Dustin Doe Arrest Warrant Issued

Dustin Doe has been issued an arrest warrant due to incompletion of his community service.

The warrant was issued Jan. 5, four days after Doe played his final game for the Gators in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Doe was indefinitely suspended from the team in July after he was arrested on charges of driving with a suspended license. He was adjudicated guilty a month later, sentenced to six months’ compliance probation and eight hours of community service and fined $311.

Alachua County court records show Doe paid the fine but has not served community service that required him to spend eight hours on a county work crew.

Doe, it’s 8 hours son… knock that out in one weekend.  This is just silly to get arrested for this.

I hope there is a data entry error with this story and you did finish.

Hey Tennessee, Your Loss Our Gain!

Already one of the decommitted players from the Vols has chosen Florida to play for after the disarray that has been unleashed on UT with Lane Kiffin leaving. Michael Taylor, a 4 star LB, will commit to Florida and add on to what is already being seen as a historic recruiting class.

Taylor’s high school teammate, Tony Jacobs, told the Orlando Sentinel that Taylor had already decided to sign with the Gators. In a text message to the Sentinel, Taylor seemed upset that the news had leaked but did not deny the report.

Rocky Top is more like Rocky Bottom right now.

Matt Elam… WTF Man!

The Matt Elam saga is becoming rather annoying and I wish I could just say he’s with Florida or with another team and not have to be updating.  The kid knows how to keep his name in the news and he better be worth it for all the trouble he’s been causing myself with having to write a half doze articles about his commitments and changes of heart.

In most recent news, Matt Elam switched his commitment to FSU but has now began to rethink this.  I did predict this with people I talked to that we should not be surprised should he change his mind with Meyer coming back:

“I talked to Urban last night,” Elam told Rivals. “We were talking about our relationship basically and he told me to have trust, to have trust in him and he asked me a word that really touched me. He said, ‘Do you know what faith means?’ and he told me the definition. It really touched me a lot. It really touched me so my decision might change.”

What was the definition Matt?  I want to know what touched you so deeply.  Was it the dictionary definition or a more philosophical definition?  Can you sense the frustration in my tone with this kid?

He’s a great safety and I feel he’ll do well at any school.  Some questions plague me on this recruit though…  is he worth all the hassle?  Is he going to be as good at the next level as he was in HS? If he had chose a school other than our rival, would we have still went after him?  If he went with WVU, would it have had Meyer get all deep in thought with him or would we have had said good bye?  There’s no way to no for sure but it’s my personal opinion (take it for what it’s worth) that because it’s a rival it just doesn’t make good business sense to not try to get him back.

But for the love of god Matt, please make up your mind and stick with it!

Anyone is Replaceable

Florida Gators have had a few coaching issues the past few weeks.  The most infamous of all is the Meyer flip flop but we’ve had Strong leave for Louisville bringing the DB Coach and the RB coach with him.  We had Billy Gonzalez, WR Coach, leave for LSU and Dan Mullen leave last year.  But no one is irreplaceable!  Even if Urban Meyer left, we would have found a great coach to take his place.  This is proving true as Florida’s coaching staff is starting to fill out quite nicely.

Drayton is returning to Gainesville as running backs coach, the same position he held between 2005 and 2007. He spent the last two years atTennessee (2008) and Syracuse (2009). Drayton replaces Kenny Carter, who is joining Charlie Strong at Louisville.

Durkin comes to Florida as linebackers coach, taking on a role Strong held the last five years. Durkin spent the last three years at Stanford, where he worked with defensive ends and coordinated special teams.

A defensive graduate assistant under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green (2001-02), Durkin also worked at Notre Dame (2003-04) and Bowling Green (2005-06).

The defensive coordinator position is still up in the air and who’s in charge of that hiring wasn’t clear a couple weeks ago but with Meyer’s statement of returning 2010, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s his role to hire him.  It doesn’t look like Addazio will have too much time to run the team as I’m sure Meyer will still be running the show this off season.

2010 Looking Bright for Florida

I know my previous entries may have made the future of the Florida Gators Football program look gloomy but things are shaking out really well right now.  First off, the trio of backs will remain at Florida: Chris Rainey, Jeff Demps and Emanuel Moody.  Think that’s good news?  Wait until you hear our commits!

The stars are out in Florida. This class has 19 commits, including a pair of five-star players and 10 four-star recruits. The Gators will boost their secondary with the addition of Under Armour All-Americans and five-star safeties Jonathan Dowling(Bradenton, Fla./Southeast) and Demar Dorsey (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Boyd Anderson) and four-star CBs Joshua Shaw (Palmdale, Calif./Palmdale) and Jaylen Watkins (Fort Meyers, Fla./Cape Coral). On offense, the Gators added running back Mack Brown (Lithonia, Ga./Martin Luther King), the No. 3 back in the nation; when all is said and done, he could be one of the best backs from this class. The Gators also added one of the nation’s top linemen, Under Armour All-American and four-star OT Ian Silberman (Orange Park, Fla./Fleming Island), who might be the most athletic offensive tackle in the 2010 class.

That’s right Matt Elam… we don’t need you, we picked up the top safeties available: Dowling and Dorsey.

On top of this we also snagged a top 20 recruit according to ESPN’s rankings and the #2 WR.  With Deonte Thompson, Andre Debose and now Chris Dunkley, it’s going to be tough for Brantley to overthrow anyone!  All recruits.  Most of the recruits made their verbal commitments  at the Under Armour All American game.

Did the Meyer Flip Flop seal the deal for these recruits?  They saw how much Meyer loved the team that he chose to come back because of the love for the school… did that do it?  Who knows, but I welcome them with open arms (besides you Elam).

