With the NFL draft just nine days away, it’s time to pay homage to the junior DE’s career.

As one of the last recruits of the Ron Zook era, Harvey was one of the most highly touted prospects at the front four in ‘04. Four years later, not much has changed. With one redshirt season, SEC title, national championship, and defensive MVP on his belt, he’s projected to go high in the first round.

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Okay, Florida fans, put on your Gator-colored classes.

It’s April 1. Florida has just beat Massachusetts. While the college basketball world fixates on the other Final Four, Florida quietly prepares for its last game - they are 40 minutes away from hoisting another banner in the O’Connell Center.

At the risk of looking ahead, let’s look at the potential finals matchups if UF does win.

#1: Florida vs. Ohio State

I’m not quite sure what to make of this. On the one hand, I’m supposed to be laughing until I fall over in my seat and hiccup uncontrollably. After all, they are “The” Ohio State University. The same Ohio State University that lost to Florida in football, Florida in basketball, and LSU in football again.

But on the other hand, I’m starting to get really sick and tired of seeing these guys *all* the time. There’s supposed to be parity, people! But then again, that means that I’m supposed to critize my own school for their national championship sandwich. Case closed.

The story lines are fairly obvious: In just 18 months, the Buckeyes have become the Buffalo Bills of college sports. Every single time, they win all the big games and appear to be set up for a national title. And every time, they end up falling apart miserably while the SEC shows why its initials could stand for “The Super Ego Conference” A win, even in the NIT, could finally silence their critics. But then again, maybe it won’t. What about the other big games?

#2: Florida vs. Ole Miss

Surprised? These are the same Rebels that beat Florida in the third game of the SEC season by a basket. At the time, the loss was just a bump in the road for 15-3 Florida, and the Gators went on to win their next three games. However, UF went 3-8 after that and proceeded to write its own rejection letter to the NCAA committee.

Much of the fascination will arise around David Huertas vs. Walter Hodge. For both, it’s their second trip to Madison Square Garden. Back then, they were on the same roster as Florida won the 2K sports Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Both won a national championship with Florida. And both will aim for another ring on their finger.

The Rebs will look for a season sweep. The Gators will look to continue their winning ways.

Need motivation, Florida? Try these stats on for size:

*The Gators would become the first defending NCAA champion to win the NIT since City College of New York in 1950. Back then, they played in and won both tournaments. Since then, double-dipping has been disallowed so that this dominance would never happen again.

*The Gators would become the first team to win three straight nonconference postseason tournaments since the ‘67-’69 UCLA Bruins. That would make them only the second ever team in college basketball history to ever achieve the feat.

*By winning against UMass, the Gators would give Billy Donovan his first ever back-to-back-to-back 25-win seasons.

*The Gators would end the 2008 season on a high note, giving them momentum for ‘09.

Yeah, so there’s reason to take it seriously.

Tune in tomorrow when we put things back in perspective and look at the Minutemen close up.

Did that just happen? Did it really happen?

On the morning of April 3rd, 2006, Florida had one national championship across the two “big time” college sports, football and basketball.

365 days later, the Gators had four.

Florida made history by holding national championships in both sports in the same calendar year. Then they followed that up with a back-to-back-to-back championship sandwich when they won their second consecutive NCAA basketball title only three months after beating Ohio State in football. Donovan’s b-ball Gators became one of a handful of elite teams to win the NCAA tournament two years in a row. And of course, they beat the hated Buckeyes in two of the three title matches, relegating “The” Ohio State University to permanent runner-up status.

It’s enough to make one dizzy, honestly.

The championship overload short-circuited many Gator fans’ pleasure meters, and the entire Gator Nation has been wandering around in a blissful haze for what seems like eternity. The “Year of the Gator” was quite simply the most amazing, stupendous, fall out of your seat year in the history of UF sports — indeed, it ranks quite highly among all-time college athletic achievements. Maybe right at the top.

Is it over? Or is it just the beginning?

Most evaluations of the ‘07 Gator football team include observations such as, “The offense looks substantially better than the ‘06 team.” Chris Leak has left the building, but Tim Tebow looks to be a wunderkind at the QB slot. Urban Meyer said that he believes the Gators have enjoyed a “net plus” across the entire field at every position. Florida loses many starters on defense, but when you have the best defensive coaches in the country, is the dropoff really going to be substantial?

Logic says ‘yes.’ The ‘06 defense might have been the best in the history (there’s that phrase again) of the University’s 100 year old football program. Jarvis Moss, Reggie Nelson, Derrick Harvey, Ray McDonald, and Brandon Siler were monumental in their importance to Florida’s success. But they stepped up to make big plays all year long, and we should have every expectation that this year’s crop of talented Gators should do the same.

In basketball, Billy Donovan sits on a potential #1 recruiting class. Again, logic says to expect a dropoff, but Donovan has taken his squad to three National Championship games in the last seven years, and won two of them. Don’t expect the nation’s best basketball coach to rest on his laurels.

Are we waking from the dream? Or is it just getting started?

