With the wind, which is so often a non-factor in the increasingly humid days of May in Gainesville, swirling across the court and scattering a water bottle or two, Allie Will—the number one women’s tennis player in the country—set her feet and let rip on a exquisitely-timed and powerful forehand. As it had just moments before, the ball blew by her Washington State opponent, skidding to a stop at the wall behind the baseline at center court at Linder Stadium. Above that wall, the Gator tennis fan faithful—an eclectic mix of sun-baked senior citizens, young kids and their thirty-something parents, sporadic groups of students, student-athletes from other sporting codes—broke into an equally diverse blend of cheers. Of course, there is the ubiquitous “Let’s go Gators!” but many also yelled Will’s first name, an example of the intensity and familiarity that epitomizes the experience of watching this talented group. Across six courts in singles play, the Gators women’s tennis team, currently ranked second in the nation, blanked Washington State: to put the domination into perspective, not one of the team gave up a set on way to the 6-0 victory.

Although one could write about any one of the players on the team to talk about the relentless energy and effort brought to the court on that day, Will is both the most talented and most intriguing player on the team. To describe fragments of her match is a poor imitation of how tennis, like all sports, is about momentum and the capturing of that momentum, but it does give a glimpse of why if you have missed this team play live, you’ve missed something special. In the third game of the first set, Will, a junior and All-American, was engaged in a war of attrition with her opponent, a player who favored long, looping forehands to combat the precision and speed of Will’s strokes. After going back and forth in a rally where Will could not quite deliver the knockout blow, a deep ball caught the WSU player off-guard, and Will sprang on the misplaced return; delivering a forehand as emphatic as a boxer’s left hook, the Florida Gator blasted a clean, brutal winner. Not so much a punctuation mark but rather promise fulfilled, it proved to show that Will wasn’t going to lose the match. Not now, and definitely not here on this home court, with a hungry and victory-infatuated crowd watching.

As the wind grew in strength and began pushing the ball from where each player intended to place it, Will kept her composure; indeed, she took advantage of her opponent’s sagging on-court demeanor. (In one exchange, the WSU player, rather than return the ball to her Gator opponent, hit it wide onto a neighboring court, an action that elicited a subdued dressing down by the match umpire.) To extend the boxing metaphor, the WSU’s player’s frustration came from the fact that Will’s consistent, commanding forehand had the effect of an extended flurry of body shots. Eventually, something has to give. But it wasn’t just the case of extended force leading to victory; Will dominated the second set with finesse, too, at one point hitting a drop shot with spin into the unpredictable win that escaped the long reach of her opponent.

It is probably unfair to focus on one player when talking about a team that when in action displays the sort of passion and will to win that could make even a casual fan an enthusiast. But Will really does epitomize what is great about this squad. Thus, it is the team’s head coach, Roland Thornqvist, who, in an interview with The Gainesville Sun, so succinctly described what is so extraordinary about Florida women’s tennis today:

“It’s really interesting to see and be a part of a team that is so driven and has the desire to win like these guys,” Thornqvist said. “It is remarkable to see how they prepare. Before the match as a coach, you don’t have to do much. We roll out the balls, we give them water and they take care of everything else. It is really a unique group, and a lot of that stems from an incredible desire to win. I feel blessed to be a part of it.”

As the team continues to advance through the tourney, do not miss the opportunity to watch them play. Will might be the most explosive, but she is also representative of a team that does what Gator fans value above most everything: win, and win with an exclamation point.

The off-season has been quiet for Florida so far with only minor personnel news arising.

LB Graham Stewart, a true freshman last year, announced last week he is leaving the program. Muschamp said he placed no restrictions on his options, and Stewart will go to Connecticut.

“I’m going to petition the NCAA for him to be eligible immediately,” Muschamp said. “He’s a great kid. A family situation occurs like that and you’re so far from home, you deserve to have that opportunity and not have any penalty for it.”

