Florida Gator football lovers: A perspective on your program

[BeachGirlFLA]

Sounds like Tennessee is trying to go for the title of Thug U.

 

[DenMig]

Seeing as Tennessee plays in the SEC it seems like some 1/2 game suspensions are in order.

 

[lillygator]

The three Tennessee freshmen arrested early Thursday morning on charges of armed robbery will not play in Saturday's game against Mississippi, according to a Tennessee spokeswoman.

Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin has declined to comment about the players' status with the team until more information is gathered about their arrests.

However, Tiffany Carpenter, Tennessee's director of public relations for athletics, said Friday that none of the three players -- safety Janzen Jackson, defensive back Mike Edwards and receiver Nu'Keese Richardson -- would travel with the team and that none of the three would play in the game.



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ESPN.com's Chris Low writes about all things SEC in his conference blog.

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Jackson was released from jail Thursday afternoon on his own recognizance, and Edwards was released after posting bond. Richardson remained in the Knox County Detention Center in lieu of a $19,500 bond. But Officer Tim Isaacs, who answered the phone at the facility on Friday night, said that Richardson was no longer at the jail. He would provide no further information.

According to a Knoxville City Police report, the arrests stemmed from an attempted robbery outside a convenience store near campus. A powered pellet gun was recovered in the players' car after they were stopped by police near the Gibbs Hall dormitory on campus, where the Vols' freshman football players live.

At least one of the players arrested was wearing some type of Tennessee gear during the attempted robbery, according to police.

A fourth suspect, a woman alleged to have been driving a car with the three players as passengers, was also arrested.

Don Bosch, an attorney representing Jackson, said his client maintains his innocence and was hopeful of having the charges dismissed.

Jackson, one of the highest-rated signees in Kiffin's first recruiting class, started in seven of the nine games this season and has been one of the best freshmen in the league.

Jackson was suspended last week for the Memphis game for what Kiffin said was a violation of team rules. That suspension came on the heels of a failed drug test, sources told ESPN.com.

As recently as Wednesday, during the SEC coaches teleconference, Kiffin had praised his team for not having any off-the-field problems during his tenure and had repeated several times this year that the Vols had been free of any such incidents.

Richardson, of Pahokee, Fla., was at the center of Kiffin's dustup with Florida coach Urban Meyer last February. Richardson had been committed to Florida for some time, but switched to Tennessee on signing day.


The next day, at a Tennessee recruiting breakfast, Kiffin made his comments alleging Meyer cheated to get Richardson and still wasn't able to sign him. Kiffin was reprimanded by the SEC for those comments.

According to the police report, the victims of the robbery were in their car outside a Pilot convenience store, parked next to a Toyota Prius, when a black male approached wearing a hooded sweatshirt, brandishing what appeared to be a handgun, opened the driver's side door and said, "Give me everything you have."


A second black male, also wearing a hooded sweatshirt, then went around to the passenger side of the victims' car, opened it and said, "Give us everything you've got."

But when the victims opened their wallets and showed they had no money, a third black male approached the other two and said, "We've got to go," and all three got into the Prius and drove away, according to the police report.

Police said when they pulled over the Prius, they found a black air-powered pellet gun and a pair of hooded sweatshirts. Police also said they found a marijuana grinder, which the driver, Marie Montmarquet, said belonged to her, and a baggie containing what appeared to be marijuana in Montmarquet's jacket.

According to police, the victims later identified Edwards and Richardson as the men who had approached them.


Chris Low covers Southeastern Conference football for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

[lillygator]

The three Tennessee freshmen arrested early Thursday morning on charges of armed robbery will not play in Saturday's game against Mississippi, according to a Tennessee spokeswoman.

Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin has declined to comment about the players' status with the team until more information is gathered about their arrests.

that is hilarious - he runs his mouth about EVERYONE else.

 

[ChrisFL]

that is hilarious - he runs his mouth about EVERYONE else.

seriously...I can't stand him, his dad is ok and I had a lot of respect for Phil Fulmer, but Lane Kiffin is just a jerk

 

[lillygator]

whew we pulled it off yesterday........

 

[lillygator]

I am praying orange and blue as well as holding my tongue, LOVE well NM.

