Andre Branch can clearly be seen getting all up in the facemask much like Brandon Spikes did in the Georgia game. The only thing is I’ve not hear a thing about this from the national media. Has Clemson issued a suspension, or has the ACC even looked into it? Mike Golic where are you at on this one?

At least Andy Staples touched on it:

“This won’t get the attention the Brandon Spikes gouge got because Branch isn’t one of the best five defensive players in the country - and because, let’s face it, New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert set a new standard for away-from-the-play violence last week - but Branch deserves punishment just as much as Spikes did. I know Clemson coach Dabo Swinney doesn’t teach this garbage, and Swinney needs to act swiftly to eradicate such behavior from his program.”

Seems that the world of college football on CollegeFootballTalk.com would be pretty dull if it wasn’t for Coach Meyer and Brandon Spikes. I guess the Alabama vs. LSU game isn’t worth covering as the Gators have five of the eleven headlines on their home page late Wednesday night.

Lane Kiffin still can’t keep the Gators off his mind. From the Knoxville News Sentinel:

When asked of Meyer’s comments on the SEC refs UT Coach Lane Kiffin responded, “Urban Meyer? Criticized the officials, wow, that will be interesting. We’ll see.”

He went on to add, “Obviously, he’ll discipline his team - or not - however he feels.”

A few days after the Brandon Spikes eye-gouge, I can see the situation a bit more clearly. When this event initially occurred,  I was extremely disappointed and said that any Gator, much less the leader of the defense,  who would stoop to this level of play was shameful. After watching the game for the second time and focusing on Spikes, I do see what led him to lose focus. To quote Chris Rock, “I’m not saying he should have eye-gouge Washaun Ealey, but I understand.”

During the second offensive play of the game,  Spikes takes a uncalled block in the back; later on the same drive his helmet is ripped off his head, and later he takes another shot to the head after his helmet comes off. So his frustration level had to be extremely high early in the game, but there is still no excuse for his actions.

3rd Offensive Play From UGA

“I accept responsibility for my actions and I accept the consequences of my actions,” he said. “I would like to apologize to my team and the coaching staff and Washaun Ealey. Football is a very physical and emotional game, but there is no excuse for my actions.”

So bring on the punishment for Spikes. After talking with the SEC, Coach Urban Meyer suspended Spikes for the first half versus Vanderbilt. For everyone outside the Gators’ program (and some Gator fans),  this was not enough time, but what would be? If he were suspended the whole game,  everyone would be screaming that he was suspended for the Vanderbilt game and that  UF really picked a powerhouse to punish Spikes for his actions. Keep in mind, these same actions take place in just about every football game played but most are not caught with such a good camera angle and posted on YouTube. Another classless play in the game was the cheap shot Tim Tebow took from Nick Williams.

“I don’t think that we did anything in that game that they didn’t do,” Tebow said Monday. “If you go back and look at it and study it, you can see it in the film, too. It was an intense game, both teams were very passionate about it.”

The crime is done, punishment has been handed out, and it is time now to move on whether you like it or not. It was the Florida – Georgia game; it’s not like we haven’t seen disgusting acts take place, like a whole team dancing on the field. The best way to get back would be for the Dawgs to rebuild,  score some points, and save a couple time outs for the end of the game.

UPDATE: Brandon Spikes took himself out for the whole game vs. Vandy. Spikes said he doesn’t want to be a distraction to his teammates.

Florida Gators v Georgia Bulldogs, Nick Williams dirty and intentional late hit / cheap shot on Tebow WELL AFTER the ball was handed off to Jeff Demps. This, at just about seven minutes into the start of the game.

The night in Baton Rouge has not been friendly to many visiting teams, but the Gators were able to escape the night with a 13 to 3 victory over LSU. Tim Tebow was also able to return to the field after his concussion versus Kentucky. With the uncertainty around Tebow’s health, Coach Urban Meyer and Steve Addazio called a very conservative offensive game play against the Tigers.

There seem to be two problems with the Gators’ offense right now. First of all,  the big O-Linemen that are great for the nation’s top rushing attack are not as quick setting up for pass blocking, and Tebow is under a lot of pressure when he drops back to pass. Also,  outside Riley Cooper and Aaron Hernandez, nobody seems to be getting open.

Tebow got the honor of the next SI cover this week after the LSU game. Over on ESPN’s Heisman Experts’ Poll Tebow took 13 of the 14 first place votes.

Tebow wasn’t the only Gator to take home honors this week. Brandon Spikes was name SEC defensive player of the week.

