Orange and Blue Hue » Spring Fling Thing

Spring Fling Thing

Orange and Blue Debut ‘08 is over.

Impressions:

Chris Rainey

Everyone’s saying he’s a future star and he well could be. He racked up 130 yards of offense and made some amazing juke-you-outta-your-jock moves that an SEC back has to make if he’s going to break the big one.

His size (5′ 7″? He looked shorter than Erin Andrews!) is obviously always going to be a liability. But in college, that’s okay as long as you make up for it with other things. See: Brandon James, Percy Harvin, etc. He is not a great pass-blocker and probably never will be. His presence on the field will flash a RB pass or handoff and that that will be tough. But once you get over those negatives… wow! He is the real deal. I can’t wait to see an offensive set which includes Rainey and Harvin. For what it’s worth, Harvin and Rainey apparently alternate winning in sprint races and such in practice. Yeah, kid’s fast.

Emmanuel Moody

It took him awhile to get warmed up, and yes, he did fumble, but E-Mood was awesome in a 3-play series in which he chewed up and spit out the defense for 30-40 yards. Moody displayed deceptive speed, broke a bunch of tackles, and showed power and decisiveness in hitting the crease. He will be a very good running back and I expect him to touch the ball at least 5-10 times per game next season.

Kestahn Moore

Why didn’t he get more touches? Maybe the coaches are already comfortable with Moore. He didn’t fumble and he looked really good as a power runner in his few carries. I am pulling for Kestahn. He’s a good kid and if he can take care of the football, could be a very good SEC-caliber back.

Cam Newton

Ugh. I felt bad for the kid. It was a pretty dismal showing: misfires, bad reads, lots of underthrown balls, rifled 5-10 yard passes thrown so hard the receivers had almost no hope of catching them, etc. He was lucky he wasn’t picked off on two or three of his long balls. He showed elusiveness in the pocket, and I absolutely love his physical tools. He just can’t pass worth a darn at the moment. If Meyer uses Newton, expect to see a lot of QB draws and option plays.

Tim Tebow

Tebow was playing sick but still looked fine to me. The ESPN crank in the clip above says that Tebow “struggled” but it looked to me like the scrubs dropping the ball were leading to the picks. Who cares how he looks in the Spring Game? He is the best quarterback in college football. We don’t need anything more to judge our boy by. It was a shame he had to play at all, but that leads us to…

John Brantley

Not seeing Brantley play was a huge disappointment! Brantley has been lighting it up in Spring practice and has been hailed as one of the best pure drop-back passers that Meyer and Mullen have come across in their coaching careers. Unfortunately, Brantley sat the game out with a banged-up wrist. After seeing Cam Newton, you’d think Brantley would have to be way up in the mix for the #2 spot. He also looks as though he’s filled out quite a bit since his freshman year, when he seemed pencil-neck skinny. I really hope Brantley sees the field this year, if we need a second quarterback out there.

Defense

Competent. Wondy Pierre-Louis looked pretty good breaking up a few passes. I love Major Wright as always. Didn’t see much of Joe Haden — but we already know he’s very likely a starter for next year. Carlos Dunlap had a really nice game. It seemed like he was in the backfield on every other play.

ESPN Gameday

It was flat out awesome to have the Gameday crew in Gainesville for the Spring Game! The crowds didn’t disappoint — 61,000 attended, a new Florida record.

Gameday’s presence once again cements Florida’s status as an elite-of-the-elite football power. Florida’s pre-season ranking will likely be in the Top 3 and Kirk Herbstreit couldn’t contain himself over the Gator offense, which he kept saying “will score 40-50 points every game in 2008.” I’m not so sure, but if this offense is at least as good as it was last year — and I think it goes without saying we don’t expect it to be worse — than this team has the strong possibility of making a title run. An SEC title run. Win the SEC and the rest takes care of itself.

Overall

A good day for Florida football. Now we have the summer doldrums ahead… thank God for DVD-recorders and ESPN Classic.

16 Comments so far
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Your sports idiocity is without equal. Next year, the Cats will be faster, deeper, and more athletic. Chris Pulley will run circles around the Gator defense and humiliate noodle-armed Tim Tebow. Rich Brooks is a coaching genius, as evidenced by his victory over national champion LSU. Oh yeah, the program is in good hands with Joker Phillips as our successor. Meanwhile, we’ll beat you guys in football and basketball so badly that you’ll want to watch baseball, except we’re going to win that division too.