Chandler Parsons 60 Foot Buzzer Beater

Just simply amazing:

Tim Tebow, Thanks for the Memories!

The Florida Gators for the past 4 years have been spoiled.  We’ve had a special quarterback behind us these 4 years making it special as well.  Thanks for the memories Tim Tebow!  Florida has by far had it’s best 4 years in school history.  In part this is from Urban Meyer but a lot has to do with Tim Tebow.  His performance led the Gators to a 51 – 24 victory.

One Night and One More Time, Thanks for the Memories, Thanks for the Memories.

Tim had a career best in his last collegiate game against Cincinnati going 31 – 35 for 482 yards and 3 touchdowns.  This ties the most times he’s passed the ball and surpassed his previous most yards in a game.  What a way to go out!  Tim Tebow is a great player on the field and even more of a man off the field.  There isn’t a way you can’t like him as a person unless you’re just a terrible person.  He does what he can for the community and just is a good spirited person and anyone who displays negativity should only direct to his football playing because he’s done more for the community and young kids than most of us will do in our lifetime.

Winning two national championships and a Heisman trophy while at Florida, he will go down as one of the best to ever play for the Gators and possibly college football.  I wish you the best of luck at the next level and hope to see you succeed in the NFL and prove the critics wrong.  As you said last night, you just want the chance to play and I think you’ve by far have shown you deserve the chance.  I mean you can’t be worse than Jamarcus Russell!

Matt Elam First to Leave UF

We briefly talked about the effects of Meyer stepping down or taking a leave of absence and now it’s coming to fruition… at least for Matt Elam.  His high school teammates are probably likely to follow his decision.

“I’m going to Florida State because I see a better opportunity for me and I want to be a difference maker,” Elam said on Thursday.

“It was all the factor,” Elam said when asked if Meyer’s decision factored into his decision.

What some rank as a 5 star safety and a top defensive recruit, this will have some effects on our recruiting as other recruits besides his teammates may follow suit and see better opportunities.

Is the era of the Florida Gators already over?  What if Cincinnati beats Florida?  If Florida loses to Cincinnati it could very well put Florida’s future in a downward spiral.

Urban Meyer Cancer?

I want to preface this blog by stating this is circumstantial (if not just hearsay) evidence pointing towards this conclusion.

With the flip flop of Urban Meyer resigning then just taking a leave of absence, a lot of questions have risen. The news of potential cancer comes from a friend who was at Shands on the morning that Meyer “check himself in” after the SEC Championship game.  He was with his wife at Shands for… yup you guessed it cancer.  Less than 5 doors down, Urban Meyer was on the same floor speaking with the cancer specialists as well.  It could have been precautionary and a just in case measure taken by the doctors.

Urban’s symptoms he’s been having were identical as he explained them to me as well as the doctor orders of no high stress involvement, limited work, etc.

Does this mean Urban definitely has cancer?  No.  Does it mean there’s more to the story than we’re getting from Urban and the University of Florida, definitely.  I’m sure time will weed out the truth and we’ll eventually get it.  My prayers go out to my friend and his wife with the road of recovery they will be on for the next several months/years.  The circumstances that surrounded this story do not clarify his health issues but may shed light on some other rumors and with blips of new information that come here and there, we may finally get the full truth.

If it truly is cancer that Urban is fighting, I wish him and his family the best and believe I can speak on behalf of the Gator Nation when I say: Stay strong!

Urban Meyer Press Conference

We will update with information from the 4:30 PM EST Press Conference that Urban Meyer is having.  Some of the key questions are what exactly is the health issue bringing this decision on?  What time frame will Meyer be sidelined?  Hopefully this and other questions are answered with the press conference.

Prior to the press conference they bring on Pat Dooley from the Gainesville Sun who compared this to the Billy Donovan situation. The change of decision according to Dooley changed when Meyer came back on the field after seeing all the players again.  In his opinion the chances of Addazio or some other coach taking the field on the 2010 opener is quite likely.

Urban Meyer clarified that he will coach against Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl.  After talking with staff, family and players he has made the decision to just do a leave of absence and take advantage of this option.  Steve Addazio will in fact be the interim head coach for Florida during this time.  His decision to do a leave of absence rather than just leaving was because his love for the players as well as the practice they had last night was one of the determining factors.

Urban will be calling all the shots in the Sugar Bowl.  It will be his show, not Steve’s. Jeremy Foley came on and said it’s only fair that Meyer has a shot to come back when he’s healthy as it’s the right thing to do.  But overall the repeated talking with the players and interacting with them in practice yesterday sealed the deal for him to return eventually as head coach at Florida.

The question we were all waiting for was finally asked regarding his health concerns.  Urban states that it has to due with the chest pains he had started having 4 years ago and gets worse with stress.  After his hospital trip after the Alabama for this issue, Doctors told him that he needed to fix this or it could lead to worse things.

Urban was asked about talking with Billy Donovan as this similar circumstance happened with him to see if he had talked with Billy.  Urban hadn’t talked to Billy about this but can understand why the decision to not go was made.

Urban’s role wasn’t cleared up in the press conference but Meyer stated he wouldn’t just lay around so the exact responsibilities weren’t laid out.  The hiring of the new defensive coordinator is still up in the air on who will handle this.

Our man Tim Tebow was asked how it was for him and he responded with the typical answer that it was rough and a “whirlwind” for him.  He mentioned that he knew something wasn’t right and respects the decision that the coach makes.  Ryan Stamper was behind Tim Tebow basically repeating what Tim Tebow said.

Urban was asked if he would coach 2010 and he responded with that in his gut feeling he feels he will be back as coach but there is no exact time table laid out.  Their focus is on the bowl game now and they will clarify the roles of everyone as time goes on.

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