The defending champion Florida Gators received the most first-place votes ever in this year’s preseason AP Top 25 poll.
August 2009
Jordan Hicks a 6’2, 210 lbs stud LB from Lokota West High School in Ohio. He is the #1 rate LB on ESPN board. He has the Gators on his schools of interest.
The last few days their has been some drama around Sharrif Floyd. Sharrif a top Defensive Tackle in the class of 2010 found himself in the middle come controversy over the last couple of days. It all stared when Matt Alkire, who covers the Northern region for Scout.com, reported that Floyd came back from a trip to Florida and told one of his confidantes that Florida was negative recruiting. He was reported to say that UF was pointing out Penn State’s record for having players in legal trouble. Also he was reported that Florida and Tennessee are well known to be the worst for negative recruiting.
SEC Blogger Chris Low breaks down the conference as he sees it.
Over the weekend Mike Gillislee became the first Gator Freshman to lose his stripe. Jonotthan Harrison also lost his stripe and is running with the first team offense since some players are out with injuries. Gator Freshmen earn their right to be on the team by showing they are ready to play. To signify this Coach Meyer has all Freshmen with a black stripe over their Gator white stripe on their helmet. The last three years we have seen great production out of the players that have lost their stripe first: Jeff Demps, Major Wright, and someone named Percy Harvin.
Here is the news all Gators fans were wanting to hear–Chris Rainey has put on 12 pounds, is learning the offense better, and teammates are beginning to see him becoming a more complete Running Back. In my opinion, Rainey has the best chance of any player on the team to fill the “Percy Position.” He has the same quick step with more top end speed but won’t be able to run between the tackles like Percy could. Gator fans everywphere hope he keeps developing and is a full time contributor on this year’s team instead of a role player.
This is junior film on Darius White the 6′ 3″ 195 lbs Wide Receiver from Fort Worth (TX) Dunbar. Dunbar is a true play-maker with great size and speed. He has a very quick first step and has a great vertical to be able to make plays in the end zone. The Gators have offered Darius, but he is also recruited by Texas, USC, OSU, Texas Tech, Alabama and Utah.
With only 23 days till the home opener the Gators have now put on the pads and are ready to get down to business. It should be a great fall practice as guys try to crack the starting line-up. On defense there is going to be competition at every position. Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong summed it up like this at the Gators Media Day:
The 6′ 1″, 190 lbs WR from Ocala Trinity is going to be a Red Raider. Kadron Boone a 4-star recruit from rivals.com and 17th ranked WR on ESPN had offers from fifteen programs including the Gators.
ESPN’s Tom Luginbill said of the news, “Boone is so polished and productive. What he lacks in top end speed he makes up for with savvy, know-how and great route running ability. This is an important pick-up for Tech as they have expanded their recruiting net into fertile ground and also are replenishing their receiving corp with terrific skill level.”
After the SEC Media Days, we found out one thing about the 2009 College Football Season: it is going to be All Tebow, All the Time. Blogger Dan Sanoff is going to spend all season just covering Tim Tebow on his blog TimTeblog.com. He won’t have any trouble finding content with the crazy media coverage Tim has got so far this year. Who will be the first media outlet to break the news when Tebow shaves his beard?
Future of Gators Football
