Gator fans–it is only one more week till the 2009 Gators Football season kicks off. During the past week the Gators have dominated the college football news. It all started with the Gators making AP poll history. The Gators were able to get 58 out of the 60 votes and received the most first-place votes ever. Lou Holtz also shocked everyone when he said that Notre Dame would meet Florida in the BCS National Championship this season. I’ve heard everything from rumors that Lou has completely fallen off his rocker to rumors that he is putting pressure on Charlie Weis because he would like to see his son Skip Holtz take the Notre Dame job. Either way one of the teams he picked was right.
What more can Tebow do?
The NY Daily News says Florida Gators QB Tim Tebow is living life of superhero in city of Gainesville. This superhero has not gone with out his battle wounds. Tebow had never missed a start after taking over from Chris Leak, but all that physical play has taken its toll. The Orlando Sentinel took a look at Tim Tebow’s medical history. Tim right shoulder has taken at lot of the brunt from plowing over opponents.
SI’s Stewart Mandel has Tebow well positioned to become all-time best. Mandel looks back over the last 25 years and ranks some of college football’s best QB. If the Gators, led by Tim Tebow, are able to win another National Championship, it would be hard not to have Tebow at the top of that list.
One of Tebow’s top targets this season will be Aaron Hernandez. Hard Knox Sports says Aaron Hernandez is Not The Best SEC Tight End. Hernandez is a pre-season All SEC 2nd team selection behind D.J. Williams of Arkansas. Both of the players are great talents, but I think that we are going to see Aaron used in a ton of different ways this year for the Gators. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to build on his stats and will have a great shot at the end of the year to claim the title of Best TE in the SEC.
No shaving eyebrows in the locker room
This week the Zooker took some heat from Coach Meyer about the hijinks under the previous coaching staff. Meyer told Jeremy Fowler:
“When we first got here five years ago they had freshmen in a separate locker room and it was a bunch of tin lockers over there and they weren’t allowed to walk [into the regular locker room],” Meyer told reporters Friday. “Think about this for a minute: this is a big-time college football program and we had some fights because they treat their freshman like they were non-people.
“‘Don’t walk through here, we’ll kick your tail, we’ll shave your eyebrows.’ It took us awhile to break that great culture we had here. That was tremendous. You don’t win many games, but you beat up freshman and shave eyebrows. Absolutely unbelievable.”
Zook issued the following statement Friday night in response to Meyer’s comments.
“I was surprised to see that, once again, five years later, we’re blamed for something else at Florida. But by now I guess I shouldn’t be. This one was most disappointing because it implies we didn’t look out for our players. From someone who wasn’t there at the time. I can assure you I’ve never, ever been accused of that. I thought I was too much of a players’ coach.
“The implication is incorrect — there is no place for hazing in college football and we’ve put a stop to that if we’ve ever seen it. I applaud Florida for fostering what they say is a wonderful family atmosphere. I
would invite anyone to talk to any of our players here at Illinois and, although we don’t look for media opportunities to brag about it, it is a wonderful family atmosphere.”
Meyer claims he didn’t intend to criticize Zook. “I made a comment about the previous locker room arrangement and how that can lead to issues such as separating freshmen. There was no intent to criticize the previous staff or coach Zook. Obviously the locker room arrangement was that way for a while.”
After all that, the teams just need to put on some pads and play it out on the field.
The Gators and recruit Victor Hampton have parted ways. Word came out that Hampton is no longer on the Gators’ commitment list for the class of 2010. Victor was kicked off his Independence High football team, and after Friday Night Lights, the Gators backed off him. Cody Riggs is the name that is popping up as the replacement in this class for Hampton. Riggs is 5′ 8″, 160-pound and runs a 4.3 40-yard dash. He is also being recruited by FSU and Tennessee.
He told NoleInsider.com: “I would say Florida is my leader right now because I’ve been there more recent so I have a better feeling for Florida. I also went there twice this summer.”
August 31st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I hope the Zooker knows what PARANOIA means; based on the way he got so defensive after that remark, he hasn’t changed one bit - and looks foolish since Meyer didn’t even mention him personally by name.
Even so, Zook still meeds to take accountability for what went wrong with UF football from 2002-2004 and not make excuses NOR throw anybody else under the bus. Had he made better decisions, the outcome would have been different.
Others love to call Coach Meyer arrogant, but at least he’s organized and knows what he’s doing. It angers me to no end that others take so much of what he says out of context, read too much into what he’s saying and accuse him of finger-pointing, and I wish those who are doing it would stop. Meyer’s a straight-shooter, is his own man and will go all out to protect his family, jhis players, and the UF football program. He has put all his heart and effort into building UF football back up from the depths of the Zook era to one of the top-notch programs in college football today, and if that or other things he says or does rub others the wrong way, tough.
I’ll bet that if it was Spurrier who made a remark like that, there wouldn’t have been a big to-do over it. It really sucks that we still have a double standard like that as far as UF coaches are concerned.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:13 am
Zook knows what he left behind, and how he underperformed as a Coach. The facts are the facts, Zook teams were very poorly coach and the program was unorganized on and off the field.
I agree with you on Spurrier. He was and still is allowed to get by with stuff other coaches only wish they could. Just think if Kiffin left Tebow of the All SEC team. There would still be reports coming out about it, and ESPN would have OTL all over Knoxville.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I agree, Josh. Zook has nobody to blame but himself for his poor job performance while he was at UF both as a defensive assistant back in the mid-90’s when he was demoted by SOS as well as everything that happened while he was head coach that culminated in his firing back in October of 2004. He still harbors sour grapes about it even today, but hey, he’s the captain of his own ship.
As far as SOS goes, he’s recently come to realize that his big mouth can be one of his foibles, and he’s come to regret some of the things he’s said in the past. In that case, all I have to say is what goes around comes around. He should have thought twice before he said those things about Coach Meyer this past spring while he was on none other than Finebaum’s radio show that he purposely knew would cause a stir, as well as other things he’s said in the past. As much as I loathe Florida State, perhaps their former AD Dave Hart had a point when he once said that SOS deserved “to be spanked”.