CBS will air this week’s game agaist the Arkansas Razorbacks. The game starts at 3:30 PM EST, so let the Swine Flu jokes roll in. For full broadcast information check out Gatorzone.com.

September 20, 2008 - Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America

Michael Oleszek takes a look at the first SEC match up for the No. 1 Florida Gators (2-0) vs. Tennessee Volunteers (1-1)

What Happened Last Week

Florida looked every bit like the No. 1 team in the nation—after the first quarter, in a 56-6 win over Troy. The opening period wasn’t kind to the Gators, as a driving rainstorm combined with sloppy ball handling left the Gator Nation feeling a little uneasy. The Gators would go on to score on their next four possessions, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Tennessee took all of the good feelings and optimism from their week one blowout win over Western Kentucky and completely flushed it down the toilet against UCLA. The Vols took their third consecutive loss to a Pac-10 team, despite holding the Bruins to only 186 yards of total offense and a dismal 3 of 14 on third down. The Tennessee offense failed to capitalize late in the game, and the Bruins came away with an upset in Neyland Stadium.

Florida will win if…

They Win the Three and Out Battle

Three plays and get the defense off the field. That’s a pretty simple philosophy that the Gators need to mandate for Saturday. Tennessee’s offense held the ball for 14 of the last 18 minutes against UCLA and had two drives totaling 30 plays.

If Florida’s offense is parked on the sidelines that long, it will allow the Vols to control the tempo of the game and hang around longer than most people expect. Tennessee can parlay this and a solid defense into keeping the game tight heading into the fourth quarter.

Getting the Vols to go three and out gives the Gators two positives: The high-scoring Gator offense comes back on the field, and Brandon James is back to return punts.

They Take Care of the Football

There were six fumbles by Florida last Saturday, with three of them being lost. Good teams can get away with that against the Troys of the world. Florida will not win if they have three turnovers against Tennessee. Eric Berry, the best defender in the country, is a ballhawk who can take turnovers back to the house from anywhere on field. Rico McCoy is an All-SEC caliber linebacker who can cause havoc at any time. And linebacker Nick Reveiz is an underrated talent who is playing well in his first year as a starter.

They Just Play Football

It is beyond time for everyone on both teams in this rivalry to just shut up and play some football. Lane Kiffin started at his press conference with “singing Rocky Top all night when we beat Florida.” Then, he (incorrectly) said that “he loved the fact that Urban had to cheat, and still didn’t get him,” (referring to recruit Nu’Keese Richardson). Florida lineman Matt Patchan has called Kiffin a “bozo,” and quarterback Tim Tebow has said that he “doesn’t like anyone talking about Coach Meyer.”

Everybody needs to shut up, immediately. Play the game on the field Saturday between the white lines, within the rules, and settle everything then. If you need an example of how to settle things on the field, just watch the tackle Brandon Spikes made early in the Georgia game on Knowshon Moreno. The talent levels at every position favor the Gators (except for Eric Berry), and when the Gators play up to their talent level—they win, and win big.

Florida will lose if…

Eric Berry dictates the pace of Florida’s offense

The best defensive player in college football, coached by one of the best defensive minds at any level (Monte Kiffin), is lining up against arguably the best offense in the game, and do you think he’s going to just sit back and play cover two the whole game?

Um, I don’t think so.

Eric Berry will have to blitz, play man to man, play cover two, play cover three, line up in the box, and then make enough big plays on top of it to disrupt and confuse the Florida offense enough to make the Gators second guess themselves.

The Tennessee defense feeds off of Berry’s play, and they will need to do so if they want to beat the Gators.

There is no doubt that the Gators will game plan for him and where he lines up, but Florida’s offensive coordinator Steve Addazio cannot allow his play calling during the game to be dictated by one person.

Tennessee doesn’t kick the ball to Brandon James

Everyone in Tennessee should know who Brandon James is by now. If they don’t know him by name, then they should know him by the number 25 he wears on his jersey. And, if that still doesn’t work, Brandon James is the guy who has torched Tennessee’s special teams for 410 return yards and two touchdowns in the last three games.

Now think about the touchdown in 2006 that was taken away on a borderline penalty, and the one also in 2006 where the kicker tripped him in the open field, and it is enough to give any special teams coach an ulcer.

Keeping the ball away from James should be at the top of the list in the Vols’ game plan for Saturday, as it will force the Gators into either bad field position or doing something different in the return game.

The X-Factors will be…

Lane Kiffin and Nu’Keese Richardson

Is this really a shock? I think every Gator fan who hasn’t been living under a rock has been waiting for this game and these two people to come to town since signing day in February.

