SB Nation - Florida Gators

Alligator Army All-Decade Team: Offensive Tackles

mlmintampa — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:00:19 -0000

We kick off the Alligator Army All-Decade Team with the men assigned to protect Rex Grossman, Chris Leak and Tim Tebow. Today, you can vote for the best offensive tackles, guards and center of the last 10 years. We will also have the nominees for the offensive positions later this week. Starting Friday will be the defense, with the All-Decade Team presentation concluding next week. We are only taking into consideration performance at Florida and from 2000-2009. Now, the nominees for Alligator Army All-Decade Offensive Tackles (vote for two);

Kenyatta Walker (1998-2000): 2000 Second Team All-American, 2000 First Team AP and Coaches All-SEC, 2000 Jacobs Award for best blocker in the SEC.

Mike Pearson (1998-2001): 2000 First Team Coaches All-SEC, 2001 First Team All-American, 2001 First Team AP and Coaches All-SEC

Max Starks (2000-2003): 2003 First Team Coaches All-SEC. Had the misfortune of playing in two of the worst losses of the decade; 2001 against Tennessee (as right tackle for Grossman) and 2003 against FSU (as left tackle for Leak).

Phil Trautwein (2004-2008): 2008 First Team AP and Coaches All-SEC. Starting left tackle for the 2006 and 2008 National Championship Games.

Jason Watkins (2004-2008): Started at left tackle in 2007 following Trautwein's injury and moved to right tackle for the 2008 season. Started 27 consecutive games, 2007-08.

If I Were King: 2008

utesfan100 — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:33:04 -0000

This week I transform from looking at what my design would look like for this year and will walk backwards one year per week, until the dawn of the BCS era.

Qualifying teams:

Top group: Oklahoma, Florida, Texas
Undefeated: Utah, Boise State
Total Teams: 5

Tournament:

On Decemeber 19th or 20th Utah would have hosted Boise State for the opportunity to play Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Florida and Texas would have played in a neutral site wild card game near New Year's Day. The winners of the Fiesta Bowl and wild card game would play in the National Championship Game.

Possible BCS Bowls

Rose Bowl: USC vs. Penn State
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs. Ohio State
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati

Teams in bold would have been tied to that berth, italics indicate a BCS berth would have been guaranteed. TCU and Georgia Tech also would have been eligible.

What actually happened and a tier based plus one next.

What actually happened

BCS Games

BCS Championship Game: #2 Florida 24 - #1 Oklahoma 14
Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas 24 - #10 Ohio St. 21
Sugar Bowl: #6 Utah 31 - #4 Alabama 17
Rose Bowl: #5 USC 38 - #8 Penn State 24
Orange Bowl: #19 Virginia Tech 20 - #12 Cincinnati 7

BCS Controversy

Texas an Florida were in a dead heat for the #2 spot but most people felt that Florida belonged and that Texas' dispute belonged with Oklahoma. A three way tiebreaker in the Big 12 South that fell to the BCS standings in the second to last poll generated far more controversy than the selection of Florida over Texas.

Utah and Boise State finished as the only two undefeated teams at the end of the regular season and were not invited to the championship game. Boise State was largely forgotten about after they lost to TCU 17-16 in the Poinsettia Bowl but Utah earned 25% of the AP poll's first place votes with a stunning upset of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. This left Utah as the only undefeated team in the nation.

The Fiesta Bowl also selected two loss Ohio State over Boise State for an at large berth despite Boise State's better record and higher ranking in the final BCS standings.

Both designs presented here reduced the strength of all controversies in 2008.

A Tier Based Plus-One

Oklahoma would have played Boise State and Florida would have played Utah in the semifinal games. USC and Virginia Tech would have been selected for direct BCS participation in the Rose and Orange Bowl respectively.

Penn State and Cincinnati would have been guaranteed a spot in the first round games.

Texas, Texas Tech, Alabama, Ohio State, TCU, BYU, Ball State and Tulsa would have been eligible for the six remaining first round game spots.

[Editor's Note: I am in the process of updating my data to use 9 wins over FBS teams for eligibility. This eligibility list reflects the original criteria of 10-2 or better. Once the data has been updated this post will be updated and this line removed]

Possible first round games:

Mid-West: TCU vs. Ohio State
North: Penn State vs. Cincinnati
South: Alabama vs. Texas
West: Texas Tech vs. BYU

The winners would advance to a BCS bowl. The losers would advance to a lower bowl opting to leave a spot open for them in the first round of bowl selections.

Ball St. and Tulsa would have remained eligible for two bowls.

Poll

What would you rather have seen in 2008?

3rd Annual Alligator Army College Bowl Pick'em

mlmintampa — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:24:48 -0000

Awwwww, hell yeah boyeeeee! It's the 3rd Annual Alligator Army College Bowl Pick'em! Wooooo! Once again, we will have prizes for our first and second place finishers. To sign up to play, go to Yahoo College Bowl Pick'em join a private group, and enter group ID: 18183 and password: army . As was the case with last year's bowl pick'em, points are determined by confidence points attached to each pick. It does not matter if every one picks Florida in the Sugar Bowl; it does matter how confident you are in the Gators winning.

First price for the bowl pick'em is contributed by Turner Publishing's Historic Photos of University of Florida Football.

Second prize is a Florida Gators car magnet contributed by Armagnets. This was the first prize of our Tournament Pick'em in March, but we know the person who won the magnet last time, and she wouldn't mind a new one.

Note: Tournament pick'em winner not pictured. Just a chick and the magnet.

You have this week to sign up as bowl games begin Saturday with the Beef O'Brady's Bowl (the winning coach will get dumped with Blue Cheese) and the New Mexico Bowl (which should be the UFO Bowl or Enchantment Bowl). As always, thanks to the companies who have contributed prizes and to everyone who plays.

