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Status of Demar Dorsey

Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010   No Comment

Demar Dorsey of Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, who is a 4-star recruit, hid in the shadows from the media for two long days about his commitment status. Dorsey was reported to be speaking with Florida State University about signing on with the Seminoles earlier this week. As Dorsey remained quiet about his commitment status, rumors spread like wildfire across the world of college football.

Many speculations were floating around about Dorsey decommitting from the Florida Gators. Dorsey denies all claims about decommitting. He is simply exploring his options as a recruit. “I don’t know where it came from, I heard the rumors, but no I’m not decommitted from Florida,” Dorsey told the media. “The rumor that I decommitted is wrong. I’m trying to find out what I’m comfortable with.” Dorsey reported that he was 60-90 percent Gator but, he never stated he was a 100 percent Gator. Dorsey has been true to his word and very honest about where he was going to continue his outstanding high school career. He said that he was going to visit all of his schools to see view his options.

Although, rumors that have been spreading about Dorsey leaving the Gators were because he decided to visit Florida State University this past weekend. Dorsey was said to had a great weekend in Tallahassee, Florida. Dorsey reported that, “It opened up my eyes to what FSU have going on there.” Dorsey said he was ’50-50′ about his decision.

With less than two weeks left before National Signing Day, Dorsey plans to be quiet busy for the next few weeks. USC is to visit Thursday as Florida State visited on Wednesday. Surprisingly, Florida, the school he is committed to, has not set up another visit for Dorsey. Dorsey told the media, “I don’t know. They haven’t set it up I don’t think. I don’t know if they are visiting.” He will not be participating in the upcoming Team USA vs. The World Football Game even though he is on the roster. He is skipping the game to visit his final team, USC.

As the time between now and National Signing Day on February 3rd shortens, Dorsey is still on the fence about where he will be attending come fall. Even though Dorsey is committed to the Gators, his pick may sway either way to the Trojans of USC or “the team out west”, Florida State University. He may sign on to another school before National Signing Day but look forward to the choice of the Blue Chip, 4-star recruit out of Boyd Anderson High School.

(Information provided by GatorBait.net and Scout.com)

By: Justin Rectenwald

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Gators Tame the Dogs 87-71

Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010   No Comment

Alex Tyus scored 23 points, Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton both put up 21 points apiece to help the Gators (15-5, 4-2) roll past the Bulldogs (9-9, 1-4) 87-71 which also gives Florida their fourth straight win and

I really didn’t expect Florida to go out and dominate like they did tonight. I was really amazed by the pressure the Gators brought in Georgia’s backcourt. Florida forced Georgia to turn the ball over 19 times, most of them coming off the full court pressure they put on.

Georgia was led by Trey Thompkins with 24 points and six boards. Teammate Ricky McPhee scored 21, most of his points coming from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs trailed the whole game by double-digits and couldn’t find a way to dig there selves out of the whole. They did knock the lead down 71-63 with just over five minutes left in regulation, but Florida didn’t quit. They just played better basketball than Georgia.

Florida shot the ball pretty good tonight. Especially Erving Walker, who finished 4-6 from three The Gators shot 32-60 (.533) and 7-16 (.438) from beyond the arc. The Bulldogs shot 28-47 (.596) and 8-14 from downtown.

The Gators will travel to Knoxville to take on No. 14 Tennessee (15-4, 3-2 SEC) on Sunday (Jan. 31).

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UF Baseball No. 7 In Preseason Ranking By Baseball America

Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010   No Comment

After coming up just short from the college world series, the Florida Gators baseball team will open up this upcoming 2010 season ranked No. 7 by Baseball America, Antonya English reported.

This marks the first time ever since the 2006 season that the Gators have showed up in the Baseball America’s preseason rankings. The Gators will start off the season on Feb. 19th at McKethan Stadium against USF in a three-game series.

Last year was a good year for Florida, finishing 42-22 and also winning the SEC East for the first time since back in 2005.

They will return 20 letter winners, 10 of them who are pitchers, and 5 of them who had a ton of playing time last season. I am excited to see how this years team ends up.

(Antonya English/Gator Report contributed to this story.)

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Senior Bowl Update

Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010   No Comment

First off I had an interview on Monday with Riley Cooper and I have a video of it and will posting it shortly. I’m still trying to get an interview with Tim Tebow but as you can imagine he is swamped with people along with being sick with strep throat.

Ok so I’ll start the update with Riley Cooper. After seeing Riley Cooper at weigh in he definitely has the pro typical body for a NFL wide receiver. During Monday’s practice Riley caught the ball real well for the first day. He had some problems with getting off press coverage but still showed great route running.

As far as the interview with Cooper goes Riley is a real confident guy who truly believes in his game. I asked Cooper about his plans for after the Senior Bowl and he said he was putting all of his eggs into football and wasn’t going to play baseball. He said Urban was doing a lot better and had gained weight and was back to himself.

Tuesday practice was a so so day for Cooper as he made a lot of catches but at the same time dropped some easy catches as he was trying to make the highlight catch. He did make one incredible one handed catch that drew oh’s from the crowd.

Now for the update on Tim Tebow. He came in at 6’3 236 lbs and looked like we all thought he would this week impressive physique. He has been swamped with autograph requests and interview request all week while trying to battle an illness.

Monday’s practice wasn’t a good practice for Tim as he dropped a lot of snaps and his accuracy wasn’t there as much.

