Lindy’s…. Athlon… Phil Steele.

You college football junkies out there have a stack of the pre-season CFB rags just like I do. Don’t try to hide it: embrace your affliction. In case you don’t, though, read on.

The Gators are getting a ton of pre-season love, and from my perspective, it might be a bit much. Here are Athlon, Lindy’s, and Phil Steele’s Top 10:


Average ranking, Ohio State: 2.3
Average ranking, Florida: 2.6
Average ranking, Georgia: 5.0

So… how does that shake out? Florida gets ranked #1 by two of the three rags, but doesn’t even get a Top 5 nod by Lindy’s. Georgia pulls the #1 pick in that same rag but is ranked #5 and #9 by the others.
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We at O&B Hue love Sunday Morning Quarterback. Great piece on Florida’s title hopes (both conference and national) here. Read, digest.

SMQ pours the love on the Florida offense (Harvin, Tebow, Rainey, Moody, experienced o-line, what’s not to like) and then proceeds to give props — surprise! — to the defense.

The heavy lifting in the Gators’ candidacy is on the other side: the defense was overall the school’s worst in the modern era, mainly because it was dead last in the SEC in passing yards allowed and next-to-last in pass efficiency D. That kind of thing happens when there are nine new starters and prominent members of the secondary include two true freshmen, a redshirt freshman and two true sophomores with no prior starting experience. There’s a flipside to that, of course: noobs Joe Haden (last year’s third-ranked incoming “athlete” by Rivals) and Major Wright (second-ranked incoming safety) won starting jobs immediately, took their lumps, showed a lot of the predicted promise and go into their sophomore campaigns as legit all-SEC candidates. This is an area that can and should go from weakness to strength very quickly.

As sketchy as the young DBs were, it’s easy to overlook that the front seven was a strength already – UF led the SEC against the run in both yards per game and yards per carry, and did it with a similarly fresh-faced group: the linebackers were two sophomores and a freshman, and hyped young ‘uns Jermaine Cunningham and Justin Trattou combined for 17.5 tackles for loss from the ends, mostly off the bench. Add to two alleged five-star monsters – end Carlos Dunlap, who played sparingly as a true freshman, and Omar Hunter, a 300-pound tackle out of Georgia who looks like he has to be led to the field in a Hannibal Lecter mask and straightjacket – and there is at least as much talent on the field as it should be legal for any one team to have.

That’s awfully nice to say, but the “run defense” stat is obviously skewed; the fact is, teams facing the Gators didn’t really need to run it terribly often thanks to Florida’s awful pass defense.
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I love EA’s NCAA Football series. So help me sweet baby Jesus, I love it.

My first encounter was NCAA 2004. Didn’t play it much. Got NCAA 05 and via random button mashing and playcalling, learned that Chris Leak threw a fantastic bomb to Chad Jackson on play-action out of the Ace formation. Discovered the direct HB snap, slot outs, and the speed option. Addiction set in.

Now it’s gotten to the point that I eagerly anticipate EA’s July launch of their college football franchise. Hell, I even look forward to the unveiling of the cover athlete. I was a little annoyed when Jared Zabransky (are you kidding me?) made the cover — instead of national championship MVP Chris Leak! — for NCAA ‘08.

Now NCAA ‘09 is soon to be upon us and the requisite team ratings are starting to leak out. A screenshot of Florida’s team ratings appear above. Not surprisingly, “QB #15″ is atop the list, followed by “WR #1″.
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The Gator defense has improved to our liking. The front four, led by Carlos Dunlap, pressured Tim Tebow and Cam Newton all day. The secondary has also made strides. But what about the fellas in the middle? (more…)

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.
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Fresh cut grass. Cool spring breezes. Sunny practice fields. And the sounds of pads popping.

We need this. Hell, I need this. Catharsis. Rebirth. From Revelations (Ch. 21, 1-6): “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

That’s almost correct. The sorrow and crying hasn’t totally concluded. The Gators play San Diego State in the NIT tonight as a 2-seed, and I’ll be tuning in to root them on. But the mere fact that our two-time defending national champions have been relegated to the Not In Tournament for the first time in nine years hurts my soul. I hope they win the tournament; but no matter what happens from this point on, this basketball season will be remembered as a huge disappointment.

I didn’t even watch Selection Sunday. First time in years.

So that’s why it’s refreshing to think of our football team out there getting the job done, working hard and with no pretense or illusion that they’re better than they really are. They’re hungry. They’re focused. They know they’ll enjoy a Top 10 if not Top 5 preseason ranking for the ‘08 season. And they want to put the pain of a 4-loss season behind them for good, and return to their championship ways.
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Okay, so the spring game is still five and half weeks away, and the first regular season football game isn’t until August 30. But it’s not too early to look at what made Florida a great sports school in the first place. Besides, everyone around here could use a short break from basketball and all of the nervous tension it entails.

Here is a breakdown of the team, position by position. Be warned, this might be a bit lengthy.

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A year ago the 2006 Florida Gators baseball team with most of their offensive firepower back for another run were ranked the top team in the country in the pre-season polls. It was in 2005 Florida Gators baseball team had their best season ever making it all the way to the College World Series championship before losing to the Texas Longhhorns. Their were a lot of expectations for this Florida Gator team with its high powered offense centered around Matt LaPorta the NCAA HR champ of 2005, a candidate for the Brooks Wallace college player of the year award. But, the pitching staff is where the uncertainty lied. Unfortunately right before classes were to start, Alan Horne who helped lead the Gators to the CWS decidied to forgo his senior year and sign with the Yankees. Additionally, Stephen Locke went down with a season ending elbow injury prior to the season. As a result, Bryan Ball was thrust into role of the #1 pitcher. The Gators started off the season strong in beating Miami in Coral Gables, but with LaPorta out for a major portion of the year with a nagging oblique muscle injury, the season quickly unraveled for this Florida Gator team. They lost 10 of 15 going from SEC Champs to Chumps. The Gators finished at the bottom of the SEC East with a 10-20 record within the SEC. Thats the type of season that gets coaches fired, but Coach McMahon is back for 2007 and looking for a chance to turn this thing around with a fairly young team.

Gone from the 2006 team are the following former Florida Gators who signed with a MLB team :

Closer Darren O’Day (a fifth year senior) who wasn’t selected in the 2005 draft became a free agent the day the Gators season ended and signed with the Angels instead of re-entering for the draft.

2B/SS Adam Davis was the first Florida Gator to hear his name called in the 2006 draft in the third round by the Cleveland Indians

C Brian Jeroloman was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the sixth round.

OF Gavin Dickey the former Gator QB was drafted in 12th round by Seattle.

3B David Cash who is the son of former major leaguer Dave Cash was selected in 40th round by Baltimore.

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In the midst of a heated football season with dreams of championship glory still on the table, another group of Gators is about to begin their long trek toward the promised land. Florida basketball kicks off its season on Friday, November 10th against Samford.

The Gators begin the year as the consensus number one team in the AP and Coaches Polls. Winning the national championship last year and returning its top 7 players all but assured it. As we celebrate the beginning of Gator Basketball 2007, the staff at Orange and Blue Hue have pooled our collective basketball knowledge to create our season preview.

The inside scoop follows…

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