Florida: Will the Defense Reload?
Last year, the Florida Gators had a devestatingly fast defense. It will be seen if they will be able to dominate the defensive side of the ball again this year. A lot of pressure will be on Sophomore Tim Tebow to replace Chris Leak and chances are he will not have immediate success. The Gators will need Percy Harvin to be completely healthy in order for the offense to be effective.
Goners: Leak (23 TD’s), Dallas Baker (10 TD’s), Earl Everett (lead team in tackles), Brandon Siler, Reggie Nelson, Jarvis Moss
Coming Back: Derrick Harvey (DL), Harvin
The Curse of Spurrier: It will be an interesting game in Columbia, especially considering how it ended last year. The Gators will go down.
Spewing Confidence: “On defense we have two starters back. We have Tony Joiner, Derrick Harvey, a bunch of other names. Our challenge to the team is, you hear repeat, you hear this, you hear this. The only thing you’re hearing at the University of Florida right now is, Can we make it through training camp? Our training camp is going to be really hard. It’s going to be really hot, like it always is.” Pretty optimistic, eh? Apparently preparations for this season will be put on hold as the Gators prepare for the heat! If that is truly “the only thing you’re hearing” in Gainesville, I’d be very surprised. I can accept that he is trying to play down the repeat talk, but don’t use the heat as your diversion.
Big Celeb: Urban Meyer has his own website! At www.coachurbanmeyer.com you can see a very loud and scary introduction that takes forever. Once you make it into the site, there is a creepy and awkward personal message from the man himself. Check it out. go gators.
Target Practice: As at least fifty thousand sports writers will say in the coming weeks, Florida will “have a target on their back” this year. Mark May will say it every week on ESPN. Anyway, they will. Look for them to maybe finish second or third in the East. I don’t know who’s going to beat them, but they may lose three in conference. They won’t repeat as SEC champs and they won’t be in a BCS bowl.
August 16th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
It will be interesting to watch Captain America (tebow) throw a pass that doesn’t look like a jump shot. The gators had a mediocre offense last year. With the loss of Dallas “touchdown” Baker, who is going to catch tebow’s gimicky passes?
August 17th, 2007 at 11:51 am
And another thing, I think the loss of the “Eraser” will be larger than some think. He was as much of a lock down corner as there is in college football.