Tevin Westbrook will move from defensive line to tight end.

“We wanted to give him a look in the spring but we were really thin up front on defense,” Muschamp said. “We think he can help create some edges in the run game.”

Westbrook had two tackles in three games last year.

By all accounts Florida’s 2013 recruiting class is terrific, it is ranked in the top five nationally.

So with recruiting for next season gong so well, it is not a surprise to hear that UF is already working on the Class of 2014.

On Thursday, a Florida Gators football coach watched Palm Beach (Fla.) Dwyer receiver Johnnie Dixon at practice, and apparently liked what he saw.

“Coach (Aubrey) Hill was out at my practice today,” Dixon told Gatorcountry.com. “After practice he told my coach that I was looking real good and that he was offering me a scholarship to Florida.”

The 6-foot 186-pound Dixon now has four scholarship offers.
Florida joins Alabama, Florida State and Miami as the lone schools to offer Dixon. Even in such company, Dixon said the Gators’ offer is special.

“I grew up a Florida fan,” Dixon said. “So, this is a dream offer from a dream school. It really means a lot to be offered by Florida so soon.”

That being said, this summer Dixon is planning trips trips to the schools that are recruiting him the hardest thus far.

“I want to camp at Florida for sure this summer,” Dixon said. “I’m also going to try and camp at Alabama, Miami and Florida State.”

As a sophomore last season, Dixon had 365 yards and five touchdowns receiving while adding 95 yards and another two touchdowns rushing.

ESPN’s Edward Aschoff talks about how Florida had more leaders step up this spring and how players are buying in more in Will Muschamp’s second year

When it comes to stopping the run next season, Florida coach Will Muschamp is hopeful that experience will make the difference.

Florida finished the 2011 season fifth in the Southeastern Conference in run defense, allowing 132.7 yards per game.

While not bad, it’s not up to the lofty standards Muschamp set at his previous stints as defensive coordinator at LSU, Auburn and Texas.

“We’ve improved up front,” Muschamp said before speaking at Tuesday night’s Central Florida Gator Club. “We entered the SEC last year with less starts than anybody else in the conference on defense.”

Even with the inexperience, Florida began the 2011 season strong against the run. The Gators entered October fifth in the nation in run defense, allowing just 56.6 yards per game.

But that was before Florida faced the meat of its league schedule. The Gators allowed 226 rushing yards against national champion Alabama, beginning an 0-4 month in which UF allowed 236 yards rushing to LSU and 185 yards rushing against Georgia.

Muschamp said he felt some of the run yards were inflated last season because opposing teams felt they could stay with the run because the Gators struggled to score points. But he acknowledged his team also let down against the run at times last season.

“We need to do a better job playing run defense, striking and playing blocks up front and tackling,” Muschamp said. “Those are the things we need to address. Scheme-wise we’ll continue to evolve, be a little bit more 3-4, which will help us in the run game a little bit more because we’ll have a little more girth on defense.”

Another factor could come up front, where 305-pound Sharrif Floyd will move back inside to defensive tackle and 286-pound Dominique Easley will move outside to defensive end. Easley was forced to move inside last season after Floyd served a two-game NCAA suspension for receiving unauthorized travel expenses. Floyd stayed outside when he returned.

“I think their more natural positions are where they will be this fall,” Muschamp said.

It will not help this up-coming season but Florida’s offensive line in 2013 got even better Saturday with the addition of former Maryland offensive lineman Max Garcia.

As a sophomore last year, Garcia started all 12 games at left tackle for the Terrapins. But the Norcross, Ga., native decided he wanted to attend a school closet to home.

“Once a Terp always a Terp,” Garcia wrote on his Twitter account Saturday, “but it is a great day to be a Florida Gator!!”

