I have been a Gator fan my whole life. I started GSN when I was a sophomore in high school because I loved writing and especially when it was about the Gators. You can describe me as one of the biggest fans alive! There is nothing better then going to the Swamp on a Saturday to watch a football game. Go Gators! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to send me an email. admin@gatorsportsnation.com
Head coach Will Muschamp has named Dan Quinn the new Florida Gator defensive coordinator early Monday.
Quinn, a 17 year coaching veteran has spent his past 10 seasons in the NFL. Quinn worked with Muschamp on Nick Saban’s coaching staff for the Miami Dolphins.
Quinn spent the last two years with the Seattle Seahawks as the defensive line coach. He was also the defensive line coach for the New York Jets from 2007-08, Dolphins (2005-06) and the San Francisco 49ers (2003-04).
With the hire of Quinn, Will Muschamp has filled up eight of his nine coaching spots. Only one spot to go. More will be updated when received.
Chandler Parsons broke out tonight with his second double-double of the season which led the Gators past Rhode Island 84-59 on Monday night.
Florida (11-3) got their third nonconference victory in a row, two of the last three were Atlantic-10 wins. The Gators defeated Xavier on Friday night 71-67.
Tonight looked a lot better then the past few games. Florida had 13 turnovers which is still kind of high but is a little improvement from the previous games. They shot just under fifty percent from the field, and made 8 of 18 three pointers. At the line, they shot 66 percent with seven missed free throws. Still a little improvement needed at the charity stripe but the confidence will come.
Another thing that caught my eye tonight was their passing. They shared the ball real well and made a lot of nice passes in the lane as well as the kick outs for an open jump shot. And on offense, freshman guard/forward Casey Prather looked real well tonight., especially the throw down he had at the very end of the game. Prather finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Florida led Rhode Island (9-5) by 21 points with just over 4 minutes before the second half. Their largest lead of the game was 26.
Chandler Parsons was a few assists shy from reaching a triple double. Parsons finished with 18 points, 12 boards and five assists while both teammates Kenny Boynton and Alex Tyus scored 10 points. Erving Walker contributed 14 points and five assists while shooting 3 of 6 from the arc.
Junior guard Kyle McClanahan saw some action at the end and made the stat books, scoring 4 points along with one steal.
Billy Donovan and the Gators are back in action on January 11th when they open up SEC play on the road against Tennessee. Tip-off will be held at 9:00pm EST.
Not long after the Gators sent Urban Meyer out with a victory in the outback bowl against Penn State this weekend, new head coach Will Muschamp has made an announcement to the five members who were hired to the staff, which included three that were already present under Meyer. Muschamp has also confirmed that Charlie Weiss is officially hired as Florida’s offensive coordinator.
Muschamp has retained Florida’s running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Stan Drayton, tight ends coach Bryan White and linebackers coach/special teams D.J. Durkin. The new assistants who have became apart of the staff are former Gator WR Aubrey Hill who will be taking Zach Azzanni’s spot as the wide receivers coach. Hill was a receiver for Florida during 1991-94 and a graduate assistant from 1996-98. The other new hire is Travaris Robinson, who will be coaching the Gators’ secondary. Robinson is a former player at Auburn and coached this season with Texas Tech as the secondary coach.
“This is a good start to our coaching staff and I hope to have some additional announcements this week,” Muschamp said.” [Gathered by Antonya English from Gator Report]
I am stoked about this years coaching staff. As early as it is, Muschamp has done a great job putting together some great coaches for this football program. He has a lot more to come.
Stay tuned here on Gator Sports Nation with more news from Muschamp later in the week.
Sources close to Matt Hayes of Sporting News was told that Charlie Weis will be named the Florida Gators offensive coordinator on Monday.
Weis became the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator last winter after he was fired from the head coaching position at Notre Dame after five seasons.
Weis contributed eight seasons with the New York Jets and the New England Patriots. He was also apart of the coaching staff for the Patriots for the three seasons they won the super bowl.
Coach Weis was 35-27 as the head coach for the fighting Irish. Weis will be joined by new Florida head coach Will Muschamp who was hired to replace Urban Meyer after the Outback bowl which they won today against Penn State, 37-24.
Also, Stan Drayton and DJ Durkin have reportedly been asked to stay on with the staff there position is not yet known at the moment. Drayton was the running backs coach this past season and Durkin was served as the linebacker and special teams coordinator this past season.
Erving Walker’s 18 point game helped the Florida Gators (10-3) end Xavier’s 30 game home winning streak on Friday night by the final score of 71-67.
The Musketeers went more than two years without losing at home, which was the longest streak in school history and second longest in division I, following right behind Kansas’ 66-game streak. Xavier almost had it snapped earlier this year after going into overtime two times.
Terrell Holloway led the way for Xavier with 28 points despite going 10 minutes into the second half without a field goal.
