The legendary QB could face some troubled times ahead.

However, let’s be overoptimistic here about the 2008 season. Florida, a preseason top-5 pick, wins the national championship by season’s end. Gator Nation is ecstactic; Tim Tebow’s legend status cemented with his second ring, his first as a starter.

But behind the tough-guy jokes and record-setting statistics is the offensive coordinator who made it all happen. Being the coach who helped Tim Tebow win multiple rings, maybe even multiple Heismans, makes for quite a resume. And thus, Florida fans should ask themselves not if Tim or Percy will stay, but if Coach Dan will.

All of this directly impacts Mr. Tebow’s decision whether to leave for the NFL or stay all four years then leave. Try this for a senior season: a new offensive coordinator, the loss of your favorite offensive target, and the heavy expectations of a fan base that expects you to do otherworldly things on and off the football field. Not the most appetizing incentives.

Don’t think Dan’s departure is that big of a deal? Alex Smith, a former Meyer product and #1 overall draft choice, is struggling in San Francisco; the 49ers’ problems with their offensive coordinators have been well documented. Danny Wuerffel’s coordinator was his high school coach, Jimmy Ray Stephens; his chemistry with the man helped him out on the field. There is a direct coordinator with USC’s dip in dominance and the departure of Norm Chow.

And QB/WR tandems are some of the most famous duos in the NFL. Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Rice and Montana. Brady and Moss. Aikman and Irvin. The list goes on.

Of course, Tim is entitled to his decision and I respect that. But he may very well find himself falling on draft should he choose to stay and get his degree in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences. And chances are, his Gators may struggle in 2009. Besides, he doesn’t really have that much more to prove on the college level.

Oh well, life goes on. By the way, I still hope that Tebow is successful in whatever he does.

One of the faces on Florida’s Mount Rushmore of College Basketball Success has wasted no time in making an NBA impact.

For nearly the entire season, Horford has had to take a backseat in press coverage to vets Joe Johnson and Josh Smith. At 6-10, he’s had to play as a somewhat undersized center while Smith has excelled at power forward. And then there was Bibby.

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In one of the most surprising and controversial moves of the NFL draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars traded most of their picks to the Ravens to grab Gator defensive end Derrick Harvey 8th overall. The move was surprising, not only because Harvey was projected to Carolina at 13th, but also because Jacksonville staked a heavy portion of their future on the star prospect.

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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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Reports are coming out that NBA commissioner David Stern and the owners are attempting to increase the NBA age requirement to 20.  The current minimum age for the NBA is 19.  The institution of the 19 year old minimum two years ago forced a number of High School basketball players like Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Derrick Rose to attend a year of college before applying to the NBA draft.  An increase of another year would mean a two year stint for many of these top prep talents.  While the lure of the NBA has tremendously affected the college game in recent years, forcing young basketball players to college is nothing more than a superficial solution.
 
Sure, college basketball ratings are helped by the “big name” player.  These are recognizable for the casual fan who might watch a matchup of sure fire NBA draft picks like Greg Oden and Joakim Noah go at it while they might not tune into a matchup of unknowns who are nothing more than the name on their jersey.  There are a number of pundits who think that the Derrick Rose’s and Kevin Durants are good for the game and will bring more viewers.  To that I say quite simply . . . poppycock!!!  This benefits only one entity.  It’s not the colleges and it’s not the players themselves.  This benefits the NBA and NBA only.
 
College basketball has adapted quite well to the scenario of draft losses.  Mid-major programs are now more successful than ever while the turnover of McDonalds All-Americans at the top programs (Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, etc) has created more parity in college basketball than ever before.  An landscape has evolved where a player can develop and improve over his first couple years into a top notch college player.  The era where a team like Duke could stockpile a roster of McDonalds All-Americans is over.  No longer will great players be replaced by other great players who have a couple years experience as a backup.  Today’s athlete is looking for his future and won’t sit on a bench in Chapel Hill if he knows he can play a year or two in the spotlight at Wake Forest before jumping to the league.
 
This is not yet a done deal, there has to be negotiation with the NBA Players Union but if the owners are willing to offer something the CURRENT players feel is worth it, they will have no problem infringing upon the rights of FUTURE players to make a living.  As much as the NBA will put a positive public spin on how they intend on helping future players by making sure they are more mature before entering the league it is essentially a response to protect NBA franchises from themselves.  NBA executives PREFER to see a kid play in college for a couple of years in order to diagnose any weaknesses in a kid’s game as well as seeing them compete against higher caliber talent for evaluation purposes.  The truth is that there is just a handful of players who have the kind of ability to make a jump from High School to the pros and most of them are . . . hold your breath . . . SUCCESSFUL!!! (more…)

Because I love Florida, I’ll wrap up legit reasons why Mo should stay.

Because my good friend Gatorpilot hates Duke, I’ll use J.J. Redick as a sacrificial lamb in this one.

Speights already has conditioning issues from college. And Mo, if you thought that was bad, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

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(This is the second of a three-part series.)

Florida’s Big Fella faces other problems than mere cash concerns. Even with a seven-figure salary likely in the bag, his problems don’t end there.