Tuesday practice was a better day for Tebow as looked more comfortable under center. He is trying to short his deliver down some and when he tries that is when he has problems with his delivery. He had a lot of good throws and made a lot of connections with former teammate Riley Cooper

Ill update everyone after today’s practice. Any question feel free to ask me.

Shawn Brannan(Football Alliance) has helped with practices and photography for the week.

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Georgia Pays Gators A Visit Wednesday

Posted by admin on January 27th, 2010   No Comment

The Gator basketball team, coming off a big week, plays host to the hated Bulldogs on Wednesday. Georgia is also coming in off a big win against Tennessee. The Gators beat Arkansas on the road on a nationally televised game on ESPN last Thursday. Erving Walker had a huge night in that one.

Then the Gators had to travel after that late game back to Gainesville and play South Carolina on Saturday. Not an easy task with SC bringing the SEC’s leading scorer in Devan Downey. Downey lit the Gators up for 36 points. His final two seemed to be the winners at under five seconds. But Chandler Parson’s buzzer beater lifted the Gators to a huge win.

The Gators now stand at 3-2 in SEC play and 14-5 overall. Following Georgia is a two game road trip to Tennessee and Alabama. So this game is critical. A win for the Gators means at worst a 4-4 mark coming off the road trip before hosting Mississippi State. Hopefully UF can get a win over UGA and a split on the road. That would give them a 5-3 mark at the halfway point in the SEC schedule.

That would mean if UF can go 4-4 down the stretch it would mean a 9-7 SEC mark. That should be enough to get the Gators into the NCAA Tournament. The second half of the SEC schedule starts out with MSU at home, and also includes home games with Auburn, Vandy, and UT. There is also a non conference home game with Xavier who is leading the A-10 Conference. Road games include South Carolina (and Downey again), Georgia, Ole Miss and Kentucky.

The Gators need to be at 5-3 with that remaining schedule. Going 4-4 will not be easy the last 8 games.

Mississippi State is the defending SEC Tournament Champs. Speaking of defending, they have Jarvis Varnardo who is getting very close to breaking the all time NCAA shot blocking record. He currently is #2. Then you have Vanderbilt and Tennessee coming in. So 2-2 at home will be a good mark. Then the road games with SC, Ole Miss and UGA will be very tough, and Kentucky is an automatic loss. 2-2 on the road will be very tough.

Needless to say, this is a must win for the Gators. The games against UGA and South Carolina will most likely determine the fate of the Gators. UF narrowly escaped the first test. They really need to step it up for the next three.

By: James Folsom

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Cooper To Give Up His Dream For Football

Posted by admin on January 26th, 2010   1 Comment

Former Florida Gator wide receiver Riley Cooper has made a decision that involves him giving up the game he loved and had dreams of playing professional baseball, so he can focus on straight football.

During the Senior Bowl practices yesterday, Gatorsportsnation was in Mobile, AL. to cover the event and listened to Cooper tell all the reporters that he will not be playing baseball this spring. Last August, Cooper was drafted in the 25th round by the Texas Rangers and also signed a professional contract.

Gator Report said he declined at the time to disclose financial terms of his contract, reports gathered from Baseball America said Cooper received a $250,000 signing bonus which was paid in full and is $100,000 more than the MLB recommended the maximum for players who are selected above the fifth round of the draft. Not to mention that the Rangers organization paid Coopers tuition at UF during the fall semester.

January 17 is when Cooper was expected to report with the Rangers and also would of collected his first half of his signing bonus. Cooper said that he did not get any money because he did not meet up with the Rangers. His father Larry said it was a dream of his to play pro baseball but as the football season went on and Cooper had so much success, he knew he had a tough decision to make.

We know Riley will make a heck of an NFL receiver and GSN wishes him the best of luck.

(Info gathered from Antonya English/Gator Report.)

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Update: Harvin Is Expected To Play

Posted by admin on January 24th, 2010   No Comment

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Percy Harvin is expected to play in the NFL Championship game today vs Saints, even though he suffered from migraine headaches during last week.

Sources told ESPN’s Ed Werner that coaches and even Brett Favre expect Harvin to be out on the field on Sunday. Harvin missed two days of practice last week because of migraines but did participate in drills yesterday with the team.

It seems like nothing can help Percy get rid of this annoying migraines that come and go. He has been dealing with them this whole season and missed one game on DEC 13 against the Bengals. A video below from ESPN covering the status of Percy Harvin.

The game will kickoff at 6:40 pm.

(Info gathered from ESPN’s Ed Werner and Adam Schefter.)

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Update: Harvin Practices Drills With Team

Posted by admin on January 24th, 2010   No Comment

Sources from ESPN reported that Minnesota Vikings rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin did participate in the final practice and as well as the meetings on Saturday.

ESPN’s Ed Werner was told that the migraine symptoms Harvin suffered from still remain but is slowly going away. Harvin did travel with the Vikings to New Orleans where they take on the Saints for the NFC Championship.

Harvin’s injury report has him listed down as questionable but whether he is going to be able to play or not still may be in the air. Harvin did not practice on Thursday because he was suffering migraine pains and also was told my head coach Brad Childress to stay home on Friday.

Something interesting I found when I was reading the info from Ed Werner and browsing on Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie’s twitter account, he took a video of him talking and interviewing Harvin in the locker room. McKinnie who was doing all the recording, asked Harvin to tell everybody that he tried everything to fix the migraines that he suffers from, and Harvin had this to say to the camera “I’ve tried everything. Nothing works. I give up.”

Let’s wish the best of luck to Percy and hope things turn out positive so he has the chance to play in the NFL Championship game.

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