Xavier (8-4) straight up man handled the Gators on the offensive board tonight. It reminded me of the Ohio State game in Gainesville earlier in the season. Before the game started I was talking to a friend about how I have a good feeling that the Gators will keep their turnovers down this game. But you know it didn’t happen. Poor decisions and poor passing killed Florida. The Gators ended the game with 16 turnovers while Xavier only accounted for 8.
Florida’s best basketball tonight was during the second half at the 17:53 to 7:52 mark when they held the Musketeers without scoring a single field goal. They’re defense has really been holding up lately. They have held their opponents to 53.7 points in the last seven games. Now if they can get the offense more into it they can be unstoppable.
A total of four Gator players reached double figures tonight which helped Florida reach over 70 points for the first time in eight games.
The Gators began their 13-1 run early in the second half. Kenny Boynton, Erving Walker and Chandler Parsons found their shot behind the arc which gave Florida a 50-35 lead with 13 minutes remaining in regulation. But at the end when Xavier brought some full court pressure that caused the Gators to turn the ball over, the lead started to shrink right away. Holloway scored three times on drives to the hoop that cut the lead down to four with a little over a minute to go. But the Gators made 8 of 10 from the charity stripe as the game came to a close.
Parsons finished with just five points but added 11 boards while Kenny Boynton contributed 15 points and six assists. Vernon Macklin, who had a field day under the basket finished the game with 14 points and seven rebounds.
The Gators are back in action on January 3 as they host the 9-4 Rhode Island Rams at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center starting at 9:00pm.
For all of those Tebow doubters out there who thought Tim couldn’t play in the NFL, you may want to watch some film of tonight’s game. Yeah he has only started two games this year but his numbers say it all.
Tim Tebow marched the Broncos 76 yards down the field and capitalized with a 6 yard rushing touchdown that put the Broncos (4-11) ahead 24-23 with only three minutes remaining. As soon as Tebow reached the sideline he was yelling and getting his teammates all fired up. Reminds you of when he was in the good ole Orange and Blue eh?
The Texans took over the next possession and got all the way down to the Denver 40 yard line but had their pass intercepted on second down by Syd’Quan Thompson. Tebow got back on the field with a 1:12 left and just took a few final knees to end the game. Tebow met with the opposing coaches, grasping the game ball with the media swarming all around him like a bunch of bee’s.
Tim is becoming more relaxed and more in control with the ball. The last two starts have been great for him. He finished with 138 passing yards along with a touchdown against the Raiders and tonight he finished 16/29 for 308 passing yards, 1 passing and 1 rushing touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 27 yards on 10 carries.
Denver is back in action next Sunday against the San Diego Chargers and we are hoping for another start by Tebow which will probably be announced during the next couple of days. The game will also be shown on CBS at 4:14 pm.
Head coach Billy Donovan and the No. 20 Florida Gators have faced several games this year where turnovers and poor shooting resulted into either a loss or a victory that wasn’t by much. This week is a perfect example.
Florida, who was upset by Jacksonville earlier this week had 17 turnovers and shot 35 percent from the field. Well Wednesday was a little different but not a whole lot. The Gators did edge past Radford but they still had way too many turnovers (16) and shot 40 percent from the floor. They made ill-advised passes and couldn’t shoot worth a lick. Games like those are not going to get you far when the tournament comes around, unless they are trying to shoot for the N.I.T again.
“We’ve got to get better at valuing the ball”, coach Donovan said at a press conference.
Looking at the Gators three losses, the Ohio State game was in they’re hands and could of been won but the Buckeyes fought harder overall. Especially in the paint in the second half. On top of that Ohio State is a very good ball club, ranked No. 5 in the country isn’t that bad.
The UCF games in Orlando should have been won. Yeah the Knights are still undefeated and may have the pair of Jordan’s, but that game should of not turned out like it did. The Gators made two out of their thirteen three-point attempts, while just shooting over .500 at the free throw line. And the big one that hurt again… TURNOVERS. Florida had 14 while UCF only had 7. At the college level you should not be turning the ball over fourteen to fifteen times a game, yes that’s the average in high school but this is division I college ball.
And I don’t even have to talk about the Jacksonville game. Everybody knows why they got beat on they’re own home floor. Also if you look at the close wins Florida survived, those could of easily been turned into losses. If your aiming to play in the big dance this year you can’t be beating teams like Morehead State and FAU by six and ten points.
Florida is going to have to start playing like they are capable of playing. Averaging 14.2 turnovers per contest is just not going to cut it. Right now they are ranked 174th of 345 Divison-I schools in turnover average. They can’t keep waiting to play when ever they want. Florida will host Fairfield (8-3) on Dec. 28th and that’s another team who is looking to come into their house and put up a fight. Don’t let the name fool you. Right after that they have to face Xavier and Ole Miss then that is when the SEC play starts up. January 11 they will travel to Tennessee for the first SEC game of the season. All the way to March 5 is strictly SEC games. That is why Billy needs to make sure they all get their acts together right now.
Here is a short video where coach Billy Donovan talks about the Gators turnovers and what they struggle from.
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