Florida has the nation’s best coaches in both sports. The best facilities, the best fan support, the best recruiting classes.

Why would anyone expect it to end?

Now if I were Rob G — and I’m not — this would appear in the Church of Albert. On second thought, maybe it wouldn’t, because Albert isn’t treated so well in this video.

But then again, how could you expect him to be? He just dominated Ohio State in basketball, football, and… running.

Enjoy.

Sun Sports, we thank you.

Buckeyextra ran the following comments from Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel:

“I think the fine line and the edge in games is always the mental part,” Tressel said. And he concluded, “I’m not so sure –and again, that’s why you start with yourself — if we had our team as mentally prepared as we could have had it.”

As for the SEC-Big Ten scenario, “Wisconsin went and did the things that you have to do: They won the turnover margin and they won the kicking game, and they beat the second-place team in the SEC (Arkansas, in the Capital One Bowl).”

He said he has never been an expert at knowing “for sure if a team was ‘ready to play.’ You hope that the preparation leading up has made it such. Inevitably, what goes on early in a football game might tilt that one way or the other.”

As he pointed out, Ted Ginn Jr.’s return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown was a major boost. But personal fouls on the Buckeyes put the Gators in position to take a 14-7 lead and control. Kicker Aaron Pettrey was called for a face-mask penalty on the ensuing kickoff, and then Larry Grant was called for a late hit on a punt after Florida’s first touchdown.

“We weren’t exerting the kind of pressure you need to take control of a game,” Tressel said. “So I guess the answer to the question is, I could kind of see (the field start to tilt) on that kickoff and then on that punt.”

He tried to change that by going for it on fourth-and-less-than-a-yard from the Buckeyes 29-yard line while trailing 24-14 late in the second quarter. Running back Chris “Beanie” Wells was stuffed. Florida went on to kick a field goal and then score a touchdown after a Troy Smith fumble on the next series to take a 34-14 lead.

“I felt that at that point in time we needed to step up and make a yard when a yard was needed if we were going to ultimately be the ones who got to put the big ring on this time,” Tressel said. “We didn’t get that done. … You have to make decisions. Some of them are the right ones, some of them end up being the wrong ones. But ultimately you have to look and say why was it or why wasn’t it the right decision, and go from there.”

Those are the thoughts that haunt most coaches, he said.

“I think those two things of looking ahead and evaluating backward are hard to separate,” Tressel said. For example, he said the way the 8-4 season of 2004 transpired, the questions it generated and the lessons learned from it, were on his mind through the 10-2 season of 2005.

He said what happened in 2006, both the 12-0 run and the lopsided loss to Florida, likely won’t leave his mind “for a long, long time.”

We feel exactly the same way, Jimmy…  thanks for the memories!

In a landscape full of supposed “know it all” sports columists like Mike Lupica of New York, Bob Ryan of Boston, Dan LeBatard of Miami and Michael Wilbon of Washington DC perhaps the whiniest, crybabiest bitch of them all is Mitch Albom.  Granted, what do these guys have in common?  None of them know anything about college athletics: not college basketball, not college football, not college baseball, not anything college related.  They live in a pro sports world where they rarely travel to a college event unless it’s a “marquee event” that they are forced to cover. 

So when one of these reporters speaks out on a college issue it’s the intellectual equivalent of asking a wino which type of Chablis to serve with pork.  But in the BCS controversy Mitch Albom has an additional factor to consider.  Not only is he a clueless, elitist, self-righteous pseudo-intellectual but he also gathers one of his paychecks (and got his start) from a newspaper (the Detroit Free Press) located just an hour from Ann Arbor, Michigan (home of the University of Michigan).  So his impartiality on the BCS controversy was . . . well to put it mildly . . . questionable.  Several national writers have come out recently to admit they had it wrong but not Mitch . . . nooooooooooo . . . definitely not the self-important little ‘know nothing’ Mitch Albom. (more…)

Enjoy a video montage of the suffering taking place among the scarlet-and-grey crowd unfortunate enough to spend hard-earned dollars so that they might watch their team be obliterated by the Florida Gators.

The “Holy God Yes YES YES!!!!11one” Award

To all Gators everywhere. National champions. Joy.

Also, put Chris Leak in the Ring of Honor, he has earned it.
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BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Florida (12-1), SEC Champion vs. Ohio State (12-0) Big Ten Champion
8:15 pm Eastern Standard Time on FOX

Head Coaches
Ohio State - Jim Tressell, age: 54
Overall Record 197-70-2 (Ohio State 62-13, Youngstown State 135-57-2)
Florida - Urban Meyer, age: 42
Overall Record 60-12 (Florida 22-4, Utah 22-2, Bowling Green 17-6)

This will be the first meeting ever between these two schools. Ohio State is a 7 point favorite over the Gators and will be led by Troy Smith, the 2006 Heisman Trophy winner. Ohio State won the 2001-2002 National Championship by beating Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Florida won the 1996-1997 National Title against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. We hope everyone enjoys the game. Go Gators!!!