J

Website: http://www.gatorsportsnation.com

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

Posts by J:

Meyer Looks To Return For Spring Training

Posted by admin on January 24th, 2010   No Comment

Meyer’s leave of absence is to be shorter than expected after his announcement during the halftime of the Florida-South Carolina men’s basketball game on Saturday. Meyer discussed with the media that he would indeed be returning for the first day of spring training for the Gators.

Urban Meyer is no longer traveling to visit recruits as his doctors and staff has asked for him to stay home for a while. Meyer completed his travels before the Sugar Bowl on January 1st. Meyer just could not resist taking time off from the Gators. Meyer said, “I tried it for a day and a half. That didn’t work out.”

Meyer plans to take a few tests on his heart and his stress level in February. Meyer has been told by his boss and his wife that he should take some time off. Meyer said, “I have to change some things. That’s obvious.”

After National Signing Day, Coach Meyer plans to have a meeting with interim coach, Steve Addazio. During the meeting, Meyer and Addazio will try to come to an agreement on what Addazio’s responsibilities will be during the off-season.

During his leave of absence, Meyer is taking things serious. He is said to be exercising more and eating healthier. “I feel great.” he said. As the spring rolls around, look forward to seeing Meyer on the Gator practice field doing what he loves and does the best.

(Information collected by Gatorsports.com)

By: Justin Rectenwald

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Parsons’ Lifts Gators With Buzzer Beater Over USC

Posted by admin on January 24th, 2010   No Comment

Parsons’ success continued versus the South Carolina Gamecocks as he shot his second buzzer beater in three weeks. Once the clock ticked down to one second, Parsons stepped to the 3-point line and knocked in the game-winning shot to defeat the Gamecocks 58-56.

With 5.1 seconds remaining on the clock and a Gator lead, Devan Downey of SC rolled his way out of a double team by the Gator defence to score his 36th point of the evening. This shot seamed to seal the deal for the Gamecocks, but the Gators had other things on their minds.

As Erving Walker dribbled down to the foul line, he glanced over to see Parsons open at the 3-point line. The ball left the hands of Parsons with accuracy into the basket to defeat the Gamecocks. The celebration was underway for Parsons and his teammates in the House of Horror in Gainesville.

As Parsons scored 10 points, 4 assist, and 10 rebounds, he was one out of four behind the arch versus South Carolina. Although, his last shot was what counted the most. This similar ending occurred on January 3rd as Parsons threw up a 75-foot shot to defeat North Carolina State 62-61. The Gators have a boost of hope as they move up in the SEC standings into fifth place in the east. A trip to the tourney is looking more and more optimistic as the season goes by.

A video may be seen below of the Chandler Parsons buzzer beater.

(Information collected by Gatorsports.com and ESPN.com)

By: Justin Rectenwald

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Percy Harvin Misses Practice

Posted by admin on January 22nd, 2010   No Comment

Vikings rookie receiver/kick returner and former Florida Gator Percy Harvin missed practice Friday, just two days before the NFL Championship game which will be played against the New Orleans Saints.

ESPN’s Kevin Seifert reported that Minnesota coach Brad Childress said after practice, “it’s hard for me to even handicap” whether Harvin is going to be able to play Sunday.

Harvin started to suffer from symptoms of migraine yesterday. Percy has suffered from migraines throughout his life, not just this year. Even when he played at Florida he had this trouble. They seem to appear depending on the intensity and a time period.

Harvin spent all day Friday at home, Childress reported. More information will be reported later today on Harvin’s status.

“So we’ll just have to see how he comes along,” Childress said. “It’s less than ideal, but he’s played under the same circumstances this year.”

(Info/quotes gathered from Kevin Seifert/espn.)

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Gators Get Huge Road Win At Arkansas

Posted by admin on January 22nd, 2010   No Comment

The Gators’ NCAA Tournament chances look a lot better this week, than a week ago. Wins over LSU and Arkansas have evened their SEC record at 2-2. The overall record is now 13-5. 5 losses might not make a lot of fans happy right now with 2 games left with Tennessee and 1 each with Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, but considering some of the injuries and illnesses, it could be a lot worse.

