By now you’ve probably heard that Andre Debose is out for the season; the speedy freshman’s hamstring needs surgery and playing will not be an option this year. Debose will undoubtedly redshirt to preserve a year of eligibility.

The greatest shame about this is that we’ll never see Debose catch a pass from Tim Tebow in the Swamp — which would, in some ways, be a passing of the torch from one era of Gator greatness to the next.

There are many corroborating reports of FSU fans descending to new lows in the course of the Florida-Florida State rivalry game. From ESPN:

[FSU fans] cheered wildly when Harvin, the team’s leading receiver, left the game in the second quarter with a sprained right ankle. He limped off the field with the help of trainers and didn’t return.

I’m finding it very difficult to comment on this rationally. I’ve tried, but I can’t find the words to express how despicable this is — it feels like a gut punch. Not from FSU; they’re harmless. But rather that in a game which cherishes sportsmanship, a group of people — any people — could cheer injury to their fellow man.

Luckily for the Gators, there’s one man out there who doesn’t need words.

Tebow was incensed by the reaction.

“That kind of irritated me,” Tebow said. “I told the coach to give me the ball because I really wanted to hit somebody.”

Meyer obliged, and Tebow carried several defenders into the end zone from 4 yards out two plays after Harvin’s injury.

Add another chapter to the legend that is Tim Tebow. And add reason #9924 to hate FSU.

Let’s be honest: this is really bad. As Urban Meyer would say, this is a big deal. It’s hard to fathom cheering a kid getting injured on a football field. Even in the nastiest college rivalries, this is something that just isn’t done. For example, it’s hard to believe that Georgia fans would have done the same if they were in FSU’s shoes. Say what you will about Georgia and their fans — they’re far from perfect — but they wouldn’t do that. O&B Hue has received reports from Gator fans in Doak Campbell indicating that grown men cheered as the nation’s greatest playmaker was helped off the field, while their young children watched them, mystified.

Kids knew better.

Before this incident, I could have understood if flames of this rivalry began dying down. It’s hard to maintain a red-hot blood rivalry when two teams are so obviously speeding in opposite directions — FSU is years away from competing with the Gators. I could have understood if, next year, Urban Meyer was forced to dig deep into his bag of tricks to get the Gators up for yet another mediocre FSU team visiting in the Swamp. But now… ?

Now I think we aim to drop 100 on their sorry asses next November. Welcome to the Swamp, you sorry sacks of sh*t.

In a continuing trend by Bloggers who seem to make ridiculous statements that eventually will be quoted as gospel truth by ignorant message board faithful and rival fans, I present our latest addition.  In the blog post by BE Coleman on collegefootballnews.com entitled Mounting Gator Injuries Bring Questions we are subjected to a new level of ignorance and blind assumptions heretofore unparalleled.  My comments to such inane stammerings are italicized in parenthesis.

Florida’s Urban Meyer knew coming into August that his offense only needed to be brushed off with the likes of QB Tim Tebow, speedsters Percy Harvin, Brandon James coming back. The returning front O-Line allowed the playmakers to lead the SEC in scoring at 42.5 points per game in 2007.

Meyer’s primary coaching focus was on his defense and getting it back into the form that carried Florida to the national title in 2006. In order to do that, players have to participate at full speed – full impact in practice, with that brings the most dreaded aspect of fall camp – injuries.

The Gators bad luck began in July when it was announced both starting Safeties in Dorian Munroe from Miami and John Curtis from Cocoa Beach would be out for the season with torn ACL’s. 

(Huh?  Both starting safeties?  Did Major Wright get kidnapped or something and I didn’t hear?  The truth is that Dorian Monroe had a very good shot at winning a starting spot but many felt that Will Hill would eventually take that slot if he lived up to the hype.  A few people felt that Ahmad Black would or Bryan Thomas would win the spot opposite Wright who was the returning starter.  John Curtis was nothing but a walk-on backup and never had a reasonable shot of playing significant minutes.)

Their loss only made things worse for the Gators pass defense that finished up 2007 at 98th in the nation giving up 258.54 yards per game, would now feature backup players with limited experience. 

(Newsflash BE, even though Monroe had the inside track on a starting spot he never brought significant starting experience to the field.  Major Wright, Joe Haden, Markihe Anderson and Wondy Pierre-Louise are all former starters who are healthy and available this year.  Those guys combine for 30+ starts . . . what’s the limit for experience?)