With the Gators, Mo plays as a center, plain and simple. At 6-10 and 245 pounds, He’s bigger and thicker than everyone else on the team, and even with Kenny Kadji coming along, Donovan won’t move Speights to power forward and tire both of his bigs too soon.

In the NBA, it gets a little more complicated. On virtually every NBA team, even without a franchise center, there is someone of comparable, if not superior, height and weight to Mo. For example, the Boston Celtics have Kevin Garnett (+ 1 in. , +8 lbs.) and Kendrick Perkins (+35 lbs.), the LA Lakers have Andrew Bynum (+2 in., +30 lbs.) and Pau Gasol (+2 in., +15 lbs.), and the Phoenix Suns boast Amare Stoudemire (comparable height and weight, but more experienced) and Shaquille O’Neal (+3 in., +80 lbs.)

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(This is the first of a three part series.)

For his own good, Mareese Speights needs to stay in school. And we’ll start with the stuff that makes college athletes leave school: money.

www.mynbadraft.com has Mo going 20th overall, so we’ll assume in case A that he darts and goes there.

For case B, pretend that he stays, leaves after one year, and goes up to No.10.

Finally, let’s have him stay for his senior year and go No.5 in C.

Here’s how the pay works after 4,3, and 2 years, respectively, using this year’s pay scales. In A and B, the team uses its option.

A: $1.06m + $1.14m + $1.22m + $1.89m = $5.31m
B: $1.75m + $1.88m + $2.01m = $5.64m
C: $2.64m + $2.83m = $5.47m

So Speights makes the most out of plan B by 2012, even with a one-year headstart in A. And by 2013, the sheer margin of C’s salary will have him positioned excellently should the team spend its option on him. And he’ll have a college degree.

Of course, this assumes that he’ll develop his talents and work on his weaknesses as he stays in school. This also assumes that he won’t get hurt in that timespan, but he hasn’t had anything serious yet at UF.

This is the complete opposite of Joakim Noah’s situation, where he was projected as a top-2 pick in 2006 and ended up sliding all the way down to No.9 a year later. Meanwhile, in between, Mo, let’s consider the real-life story of an anagulous superstar.

Tim Duncan was actually a competitive swimmer until he took up basketball as a high school freshman. When he went to Wake Forest, he made up for lost time, staying for all four years
despite being projected as the top pick at least once before.

Ultimately, he put his pro career on hold and was picked No.1 in 1997 anyway. But more importantly, he was a much more fundamentally sound player than he was in 1995 and 1996.

Two years later, he began building his legend by winning his first NBA ring and Finals MVP. Three more rings, two more Finals MVPs, and two regular-season MVP awards later, he is considered one of the best forward-centers in NBA history.

Amidst talk about Mo Speights leaving, Donovan having to shove someone out the door due to scholarship problems, and chatter on the message boards about the incoming Dynamic Duo at PF and C (Eloy Vargas and Kenny Kadji), let’s look at various situations.

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Apparently, the latest from the college football rumor mill has Florida’s 20.5-year-old legend slated to take a cue from Joe Montana. It seems that Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen want the Teebster to improve in the two-minute drill. The move makes sense for a number of reasons:

*Admit it, Florida fans. As much as you want #15 to walk on water, heal the incurably sick, and lay down vigilante justice against FSU, you know he’s not perfect. He’s a human being who makes human mistakes, and working on the two-minute drill provides a good dose of perspective.

*A further investigation in UF’s losses reveals that in spite of Florida’s youth, atrocious secondary, and lack of a true runner, most of the Gators’ woes came from ineffective final scoring drives. Consider Tebow’s failed Hail Mary pass against LSU and the two turnovers on down against Michigan. So in theory, if the Gators become more effective at closing the deal, they become much tougher to beat. The better the quarterback is at the end, the more margin for error during the game itself.

* Tebow will have to run less and rely more on short West Coast-style passes. In other words, he’ll be doing the kinds of things that make draft scouts feel better about his chances in the pros.

Make no mistake about it. Tebow may have won a championship in his first year and a Heisman in his second, but his junior year will undoubtedly be his most important yet. From a career perspective, he’s beginning to prepare himself for his NFL career, should he choose to go that route. From an SEC point of view, he’s beginning his second year as a starter. And in the way of accolades, he can add to his trophy case and increase his hero status in Gainesville. But I’m getting off-topic.

Here’s an example of how a skilled two-minute QB can change a franchise: A perennial backup quarterback was selected as a compensatory pick in his particular NFL draft and only threw three passes in his rookie year. He initially spent time buried in the back of the depth chart, but he worked really hard at improving; the two-minute was an integral part of his preparation. When the original starter was injured and out for the season, the guy stepped in and helped his team win all of its playoff games and make the Super Bowl, albeit with a lot of grit and a little luck. In the big game, he kept it close against the most prolific NFL offense of its day. But it all came down to one final touchdown drive. And much to everyone’s surprise, he kept cool and led his team down the field for the game-winning score, netting him his first Super Bowl ring and MVP award.

The quarterback who went from zero to hero: Thomas Edward Brady, Jr. Turns out, he was a big Montana fan as a kid growing up in the Bay Area.

And in a twist of irony, his opposite in Super Bowl XLII would win the Super Bowl by beating him at his own game.