Personally, I could not care less what Lane Kiffin has to say about anything, but some Gator fans took it as a slap in the face. I could also not care less where Nu’Keese Richardson decided to go to school. That was his choice, and it is unfortunate for him that he was the one dragged into it.

Game Prediction

Florida has won the last four games in a row, and more than likely it will be five in a row on Saturday. Eric Berry can’t overcome the deficiencies at quarterback and receiver for Tennessee; and the Gators win with a score closer than most people think.

Florida 38 – Tennessee 13

Mr. 2 Bits Will Be Missed

Two Bits! Four Bits! Six Bits! A Dollar! – All for the Gators Stand up and holler! It is time to hear this echo throughout The Swamp, but this will be first time in a long time that Mr. 2 Bits is not leading the cheer. Will this give Charleston Southern what they need to bet the Gators? Well Pine Riders Anonymous found four Ways Charleston Southern Can Beat Florida. If you buy into this I’ve got some ocean front property in Arizona up for sale.

Florida voted for its 2009 team captains this week. Brandon James, Joey Sorrentino, Brandon Spikes, Ryan Stamper, and Tim Tebow will be this year’s captains. Spikes, Stamper, and Tebow are returning captains from last season.

Dan Shanoff over at TimTeblog.com looks deeper into the question of Tebow making it at the next level. He comes to the conclusion that it will depend on the NFL coach for whom Tebow plays. No matter what Tebow does at the next level, a ton of people have already labeled him the greatest college football player (or at least used Tebow and greatest in the title to get readers to read more). Let’s take a look at this long list of such articles:

• MSNBC Sports - Tebow greatest college athlete of all-time
• NCAA Fanhouse - Tebow May Be Greatest of All Time, but Not of Any Time
• The Biglead - The greatest player in college football history, Tim Tebow
• ESPN - Needs to be Discussed: Tim Tebow, All-Time Evaluation?
• CBS Sports - The best? Surely you jest — but Tebow just might be the greatest
• The Sporting News - Shanoff’s WUC: Why Tebow Will Be Best Ever
• B/R - Confessions of a Seminoles Fan: Tim Tebow Is the Greatest of All Time
• St. Pete Times - Is Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow the best college football player ever?
• SI.com - Tim Tebow poised to pass Vince Young as all-time greatest player
• B/R - Tim Tebow: The Greatest College Football Player Ever?
• WJHG - Is Tebow the best college player ever?
• PlayingField - Is Tim Tebow The Greatest College Player Ever?
• Sun Sentinel - Tim Tebow the best ever? Bobby Bowden doesn’t think he’s better than Charlie Ward
• Jacksonville.com - Is Tebow the best college player ever?
• Washington Times - Is Tebow the best ever? Maybe
• YardBarker - The Greatest of All Time

Jarred Fayson would have been a top candidate for Tebow’s go to receiver this year. Adam West (not Batman) takes a look at what could have been in his blog post - SEC blog: Fayson would have been UF go-to guy? I’m in agreement that Fayson would have been able to put up big numbers this year in the Gators’ spread offense, but he should still have a great year at Illinois, puting up big numbers agaist Big 10 defenses.

COACH URBAN MEYER

THE MODERATOR: We will continue with our final coach of the day, Florida head coach Urban Meyer. Coach, welcome.

2009 SEC Media Day Gators Wrap Up

COACH MEYER: Thank you all for coming. Honored to be here and represent the SEC and the University of Florida. Also here to clear up that mystery that I’m the guy that didn’t vote for Tebow.

Good to be here. Have a very good football team. Very appreciative of the leadership of our program. It’s as good a summer as I’ve been around in coaching as far as dealing with our guys and watching our strength staff work, talking to them about the professionalism. That was the key word throughout the month of January as we prepared for the championship game and December preparing for the SEC game. That has continued through spring practice and the summer.

The key is let’s get to August 6th. I’ve never been more anxious to coach a football team.

With that said, I’ll open it up for questions.

Q. There’s a lot of expectations for your team. What are your expectations for this team?

COACH MEYER: Well, I want to get through these next two weeks. We go real hard for a week, then they have a week off and we start camp. I don’t look much past that.

This time last year, we had some real tough injuries. So we’ve given a lot of thought to how we’re going to practice to keep that edge, to make it a very difficult training camp, yet safe, make sure we can get to the show, and that’s our first game.

Expectation as far as the season, our goals are always the same as it was in 2005, as it is in 2009, and that is we want to do everything we can to get to Atlanta. That’s our whole we wake up every morning to try to achieve that goal.

Q. Would you talk about during this off season, I know you intended to make it the most difficult that Florida has ever had. Are you satisfied they did have that?