Before it could get better, it got worse — much worse during the second week of practice as linebacker Brendan Beal tore his ACL. Meyer had to sideline three of his starters on defense for the season, all were expected contributors. 

(Brendan Beal looked like he was going to get some playing time this year but mostly on special teams.  He was behind Brandon Spikes and Lorenzo Edwards at MLB and although he would have benefited from playing time as next year he and LoEd would have been fighting for the starting position, he was not going to play a lot of minutes barring injuries or blowouts. He was at true freshman and NOT a starter.  Apparently BE thought that this true freshman had come in and replaced preseason Lott Award nominee Spikes in his first year . . . impressive.) (more…)

Information is seeping out that the knee injury to Cornelius Ingram is more serious than originally thought.  Ingram who said he felt a “pop” during practice awoke Wednesday morning to severe swelling in his knee.  The injury is now expected CI to miss the entire 2008 season (although it hasn’t been confirmed publicly to my knowledge).  Last year I was certain that Ingram would be leaving the team and heading to the NFL.  With Aaron Hernandez becoming a significant weapon at the end of the year and the commitment of Carl Moore (a big strong WR who could run many of the same patterns CI had) I thought the Gators would easily be able to replace his productivity.

Instead, Ingram decided to return to school to work on his blocking since his NFL career would likely be at tight end rather than at wide receiver.  Meyer and the coaches had even talked about installing a two tight end set to get both Hernandez and Ingram on the field at the same time.  Unfortunately much of that seems to have fallen by the wayside.  While 3rd string Tight End Tate Casey is a fine blocker and receiver he does not have the freakish abilities of either Hernandez or Ingram.  I doubt the Gator offense misses Ingram too much, the wealth of offensive talent means that no single player not named Harvin or Tebow is guaranteed many touches.  However it’s a sad blow for Ingram who spent a lot of time preparing himself for the upcoming season to show his ability.

It is not known at this time whether Ingram would be eligible to petition the NCAA for a 6th year of eligibility.  It seems to depend on whether or not his redshirt year as a freshmen was a “medical” redshirt or not.  Unfortunately I don’t believe thats the case.  Whatever the future holds, we at O&BHue hope Ingram the best and more than anything want to continue rooting for him at the next level.  Based on his natural ability, if he can recover from this injury it’s likely that some NFL team would give him a shot on the playing field and, hopefully, discover a diamond in the rough.  Good Luck Cornelius!!!

Just a youth movement and a lot of raw talent, thanks to two devastating injuries in the offseason.

Dorian Munroe and John Curtis each had at least two or three years of experience at UF. I feel that Munroe’s departure hurts us a lot more. In short, this means that Major Wright and Will Hill may very well be under pressure to stay healthy the entire season.

And that’s not all. To provide depth, Coach Meyer may have to convert athletes of similar build to the position, possibly sacrificing talent at cornerback or special teams. Sigh, Tim Tebow may very well have to take both sides of the field at this rate.

Here’s hoping safety remains decent.

It’s a game where UF wins, no matter what. It’s the prelude to a season. The results have no effect on our championships, no matter what.

Welcome to the Spring Game, that fun intermission that comes right after basketball, right around the start of baseball, and several months before real football.

UF is one of the favorites to win the national championship; that much we know. In all likelihood, the Gators will have to beat Georgia to do so, also trite. But we don’t know what to expect in mere weeks.

Here’s what I want to see in order to feel comfy about our chances in the fall:

1. Quality rushing

I need to see one or two every-down types taking the ball 12-15 times during a standard full-length football game; which sounds more than reasonable. For my mental health, please don’t carry the ball more than five to ten times a game, Tim Tebow. And hold on for dear life, Kestahn Moore! Even if you don’t get 4-5 yards a game, at least protect that pigskin!

2. Balanced passing

If Tim has worked on the two-minute drill like Coach Meyer said he would, we should see a nice mixture of short-yard passes and long bombs. It’ll be interesting to see how the offense fares without Percy Harvin in this one. In that case, Carl Moore will be the primary target. Who knows, maybe Jeff Demps will step in and provide that extra dimension of speed? In the fall, with the mess at the tailback position and Harvin’s potential injury problems, freshmen Jeff Demps will have an opportunity to step in and be the new speedster.