 

[lillygator]

BCS Standings
RK TEAM RECORD
1 Florida 10-0
2 Alabama 10-0
3 Texas 10-0
4 TCU 10-0
5 Cincinnati 10-0
6 Boise State 10-0
7 Georgia Tech 10-1
8 LSU 8-2
9 Pittsburgh 9-1
10 Ohio State 9-2
11 Oregon 8-2
12 Oklahoma State 8-2
13 Iowa 9-2
14 Penn State 9-2
15 Virginia Tech 7-3
16 Wisconsin 8-2
17 Stanford 7-3
18 USC 7-3
19 Oregon State 7-3
20 Miami (FL) 7-3
21 Utah 8-2
22 Brigham Young 8-2
23 Clemson 7-3
24 Houston 8-2
25 California 7-3

 

[Uuaww]

So looking at the BCS...

5 from the Pac 10
4 from the Big 10
4 from the ACC
3 from the SEC
3 from the MWC
2 from the Big 12
2 from the Big East
1 from the C-USA
1 from the WAC

Anyone else shocked at how everyone at the beginning of the season was saying that the SEC and Big 12 were the two best conference? It def. doesn't seem like that anymore. Now, I am not saying that they don't have the best teams as the SEC has 1,2 and 8; but the rest of the SEC is def. weaker than the rest of the Pac 10. Given that the Pac 10 also has to play an extra conference game, which gives the conference as a whole 5 more losses, they might actually have an even stronger resume.

I would think TCU would be closer to Texas then Texas is to the two SEC schools. TCU played a comparable schedule and has looked better doing it.

 

[lillygator]

The Associated Press


Published: Monday, November 16, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, November 16, 2009 at 3:15 p.m.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Two of three Tennessee freshmen football players charged last week in an attempted armed robbery have been dismissed from the team.

"Clearly, their actions have no place in our program," coach Lane Kiffin said Monday.

Kiffin said wide receiver Nu'Keese Richardson, 18, and defensive back Mike Edwards, 18, were permanently dismissed from the team, while former starting safety Janzen Jackson, 18, will continue to be barred from team activities while Kiffin awaits more information in his case.

Richardson was the player whose recruitment first got Kiffin in trouble with the Southeastern Conference. Kiffin joked in February that Florida coach Urban Meyer cheated in trying to keep Richardson as a Gator, earning Kiffin a reprimand from the SEC.

All three players were out on bond but kept home Saturday when Tennessee traveled to play Mississippi.

Three victims told police they were sitting in their parked vehicle about 2 a.m. last Thursday outside a convenience store near Tennessee's campus when two males dressed in hooded jackets, one brandishing a handgun, approached and demanded, "Give us everything you've got."

"The victims stated that they all presented their wallets to the suspects and showed them that they did not have money," a police report said. "The victims stated that a third black male then approached and told the other two black males, 'We've got to go.'"

The three freshmen were arrested shortly afterward with companion Marie Montmarquet, 22, also a UT student. She allegedly drove their getaway Toyota Prius in which police found a pellet gun and hooded jackets.

The victims identified Richardson and Edwards as the men who approached their vehicle, and Jackson as the one who told them to leave, the police report said.

"After extensive and thorough research of the situation ... and considering various disciplinary options, I've decided it's in the best interest of our program to remove Nu'Keese and Mike," Kiffin said in a statement.

"We hold our student athletes to an extremely high standard on and off the field. Our student athletes must be responsible members of society, and this type of conduct will not be tolerated."

Kiffin said he hoped Richardson and Edwards "will learn from their terrible decision."

Richardson, a highly touted recruit from Pahokee, Fla., finished his Tennessee career with six catches for 58 yards. Edwards, a Cleveland, Ohio, native, played in eight games and registered five tackles.

Jackson, a Lake Charles, La., native, has started seven games this season, logging 33 tackles and a forced fumble. He was suspended for the Memphis game for undisclosed reasons, a week after he was named SEC freshman of the week for a strong performance against South Carolina.

 

[lillygator]

what an awesome night it was - the Gator walk was so crowded but we managed to be right in the front. Tebow did a lap around the entire stadium after the game...no one wanted to leave! The flashbulbs going off were amazing! Never seen anything like that before....thanks Gators, the Seniors and Tim! Let's have a gret SEC champ game! And congrats billy ball!! Hope we have a great season!

 

[lillygator]

this is a great article for gator fans......


http://www.gatorcountry.com/football/article/a_train_wreck_moment/




This was a train-wreck moment for a coach who is a self-described train wreck the entire week leading up to Senior Day at The Swamp and it was only Monday. Five days before he has to bid farewell to his seniors, Urban Meyer was standing at the podium in the south end zone meeting room, fighting back tears and trying to regain his composure as a stunned media contingent could only watch in silence. This was genuine. This was powerful. This was a moment when Urban Meyer wore a piece of his heart on his sleeve for all the world to see.