COACH MEYER: Well, I’ll find out when we get ‘em. We get them Coach Marotti turns over the team to me on August 6th. According to our players, who I have great confidence in, when they communicate to me, it has, we’re not finished with it. You can usually tell once we get started in training camp what kind of off season they’ve had. We’ve had good ones, not so good ones. According to our players and strength coach, this has been one of the best, if not the best.

Q. With so much depth, how have you kept everyone happy so far?

COACH MEYER: I think we’ve really promoted the competition and we’ve promoted team first. Great things happen when you have an unselfish team. Last year’s was arguably the most unselfish I’ve been a part of. They got to wear a championship ring, compete in the SEC championship game. That’s what we have going for us right now. I really believe our guys love it at Florida. More importantly, I really believe they care for each other. It’s a good situation right now in that locker room, in the weight room, and when they’re together. That’s not easy.

You have 105, 120, 18 to 22 year olds from every stretch, some overrecruited, some underrecruited, some overrated, some underrated. And to keep those guys happy and motivated, that certainly a difficult task. The only way to get it done is with great leadership on our team and our staff does a heck of a job.

Q. Is Riley Cooper returning?

COACH MEYER: I’ll know that today. Is today Wednesday?

Q. Thursday.

COACH MEYER: I’m going to know it by the end of the week, or the weekend, is what I’m hearing.

Q. Everybody knows you grew up idolizing Woody Hayes. In the heart of Alabama, did you ever study Bear Bryant, read anything about him, take anything from his coaching philosophy?

COACH MEYER: Well, a great story, my first season as coach of Florida, walking in that stadium, I’m standing near the goalpost. They flip that scoreboard on. Bear Bryant is right there talking to me. I’ll never forget that. That guy is not supposed to be here any more.

Up north it was Woody Hayes. Had great appreciation. Read the Junction Boys. Obviously followed Bear Bryant. However, Earle Bruce would often talk about Coach Bryant. That was one of his sources of information and sources of expertise. He would often talk about Coach Bryant. Of course, I have. Not to the same degree of Woody Hayes.

Q. You joked about Tebow and the All SEC team. What do you think of the story that’s become this week?

COACH MEYER: First of all, Pat Dooley told me to do that. Second of all, no one laughed, so it wasn’t a very funny joke. Someone asked me if that’s going to motivate Tim. Whoever asks those questions, don’t know Tim. Tim has a lot of things to motivate him. That’s not one.

Didn’t mean much by it.

Q. There’s been some concern about Tebow not getting under center enough in the past, especially concerning his future in the NFL. Do you see he’ll get under center a little bit?

COACH MEYER: There’s a lot made of that. The concern is not from the professional coaches that I have a lot of conversation with. That never comes up. Tim Tebow, we can’t make this more complicated than what it is. If you want Tim Tebow under center, teach him to get under center, he’ll probably do it better than anybody else.

Are we going to place him under center? A lot of it depends on the quality of our tailback. To play an under center offense, you better have a monster back there at tailback that can take the pounding involved in that style of offense. I was involved in an offense I think 15 years. So we know that offense. Coach Addazio was very familiar. A great offense.

It’s very personnel based on your fullback, on your tailback, your tight end. We’ve not had that luxury. This year, if T.J. Pridemore comes back, is a good fullback, we have three quality tailbacks. If they develop, it helps us win a game, we’ll do that.

We are certainly not trying to, because someone said Tim needs to be under center to enhance his draft status. I assure you, him playing under center has nothing to do with his draft status with the programs we talked to. If it did, we would help him because he earned that. It’s not that different.

Continue Reading

Players in circle drills..#51 (LB) Brandon Spikes vs. #81(TE) Aaron Hernandez..#99 (DT) Omar Hunter vs. #58 (OL) Nick Alajajian..#8 (DE) Carlos Dunlap vs. #72 (OL) Jonotthan Harrison..#35 (S) Ahmad Black vs. #6 (WR) Deonte Thompson..#97 (DT) Edwin Herbert vs. #73 (OL) Byran Jones..#34 (LB) Lerentee McCray vs. #48 (FB) Rick Burgess
#98 (DT) Troy Epps vs. #57 (OL) Carl Johnson..#27 (CB) Adrian Bushell vs. #35 (S) Ahmad Black..#6 (DE) Jaye Howard vs. #76 (OL) Marcus Gilbert..#91 (DE) Earl Okine vs. #50 (OL) Sam Robey..#96 (DE) William Green vs. #71 (OL) Matt Patchan

Check out the Defense that is coming back in 2009 for the Florida Gators.