Another thing working in the Gators’ favor is that there are a lot of big name programs who would dearly love to only have 5 losses right now. North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona, Louisville, Marquette, Connecticut, Indiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, and LSU are all teams that you normally see in the Big Dance. All of them have more than 5 losses. UCLA has 10 already. North Carolina has 7 including 3 straight. UConn has also lost 3 in a row. It’s also a safe assumption that there are not many on that list who have a win against a Michigan State. Maybe not even a Florida State.

If the Gators can stay hot for the next week, they have two winnable games. South Carolina comes to the O’Dome on Saturday. They have 7 losses themselves. If they leave with 8 they have to be on life support also. Then on Wednesday, Georgia comes to Gainesville. If UF has only 5 losses still this time next week, some of the above list will lose again. The NCAA chances will look pretty good for Billy’s Boys.

But it’s not all good news. Starting with a road game at Tennessee, the schedule down the stretch is tough. Following UT, the Gators host Mississippi State, Xavier, Auburn, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. They also have road games vs. Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Georgia and Kentucky. Of those 6 road game, the Gators would be doing well to go 3-3. That would be 8 losses if they can win all of the remaining home games. With that list of teams coming in, 2 losses would be a great effort. That makes 10 losses for the regular season.

10 losses should be a good enough mark to get the Gators in. Especially with wins over Michigan State, Florida State, NC State (who just beat Duke), and some of the teams UF will have to beat to remain at 10 losses (they would have to go 2-2 vs XU, MSU, UT and VU which means two more quality wins). Considering some of the teams above are already pushing 10 losses, that would make UF a lock.

By: James Folsom

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Gators Pull Off A 71-66 Win Over Razorbacks

Posted by admin on January 21st, 2010   No Comment

Florida Gator sophomore guard Erving Walker had a career high of 27 points that led the Gators (13-5, 2-2) past the Arkansas Razorbacks (8-10, 1-2) 71-66 on the road in Fayetteville, AR.

Erving Walker had an incredible night from the floor. The first half he started out five-for-five, four of them form beyond the arc, and ended up finishing 7-of-12, 5-of-6 from the three.

Junior forward Alex Tyus started out struggling from the floor but finished the game strong with a double-double. Tyus scored 11 points and grabbed 12 boards. Chandler Parsons had a big game on the boards, but didn’t have such a good night shooting. Parsons finished with 6 points and 11 rebounds.

Rotnei Clarke scored 17 points for the Razorbacks and sunk three 3-pointers during the second half. The last one put the Razorbacks up by 56-55, but the Gators made a nice run that Arkansas couldn’t catch back up to.

Florida only shot 36 percent but really killed Arkansas with rebounding. The Gators had 12 second-chance points which were all made in the second half of the game. It was just another cold shooting night for the Gators. Freshman G Kenny Boynton did score 13 points but was 1-of-7 from three, Senior forward Dan Werner and freshman forward Erik Murphy were 0-of-7 combined on the night. But for rebounding, Florida led Arkansas on the boards 41-29.

With this win, the Gators now improve to 2-2 in SEC play.

Florida will return to Gainesville as they host the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday, tip-off at 6pm. The game will be shown live on ESPN.

(Info gathered by Adam Silverstein/OGGOA)

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Meet Your 2009 Mr. Football…Matt Elam

Posted by admin on January 20th, 2010   1 Comment

The High School Running Back and Linebacker, and current Florida Gator recruit, will be named the 2009 Mr. Football winner. The award recognizes the nation’s top player, and because of Elam’s 1,883 yards and 27 touchdowns, he will receive the national honor.

Hey Gator fans, does anyone want to take a guess at a previous winner of the Mr. Football award? We all love him, that’s right, Tim Tebow won the award in his Senior year. Other notable winners are Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver, Anquan Boldin, Miami Hurricane’s Quarterback, Jacory Harris, and NFL Quarterback, Daunte Culpepper.

