Meyer entering just his 5th season, doesn’t seem to belong on that list. At least not right now.

UPDATE: A friend of mine just pointed out that, at 48, Strong is older than the head coach he’d be slated to replace. That’s not the case at any of the other aforementioned schools. So there’s that, too.

Just when you were tired of talking about high school kids

The Gators pick up a commitment for the 2010 recruiting class in Charlotte, N.C. Independence cornerback Victor Hampton. It’s still a bit early for star rankings and recruiting buzz not locked behind a paywall, but a quick scan of Hampton’s other offers on Rivals seems to bode well. Because, you know, the last time the Gators got an early commit from a highly touted corner prospect, it worked out great.

Nu’Keese Richardson is probably not Reggie Bush

Don’t try to tell that to the Tennessee coaching staff, though.

Tebow is already chiseled granite anyway

Michael J. Mooney of the Broward-Palm Beach News Times thinks Florida’s Mount Rushmore of Sports (ESPN’s latest absurd marketing promotion for SportsCenter) is shaky and the reason is Tim Tebow. Doesn’t he know that Tebow is 250 pounds of concrete cyanide, man? You need that kind of ballast in your mountain, brah.

Ahmad Black keeps the hits on coming

Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald catches up with Ahmad Black the Gators’ returning starter at strong safety. Black is having a pretty typical offseason, with activities such as weightlifting, visiting his former high school and crashing his car into teammate Dustin Doe’s ride.

One more time? Sure, why not:

It’s the offseason, let’s manufacture a recruiting drama

It’s not quite Kiffinesque or anything, but this slightly bizarre item from the Atlanta Journal Constitution indicates that the relationship between Urban Meyer and Tampa Plant head coach Robert Weiner is becoming/is already strained. Even after several reads of the article, it’s tough to tell whether this relates to a specific incident, and tougher still to determine what, if any, impact it had on Orson Charles’ recent decision to drop Florida from his list of suitors. Of course, commenter “get a life people” reminds me that it’s kind of creepy that I care in the first place:

Grown men who get pissy over an 18 year old kids choice of which college to attend really, really need to get a grip.

OK, but just to be on the safe side, let’s all have a big hug.

Hugs!

Riley Cooper goes deep, but will he be gone?

Gator wide receiver Riley Cooper launched a grand slam home run in the Florida baseball team’s 17-6 rout of Eastern Michigan. As a high schooler, Cooper was both a four-star receiver/safety prospect (rated the #10 ATH by Rivals) and a 15th-round baseball draft pick to the Philadelphia Phillies.

In fact, Cooper’s future on the diamond may take him away from UF football. Lost in the shuffle of hype and Harvin-watching leading up to the BCS title game was this item (towards the end) in which Cooper indicated that a baseball career may be hard to pass up. For what it’s worth, the forums seem to concur, as does NFL Draft Scout, which appears to have been designed by a bored dot-com staffer on a lunch break in 1998.

Is Omar Hunter on NutriSystem?

Jeremy Fowler, liveblogging through the magic of WiFi from Section H of the Swamp, says defensive tackle Omar Hunter, erstwhile uber-recruit of 2008, has shed some pounds. But has he lost the equivalent of a fourth grader? Fowler elaborates, in what I’m sure is a statement 100-percent free of hyperbole:

Though I did see linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive tackle Omar Hunter riding on separate Vespas outside of The Swamp. Hunter looks a lot thinner. He might be Tebow’s size.

Hunter’s listed weight from last season was 315 pounds, 75 more than Tebow. Again, I stress listed weight. As with many big teenagers, Hunter looked like he had a lot to gain (or is it lose?) from participating in college conditioning and nutrition programs. Then again, maybe he was able to trim down by EATING LIKE A MAN AND STILL LOSING WEIGHT:

(By the way, I promise to reference Larry the Cable Guy only when absolutely necessary. Like when he appears in a commercial with Dan Marino, only Marino is also wearing a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off.)