Billy Gillispie will make the Cats the NCAAs best program by winning the next five national championships and putting UK over UCLA for all eternity.

We’re the NCAAs winningest program because we know how to win. We know how to win because we’re the NCAAs winningest program.

The Cats will be the unquestioned favorites to win the national championship in hoops next season and anyone who thinks otherwise does not know basketball as well as I do.

Your sports idiocity is unparalleled. UK will be even better at quarterback with Chris Pulley. Rich Brooks is a coaching mastermind, as evidenced by his victory against national champ LSU last season and his decision to appoint Joker Phillips as his successor. We’ll beat you so badly in football and basketball that you’ll starting turning to baseball, except, oh no, the Cats are projected to win the division!

Billy G will return UK to national prominence by winning the next five national championships in a row to break UCLA’s record. By then,you’ll have no choice but to cower before our record number of titles and wins.

We’re the NCAA’s winningest program because we know how to win games.

Next year, our basketball team will be even bigger and faster. They’ll be even more dangerous than the Untouchables, even more beloved than Rupp’s Runts. They’ll be the clear favorites to win the national championship, and anyone else who thinks otherwise does not know basketball as well as I do.

Nobody else on this website can tell me what sports to comment on.

Which impersonation do y’all like better?

Hard to say, but I think the 2nd.

I’m pretty happy with what I saw today. No big holes. I enjoyed the RBs finally making an effort, though I was distressed to see Moody struggle in the beginning. I think he just needs reps to get his head on straight. Dunlap was a beast, and the secondary was decent at best. I was very disappointed to see Cam struggling so badly and was even more distressed when I heard about Brantley’s injury. Hopefully the summer will turn out better.

What the hell was up with Howard warming up with the team? Big ESPN lovefest for the Gators, but I’m not complaining.

emoody is the truth. just wait and see

2nd one better.

Nice game, great weather, Erin Andrews, cold beer at the Copper Monkey, Tebow, Moody, ESPN, GameDay, live football, trophies, Gator girls…..well worth the hangover.

Gatorpilot: did you hear Corso say that the Cocks-Gators matchup in the Swamp will be for the SEC East?

GC Man: yeah… and I thought it was surprising. Nothing against USC, but why does Corso think they’ll be better this year? Recruiting hasn’t been spectacular, Garcia’s in trouble, and Smelley seems like he’s nothing more than an average SEC QB. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think the ‘Cocks are realistically in the hunt next year with UF and UGA looking as powerful as they are.

Yeah, Corso’s prediction caught us off guard. I do think we’ll be a bit better next year. Word out of spring practice is that the o-line and defense, two old problems for us, have shaped up somewhat. And recruiting hasn’t been as bad as you make it sound; I think our talent is decent on the first team, but we have to stay healthy unlike last year. But I’ve also heard that Smelley has hardly been impressive, to the point that Spurrier can’t really decide on who to go with as a starter. Maybe Garcia will finally come through. I wouldn’t bet on it at this point, though.

I think part of Corso’s point is that we have a favorable schedule with most tough games (except for Florida) at home, while UGA has the opposite. We play UGA at home at the beginning of the season, and if we can pull off a very improbable upset in that game, we will be in a position to come into Gainesville with at worst two losses to UT and LSU, barring an improbable upset in another game. This would place us in position to compete for the title when we face the Gators. Not that I think any of this is very probable, but this is what Corso thinks. Personally, I would be happy with eight or nine wins and a New Years Day Bowl. And I think that’s reasonable to hope for. We should be better, we have a favorable schedule, and some of the teams we lost to last year, like LSU, UT, and Arkansas, won’t be as tough this year. But I don’t think we’ll compete for the SEC East Title. Although I don’t think it’s impossible, either.

Nothing is impossible when your head ball coach is Steve Spurrier.

Anyone notice Corso’s new haircut? Takes five years off of him. Looks like he’s only 75.

What were you expecting from Corso?

This is the same guy that picked Notre Dame every week even though they went 3-9.

Whoops, Lou Holtz. Thought y’all were talkin’ about Holtz.

USC gives UGA fits every year. They beat the Dawggies last year in Athens. It is possible that it will happen again this season early on, in Columbia. That could give USC the confidence it needs to start rolling.

Spurrier coached the best game of any head coach in college football during last year’s victory against Georgia ‘between the hedges. The game plan was flawless. If he has another one of those games in him against the ‘Dawgs this season, then USC has a very solid shot of playing for the SEC East at the Swamp later this season.

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