3. How the defense will react

Will we see low rushing numbers for the second-team offense? Will there be some pass breakups? What about tackles and sacks? Here’s a prime opportunity for Florida’s defense to show us what they’ve got after a demanding offseason.

That’s why scheduling Hawaii for the season opener was actually a prudent decision. With the offensive system June Jones has left over there, the Gator defense will be the X-factor. If they manage to rip down 2 or 3 balls in August, it could be a positive sign for the team’s season.

In looking back at the season I noticed one game that stood out, the Georgia game.  Not so much that we lost to Georgia, as I looked back at the details I’m actually surprised it was even that close, but the effect of that game overall.  Had Florida won the Georgia game we would have won the SEC East (assuming all other events stayed the same) and the Gators would probably be playing for the National Title right now.
 
Florida would have ended the season at 10-2 and have participated in the SEC Championship Game.  Since Florida’s last loss would have been to LSU it would mean that UF would have won 6 games in a row.  In that span of time the following teams ahead of us would have lost - Oklahoma, USC, Oregon, Ohio State, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Missouri, West Virginia, Souch Carolina, South Florida, California and LSU.  The result?  Going into the SECCG Florida would have been ranked in the top 4.  Also going into Florida’s favor is that facing Florida in the SECCG would be a LSU team that was a shell of its former self, racked with injuries.  A win would have put probably put Florida in the BCS game - possibly the second straight OSU-UF BCS Title game matchup.
 
That’s interesting to think about but not the point of this post.  I don’t think Florida would win a rematch against Ohio State this year (although they might) because of the makeup of this year’s team.  The offense is much more formidable than last year’s version but the defense is much to porous and depleted to pressure the Buckeyes the way we did last year.  And that’s a key to this look back.  The Georgia game turned out to be the key game of this season.  The Auburn and LSU losses, while disappointing, did not preclude the Gators from reaching their season goals.  The Georgia game did.
 
This year’s Florida-Georgia game did several things to the series.  For one thing it made the game a rivalry again.  Georgia’s coach Mark Richt also turned the game into a much more personal event with the celebration display after Georgia’s first touchdown.  This will long be remembered by Gator fans and coaches, coaches who hail from the midwest and never had any vested animosity in this game prior to this year.  While I’m convinced the Bulldogs would have won the game regardless of that celebratory display, the result of that event will be measured on its effect on Georgia’s psyche the rest of the season and in the emotional intensity of future games in the series.
 
It was the Georgia game that Moreno made his splash onto the national stage.  People knew Moreno was a good back and had success but in this game Knowshon showed exactly what kind of player he could be in a spotlight game.  Moreno beat the Gators in 2007, he was the biggest factor in this game.  No . . . . I take that back.  Moreno wasn’t the biggest factor in who won the Florida-Georgia game . . . injuries were the biggest factor in this game.  And in reviewing the write-ups and statistics of the contest it becomes clear the affect of injuries leading up and during this game is truly STAGGERING!!! (more…)

We may lose senior captain and starting OT Phil Trautwein for more than just the season opener.

He might be out for the entire season.

Right now, that’s looking increasingly likely.

Urban Meyer: “Traut will be fine…You hate to see something like this especially with a really invested guy,” Meyer said. “It is his third stress fracture and I found out more last night when we all found out. I thought it was a sprained ankle and almost fell out of my chair, but he also had a couple in high school.”

The buzz around Gator circles is that the stress fracture is likely to require surgery, which would end Trautwein’s season. There’s no official word yet on a decision regarding his immediate future, but I’m putting 2:1 odds on the knife. It’s just a matter of time before we hear the announcement. Hope I’m wrong.

This would be a tough loss considering Trautwein was one of Florida’s best offensive linemen in the 2006 championship season. Stepping into the void we have true frosh Maurkice Pouncey, who’s uber-talented but also uber-inexperienced.

Even if Pouncey plays well out of the gates, the Gators will lose significant depth on the line.

Positives: at least this is a strong unit to begin with. If you told me we lost Brandon Spikes, Derrick Harvey, Tony Joiner or any of our corners for the season I’d probably start gearing up the negative brainwaves for some worst-case scenario propositions which involve more than 2 losses.

Get well soon, Traut!