The 6-foot-4, 290-pounder visited Gainesville in March for a spring practice and chose UF over Clemson, Georgia, Ole Miss and Southern California. Garcia is the 24th member of Florida’s 2012 class, but he won’t be able to play until the 2013 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

Big win for Muschamp and Florida. They get a proven left tackle who will be able to step in replace Florida’s current starting left tackle Xavier Nixon and starting left guard James Wilson who both graduate next spring.

Florida’s spring practices have been completed and we will not see the players again until the fall. So what did we learn about the team this spring?

The QB Competition is still up for grabs
Heading into spring practice most Florida fans were hoping that either Jacoby Brissett or Jeff Driskel would create a little separation between themselves and the other QB’s. That did not happen.

Both managed the offense, with each leading three scoring drives playing for both the Orange and the Blue teams. Brissett (9-16-0, 233 yards, 2 TDs) showed off his arm, completing five passes longer than 20 yards. And Driskel (12-14-0, 147 yards, 0 TDs) showed accuracy and the ability to extend plays with his legs.

The offensive line has improved
At the end of last season, Muschamp called out the Florida offensive line, calling it soft. In the scrimmages, there appeared to be more holes for the running back to run into and the quarterbacks appeared to be getting more time to throw.

Now those improvements could also be because…

Florida’s pass rush still needs work
UF got very little quarterback pressure last year and they did not get many in these spring scrimmages. This has to be a huge concern for Muschamp and his staff as that without the threat of a pass rush, quarterbacks will sit back there are pick the Gators secondary apart this fall.

This isn’t your traditional Gators offense
Brent Pease’s offense looks very different than what Charlie Weis was running last year. Expect a lot more shifts and motion before the ball is snapped to set-up mismatches against the defense.

Really interesting comment from Florida head coach Will Muschamp last night just before he spoke to the Titletown Gator Club in Gainesville.

“I mean this: I think we’re better right now than we were at any point last year,”

Must have been one heck of a spring practice coach as that is quite a statement to make. I know that last years 7-6 Gator team was a disappointment, but what you have now is better?

Let me look at this for a second. Right now, Florida quarterbacks have a combined two career starts. The projected starting running back, a senior, has never started a game. And the wide receivers have been MIA for the last two seasons.

The reason for Muschamp’s optimism is new offensive line coach Tim Davis and the improvement in the OL:

“I think we made tremendous progress [on the offensive line],” Muschamp said. “I think Tim Davis has done really good job with those guys gelling and coming together. That’s where we’re different.”

I do believe that Florida will be better next season than they were last season. Muschamp has recruited really well and I expect several of the highly touted incoming freshman to make an immediate impact.

But going from 7-6 to 8-5 is an improvement and going to 9-4 is a big jump. I cannot see Florida improving more than that at the moment.

Disappointed but not surprised. That was my reaction to hearing that Florida freshman guard Bradley Beal announced he will enter the NBA draft this summer.

“It was the right time for me,” Beal said. “Coach (Billy Donovan) told me whatever you decide, when you decide make sure you’re at peace with it. … I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with the decision, comfortable telling coach and making the final decision because I knew there was no turning back.”

Bale is the first one-and-done player for the Gators since Donnell Harvey departed following the 2000 season, in which Florida reached the national championship game for the first time in school history.

While Harvey never lived up to huge expectations in the pros, Beal’s situation is much different. He was a starter for all 37 games this past season and was arguably the best player on the Gators. Various services have him going as one of the top five selections.

Donovan said he gave Beal “space” to make his own decision, the two meeting three times to talk about the decision.

“Since the end of the season Brad and I have had a chance to meet several times and really talk about this decision,” Donovan said. “I have to say that maybe more than any other player that I have coached, he may have been as mature as any player I’ve ever been around in terms of how he’s looking at this decision and this process.

“It was well thought out by him. I don’t think he was influenced by anybody. He had great support. And people really gave him space to make his decision. On Monday he and I had a good long talk.”

I cannot blame Beal for wanting to got to the NBA and get the money that will make his family financially secure. The only reason he did not go to the NBA straight out of high school was because he could not under the current CBA.