It started with a simple question at his Monday media briefing. As a followup to a question I had asked about how tough Senior Days are for him, I asked about that first Senior Day in 2005 when Vernell Brown came out of the tunnel on crutches for his farewell moment.

‘We didn’t have the same bond that maybe we have with this group but ... ,” he replied and his voice trailed off. He looked down at the podium and for 28 seconds he battled his emotions before he tapped the podium twice, almost a signal to himself to get it together or lose it forever. When he finally spoke again the words “no more interviews this week ... it’s going to be a tough week” fell off his tongue. It was a powerful and revealing moment, one that few coaches ever allow anyone other than family, friends and players to see.

I asked that question because I know how much Vernell meant and still means to Urban. From the moment he first arrived in Gainesville, Vernell Brown had Urban Meyer’s back. He was the smallest Gator but he had the biggest heart and whatever Meyer was selling, he bought into starting with the first press conference. If you know anything at all about both Urban Meyer and Vernell Brown, then you have a pretty good idea what loyalty means to both of them and as weeks became months and a first season that was a struggle inched forward, Urban never had to question that #16 would give him his best and somehow find a little bit more to keep going when that tank was on empty.

The only thing Vernell had ever asked was a chance. Meyer gave him the chance to prove himself and with some coaching up from Chuck Heater the Gators had a 5-8, 160-pound pit bull of a corner on their hands. It only took a little faith combined with opportunity and some coaching to transform Vernell Brown from a player who really had no position into an All-SEC type in 2005.

Vernell broke his ankle against Vanderbilt that season but he was such an inspiration to the team that he accompanied them to Columbia the next week where the Gators lost, 30-22. That was the lowest of the low points in Meyer’s first season. When the plane landed in Gainesville on the return trip, Vernell Brown turned a heart-wrenching where do we go from here defeat into a make whatever choice you want but I’m following Urban Meyer moment. Along with fellow seniors Jeremy Mincey and Jarvis Herring, Vernell pretty much told the Gators on that plane that it was time to decide right then and there --- Urban’s way or the highway. There was no gray area and no I’ll sleep on it and give you a decision in the morning. You made your choices right there. Although the Gators had already played 10 games, you could say that the Urban Meyer era began on Saturday, November 12, 2005, on the tarmac at Gainesville Regional Airport.

Two weeks later, Florida State came to town. It was Senior Day and the Gators were in a steel cage, last man standing wins match for the hearts and minds of some of the top recruits in the country, many of whom would decide Florida or Florida State that night. I’ve heard all the stories about how supercharged the locker room was after the Gators left the Seminoles in a bloody 34-7 heap and I know that helped Urban’s recruiting a lot, but I contend to this day that the turning point that day was when Urban Meyer walked from the 20-yard line to meet Vernell coming out of the tunnel. That long bear hug left the Gator portion of that crowd of 90,669 in tears and made a lasting impression on recruits.

Beginning with that weekend, Florida went on an unprecedented recruiting tear. Brandon James was among the recruits that committed on the spot that night in the locker room. Two weeks later, Tim Tebow, who was in the locker room, announced for the Gators and a few days later, Percy Harvin became the next domino to fall. At the US Army All-American game three weeks after that, Brandon Spikes put on a Gator cap.

There in San Antonio at the US Army game, I spent a lot of time with Spikes and developed a good rapport. Outside the locker room following the game, I asked him what was the deciding factor in his choice to be a Gator. He responded, “Urban Meyer ... the way he cares about his players. That’s the kind of coach you want to play for.”

Four years later, Brandon Spikes is an All-American who will be a first rounder in the NFL Draft in April. He is poised to become the first male ever in his family to earn a college degree. Along with Tebow, he set a leadership precedent last January when he elected to pass up NFL millions to come back for a shot at history at the University of Florida.

He wouldn’t have done it, however, if Urban Meyer were not Florida’s coach. Spikes has bonded with Urban in a father-son sort of way, something that happens a lot. Don’t get me started talking about Mike and Maurkice Pouncey becoming Nicki Meyer’s “big brothers” back in the spring of 2007 and how they let potential suitors know that they better have her home on time or else. And I don’t have enough time or space to write about how Urban has become the father that Chris Rainey has never had and how the Meyers are truly his family and how Shelley only has to say the word “cupcake” and Chris is on his way to the Meyer home to wolf down his favorite snack.

I could go on and on.