“I feel like he’s deserving,” Daniels said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach a player like that and it’s a pretty special award in this state.”

Elam also marks the third winner from Palm Beach County. The Florida Daily Farmers, who are the organizers of the award, hope that they will be able to announce Elam at halftime of the Florida vs South Carolina basketball game that will be taking place on Saturday.

(Info/quote gathered by Jason Lieser/Palmbeachpost.)

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Dynasty? Give Me A Break!

Posted by admin on January 20th, 2010   2 Comments

I’m at the 7-11 getting gas. I decide to go inside for a Big Gulp and a sandwich. I’m at the checkout and I look down and there it is. A Sports Illustrated with this ridiculous cover.

DYNASTY! Can Anyone Stop Alabama?

Are you kidding me? Is this what has happened to journalism? If you are going to completely disregard any and all objectivity, at least learn the language. The word dynasty has a meaning. A sports dynasty is a team that dominates their sport or league for multiple seasons or years. This is the definition according to wikipedia. One year does not a dynasty make. You want to talk dynasty? How about 20 years? Here is Florida’s record the last 20 seasons.

Overall SEC Bowl

1990 9–2 6–1 ineligible

1991 10–2 7–0* Sugar

1992 9–4 6–3 Gator

1993 11–2 8–1* Sugar

1994 10–2–1 8–1* Sugar

1995 12–1 9–0* Fiesta (National Title Game)

1996 12–1** 9–0* Sugar (National Title Game)

1997 10–2 6–2 Citrus

1998 10–2 7–1 Orange

1999 9–4 7–2 Citrus

2000 10–3 8–1* Sugar

2001 10–2 6–2 Orange

2002 8–5 6–2 Outback

2003 8–5 6–2 Outback

2004 7–5 4–4 Peach/ Chick Fil A

2005 9–3 5–3 Outback

2006 13–1** 8–1* BCS Championship

2007 9–4 5–3 Citrus/Cap One

2008 13–1** 8–1* BCS Championship

2009 13–1 8–1 Sugar

** Consensus National Champions

  • SEC Champions (note 1990 the Gators had the best conference record but were ineligible)

The WORST record Florida has in 20 years is 7-5. This year Lane Kiffin goes 7-6 at Tennessee and proclaims it a success. That 7-5 record got Ron Zook fired before the season ended. Notice that there are no trips to Nashville. No trips to Shreverport. No years since 1990 without a bowl invite. There are 11 trips to a “BCS Bowl”. There are 7 trips to one of the three other New Year’s Day games. Schools like Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Tennessee are happy to go to Florida for a New Year’s Day game. Schools like MSU, Vandy, and Kentucky can only dream about it. At Florida, going to the Cap One or Outback is a down year. Do it twice in a row and the coach is on the hot seat. That’s a dynasty.

And it’s not like we are in a down cycle. Memo to SI, we just finished 13-1. And in case you haven’t heard, Florida is hauling in the #1 recruiting class in the nation according to EVERY reputable rating service. Are we going somewhere? How about we go a decade or so without Bama losing to UCF or Louisiana-Monroe before we use the “D” word? Their last trip to Shreveport was three years ago for crying out loud. If it’s been only three years since you lost to ULM and ended 7-6, I think you need to wait on the dynasty talk.

By: James Folsom

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Will Tebow be invited to New York for the NFL Draft?

Posted by admin on January 20th, 2010   1 Comment

Gil Brandt says bringing Tim Tebow to New York for April’s NFL draft could be good for TV ratings, but he won’t say whether or not he will be invited.

Most years only players expected to go in the top 10 are invited. And depending on the mock draft you look at Tebow could go anywhere from mid first round to the third round.

Last year 10 players were invited to New York and they may invite ever more this year.

“I have been in meetings with the NFL already, and there is a push to give it more entertainment value,” Jay Rothman said. “We have had dialogue about expanding the list of invitees to New York.”

If Tim is invited there are still questions as to whether he will accept the invitation. A lot of agents say that they don’t want their clients there if they don’t go in the top 10.

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