The one-and-done is a huge topic right now in college basketball, and it has to be a huge dilemma for Billy Donovan.

Do you follow the strategy of Kentucky coach John Calipari and sign all these top ranked players, knowing that in most cases they will be on campus for only a year? Or do you not target these elite players but instead go for ones who you expect to have for three to four years so you can build a team around them?

As has been extensively reported: On Sunday night Dwyane Wade sat in the stands next to the dugout of the away team at Yankee Stadium. On being spotted by cameras, Wade had his visage broadcast on the stadium’s jumbotron. The crowd booed Wade: he plays for the rival of a popular New York team, thus the reaction could be expected. This is the rational grammar of fandom. Later, the camera found Tim Tebow sitting one row down. Wearing a Yankees cap, Tebow, when caught on camera, smiled and acknowledged the fans. But, when Tebow was featured on the jumbotron, he received the same treatment as Wade. Keyboards across the country began tapping.

The difference between Wade and Tebow is, of course, that the latter is readying himself to play for a local team and hasn’t done anything on or off-the-field, in his short tenure as a member of the New York Jets organization, that warrants significant fan disapproval. But still they boo. Why? Your answer is ready, I’m sure, but imagine, for a moment, that someone from another country asked you this, someone who had never heard of Tebow: What would you say?

The ready answer to this question—more nuanced than “he’s incredibly famous”— is that Tebow is the “most polarizing” (the throwaway line so commonly associated with him) figure in American professional sports. (Because of its popularity but inaccuracy, I think it’s more helpful to understand “most polarizing” as “elicits strong emotions in a variety of ways,” rather than that Tebow’s play/personality causes us to take one of two positions about him: hate or love, for example.) Another potential answer: “Tebow is controversial.” Amongst the many prominent Christian athletes he is the most outspoken about his love for Jesus Christ; his wobbly passes are fodder for pundits; the public lobbying for him to receive was, if not unprecedented, certainly drew the attention and ire of many; he is more famous than talented as a quarterback. There are many reasons you could use to qualify, if you chose to, your definition of Tebow as “controversial.”

By extension, this is how you could have explained to your foreign friend why Tebow was booed by fans in the city where he has come to play: he’s a controversial sports figure who now resides in the locus of American sports media with a fan base well known for sharp knives. But would that enlighten your friend about the wider meaning (for want of a better word) of the booing? (And how would you articulate that it drew not only the attention of ESPN but that the Google search “Tim Tebow booed” leads to 295,000 results in 0.18 seconds?)

Because the Yankee fans are not really or merely booing Tebow, the individual sitting in the stands; rather, the Yankee fans recognize Tebow as a central node in a sprawling network: Tebowmania. And by booing the fans are taking part in Tebowmania as discourse: a body of “knowledge, ideas, or experience that is rooted in language and its concrete contexts.” Tebowmania is all that has been written and said about Tebow—all the ink spilled, all the hot air blown, all the camera flashes—but also the way what is written and said has produced and circulated (the jumbotron image, the streams of tweets, the SportsCenter replays, the video caught on an iPhone and posted online). The interchange about whether a football player should publicly assert his position on the issue of abortion is Tebowmania; the dialogue (in print or cyberspace) about the journalistic ethics of asking a college athlete is Tebowmania.

Thus, Tebowmania is not the merely the domain of those who can identify themselves at one end or the other of the binary implied by “most polarizing.” Certainly, the booing can be read as a verbal expression of disdain, an act of resistance, or an understandable corollary to the inverse relationship between Tebow’s fame/influence and his success/achievement as an NFL player. But, intentionally or not, booing Tebow in Yankee Stadium is a way that these fans are writing their way into a network beyond the specific human subject. To boo Tebow is to build another intersection in this sprawling discourse, Tebowmania.

– Christopher Garland

Read more of Christopher’s writing here: http://beatsouthcamden.tumblr.com/

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