Since the day he became Florida’s head coach, I have been convinced that Urban Meyer is the right coach in the right place at the right time. I didn’t need two national championships in four years to convince me he was the right coach for this job, but they have convinced me that he might be as good a football coach as I’ve ever had the chance to write about and a few of the coaches I’ve written about are named Bryant, Vaught, Dietzel, Parseghian, Jordan, Royal, Broyles, Bowden, Paterno, Switzer, Osborne and Spurrier. He’s that good and his name belongs in that elite company, particularly if he pulls off his third national championship in five years at Florida.

It is during this run for the third national championship that I have appreciated even more the close personal relationship that Meyer has with his team. How many coaches do you know that openly speak of how much they love the kids on their team? Meyer does it all the time and he’s not just talking about the stars on his team like Tebow and Spikes, although he choked up Monday when Ben Volin of the Palm Beach Post asked a question about Tebow, whose Senior Day applause will probably move a Richter Scale on campus.

A little bit after I asked the Vernell question Monday afternoon, Mark McLeod of WMOP/WGGG asked about Michael Guilford, the walk-on from Blountstown that everyone knew as Sunshine before his tragic death in 2007. This would have been Guilford’s Senior Day also, and you have to know that he would have been on scholarship, just like walk-ons Cade Holliday, Joey Sorrentino and Meyer once again had problems holding back the tears.

“We’re going to invite his family down ...he’s a part of this group,” Meyer said after he regained his composure. “Once again, you take Mike out of this process ... it really stung this football team. He’s got a terrific family. We’ll just do the best we can to make that family feel at peace with what he did here. He was a phenomenal young man and a phenomenal member of this team, so he’ll be a part of this Senior Day.”

Senior Day is Saturday, which is all too soon for Meyer who really isn’t ready to say good-bye. Saying good-bye is never easy but it is part of the deal of being a coach. At the Florida football program that Urban Meyer has built with his own blood, sweat and tears it’s a process that starts by taking in wet behind the ears kids, turning them into accountable young men who have a college degree and a few championship rings to show for their Florida football experience and then saying good-bye publicly on Senior Day. Since this is the first senior class made up exclusively of players he recruited, this will be Urban Meyer’s toughest and most emotional Senior Day ever. He’d love to coach these guys one more year but he knows that isn’t possible. At some point, you have to free the hatchlings and send them off to find their own path.

Saturday, while Meyer is hugging away and letting the tears flow like a river as his seniors run out of the tunnel one-by-one for the last time, some five star recruit in the south end zone who doesn’t have a dad will make a decision to be a Gator and another five star recruit, who is there with his parents, will decide he can leave his family at home for the new family he will join in Gainesville.

That’s what happened five years ago at Meyer’s first Senior Day. It’s what will happen this Saturday and for Seniors Days years into the future because Urban isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time and as long as he wears his love on his sleeve for the whole world to see, these days will be treasures for the whole of Gator Nation to hide in their collective hearts.

 

[ChrisFL]

and at the same time...wonderful article.

As much as I enjoyed Spurrier being head coach, Urban Meyer is on another level, he definitely has it all together as a person and a head coach.

 

[Buckalew11]

TN had another guy picked up for shoplifting that same week (I think--or maybe the week after).

I think Kiffin runs his mouth for attention and gets it. I'm not a fan but people around here seem to like him so far.

 

[Mommy2cody]

We disagree on that one....I'm in favor of a playoff system.

Me too!!

 

[lillygator]

and at the same time...wonderful article.

As much as I enjoyed Spurrier being head coach, Urban Meyer is on another level, he definitely has it all together as a person and a head coach.

I agree, when it all "happened" I was so mad/upset, especially since the new UF President arranged all ahead of time and the way Foley really showed disrespect to Spurrier by telling him he had to be interviewed....pretty nasty dealings, but I have to say, I did not feel as sad when Danny, Doering and that class left, this is really a different feeling. (and I wsa in school when Spurrier was there, so I am biased his way a bit) I was in tears several times during the game last night and it was amazing how no one wanted to leave.....I know next year will be so different but am looking forward to seeing what Brantley has to offer.....

 

[lillygator]

Dunlap - WHAT were you thinking??????????????????

 

[Uuaww]

Dunlap - WHAT were you thinking??????????????????

Lets see if Meyer actually suspends him or if he gets off due to his skill.

 

[lillygator]

http://www.gainesville.com/article/...Title=Gator-star-suspended-for-SEC-title-game

of course he is suspended, it's not like he poked anyone in the eye or anything~!

 

[Rora]

Lets see if Meyer actually suspends him or if he gets off due to his skill.

Of course he's suspended- Meyer isn't an idiot, although many on this thread feel otherwise.

Dunlap really let the team and the Gator fans down.