In any event, a svelte, healthy Hunter would be a fantastic addition to the interior of the Gator defensive line, which was perilously thin towards the end of last season.

Photo of Meyer via the AP.

UPDATE: Yesterday I posted a link to a Gainesville Sun article about UF footbal and basketball players visiting the same barber. Let’s just hope that doesn’t lead to disaster like it apparently did at USC.

Somewhere, Tommie Frazier is breaking another tackle

David Wunderlich of Year 2 breaks down a few Florida option plays on Bleacher Report. The first line is the best: “As unbelievable as it would have sounded in 1996, Florida has turned into one of the best option football teams in the country.” Sure, it’s not the absurdly unstoppable option-I offense that Frazier and Nebraska used to brutalize the Gators in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, but seeing the Gators run the option to deadly success is indeed a strange departure from the Spurrier era.

(And for no reason in particular, here’s Florida’s 2000 passing playbook.)

Has Lane Kiffin heard about this?

Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post delves into the tight relationship between Urban Meyer and Bill Belichick. The comments on the article follow the predictable “He’s a cheater! We don’t want to be associated with him!” theme, but believe me, if your college football team’s head coach is compared in earnest to Belichick, you have it very, very good. Percy Harvin on the relationship:

“Coach Meyer tries to imitate him to a tee … We did a lot of things that the Patriots did. Ran a lot of their plays.”

Volin also links to an article on the Patriots Web site about an enticing crop of tight ends including Cornelius Ingram, but if the Patriots draft a Gator this year, I’d like it to be Percy Harvin if only because Belichick would be one of a handful of coaches who would actually use him to his full potential. Harvin should be a solid receiver in any system, but he has a chance to be special with a coach who will tweak the offense to get the ball in his hands in a variety of ways. Sort of like Urban Meyer. Who is like Bill Belichick. You get the point.

No change in ticket prices

Assuming you can, you know, get tickets, you won’t have to pay any more than you did this year to see the Gators play at the swamp next season. Well that’s a relief.

Late February is a bad time to start a college football blog. The furor around national signing day has died down along with (we hope) the volley of text messages from middle-aged sportswriters to 17-year-old boys. Spring football – the second-most reliable source of offseason “news” after police reports and county jail manifests – is still weeks away. The end of winter is, in no uncertain terms, a content wasteland.

It is into this breach that On to the Goal boldly steps.

That’s it for now. No mission statement. No manifesto. Just a Gator blog blinking into existence in an hour of need.

In the coming weeks and months, I hope this blog will do its small part to enrich the Interwebs with lively, insightful, humorous and (above all) rational commentary on Gator football and related issues. We’ll see how it unfolds. For now, I’ll begin with what will be a staple of this blog (and, uh, pretty much every other blog, actually): A morning compilation of links accompanied by brief bursts of woefully out-of-context commentary. Without further ado:

Whither Carl Johnson?

Offensive lineman Carl Johnson is scheduled to appear in Alachua County court right about… now-ish. From every published report I’ve read, it’s unclear what today’s hearing will actually uncover, if anything, but it could be a significant day for the Florida football program. Johson (whose name may not appear in print unless accompanied by the requisite “rising junior-to-be” tag) seemed poised to fill one of the Gators’ two vacant tackle positions, but that’s an ancillary concern at this point. If the widely reported allegations leveled at Johnson are even remotely true, it will mark the third “totally messed up” crime committed by a Gator in the past 12 months. Football aside, here’s hoping this isn’t actually a horrible situation.

Add “auctioneer” to football player, humanitarian, doctor…

Tim Tebow, who stunned no one in winning this year’s Wuerffel Award, helped increase the bidding on an always popular auction item: Four tickets to watch Florida beat Georgia.

Joe Haden apparently has the same barber as… Chandler Parsons?

This guy gets his hair cut at the same place as this guy. Who knew.

Has Meyer’s NFL window closed?

Sam Farmer of the the Los Angeles Times makes an interesting case. One less thing for University of Florida President Bernie Machen to worry about, perhaps?

HT: The Wiz.