3rd Annual Rock M Nation Bowl Pick 'Em Contest

The Beef — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:00:18 -0000

UPDATE: BUMPED BACK TO THE TOP OF THE PAGE.

That's right loyal readers...the Bowl Pick 'Em Contest is back for its third season.

It is simple to participate. Simply reply to this thread with your picks. You will need to pick both against the spread, as well as the over/under, so you will have two picks per game. The spreads are LOCKED, so a movement in the line will not be taken into account. The spreads are courtesy of bookmaker.com because...well...that's the one I could find (and unless otherwise noted) They also represent where the lines were when they opened, which was a week ago (had to wait for Army/Navy to be played to determine Eagle Bowl and Texas Bowl line)

Our winner from last year is FSUncensored, who went 39-27 to win by three games over The Cool Alonzo and myself. All time, MU 1839 (our first winner) holds the best two-year record at 18 games over .500 (74-56). Of the "couples" category, The Beef and Tailgate Queen came out 3 game ahead of Bill C and Bill C's wife last year, tying their annual battle at 1-1. Overall, the contest generated a won-loss record of 1066-1244 for a not so good percentage of .461. Over the two years, we currently sit at 1711-1879 for a winning percentage of .477. Yes...I've kept track.

Picks are due by noon on Saturday, December 19th (since the first games are later that evening). Picks are lined up after the jump.

As for prizes...1st prize will get you the Rock M Nation T-shirt of your choice, unless RPT (who somehow is the keeper of the purse strings around here) decides we want to pony up some additional swag.

Anyway, we had a good time with this last year with 35 participants (up from 20 the first year) and somehow I am thinking we are going to have a FEW more than that :-) Come one, come all (and that certainly includes non-Rock M regulars...anyone from SB Nation is welcome to participate)...make me work hard at this. If you were here last season and have changed names, just let me know and I will do my best to give you your two or three-season score when all is said and done as well.

New Mexico

Fresno State -10 1/2 vs. Wyoming

Over/Under - 55 1/2

St. Petersburg

Rutgers -2 vs. UCF

Over/Under - 44 1/2

New Orleans

Sothern Miss -3 1/2 vs. Mid Tenn St.

Over/Under - 59

Las Vegas

Oregon State - 1 1/2 vs. BYU

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Poinsetta

Cal -3 vs. Utah

Over/Under - 53 1/2

Hawaii

Nevada -14 vs. SMU

Over/Under - 73 1/2

Little Caesers

Ohio -2 vs. Marshall

Over/Under - 50

Meineke

Pitt -3 vs. UNC

Over/Under - 44 1/2

Emerald

USC -9 vs. BC

Over/Under - 45 1/2

Music City

Clemson -7 vs. Kentucky

Over/Under - 52 1/2

Independence

Georgia -7 vs. Texas A&M

Over/Under - 64

Eagle Bank (LSVC odds)

UCLA -4 vs. Temple

Over/Under - 46 1/2

Champs Sports

Miami (FL) -3 vs. Wisconsin

Over/Under - 56

Humanitarian

Bowling Green PK vs. Idaho

Over/Under - 68 1/2

Holiday

Arizona -1 vs. Nebraska

Over/Under - 41

Armed Forces

Houston -5 vs. Air Force

Over/Under - 61

Sun

Oklahoma -9 1/2 vs. Stanford

Over/Under - 56 1/2

Texas (LVSC odds)

Mizzou -6 vs. Navy

Over/Under - 54

Insight

Minnesota -3 vs. Iowa State

Over/Under - 48

Chick-Fil-A

Va Tech -4 1/2 vs. Tenn

Over/Under - 50 1/2

Outback

Auburn -8 vs. Northwestern

Over/Under - 54 1/2

Gator

West Virginia -2 1/2 vs. Florida St.

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Capital One

Penn State -3 vs. LSU

Over/Under - 44

Rose

Oregon -3 1/2 vs. Ohio State

Over/Under - 51 1/2

Sugar

Florida -10 vs. Cincy

Over/Under - 55 1/2

International

South Fla. -6 1/2 vs. No. Illinois

Over/Under - 50

PapaJohns

South Carolina -4 1/2 vs. UCONN

Over/Under - 53

Cotton

Ole Miss -3 vs. Okie State

Over/Under -  50 1/2

Liberty

Arkansas -7 1/2 vs. East Carolina

Over/Under - 63 1/2

Alamo

Texas Tech -7 vs. Michigan St.

Over/Under - 60 1/2

Fiesta

TCU -7 vs. Boise St

Over/Under - 54

Orange

Ga Tech -4 vs. Iowa

Over/Under - 51

GMAC

Central Mich -4 vs. Troy

Over/Under - 64

BCS Champ

Alabama -5 1/2 vs. Texas

Over/Under - 45

Gators Replace Gonzales And Speak To Ole Miss D-Coordinator

mlmintampa — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:30:43 -0000

First, the confirmation of Billy Gonzales replacement from Jeremy Fowler;

Florida coach Urban Meyer announced he's scooping up Central Michigan's Zach Azzanni to replace Gonzales.

"Zach and I worked together when I was the head coach at Bowling Green," Meyer said in a UF release. "He is a tireless worker, relentless recruiter and a great teacher of fundamentals. He is also very familiar with our philosophy and will be a good fit with our players and staff."

ESPN's Chris Low has more on Meyer speaking to Ole Miss' D-coordinator. Wait for the Yankees-Red Sox element;

It looks like Urban Meyer's top choice to replace Charlie Strong as defensive coordinator is Ole Miss defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix, who's already met with Meyer about the job. Nix has done an excellent job with the Rebels' defense the past two seasons and could also be in the mix at Georgia.

That Nix is also being looked at by Georgia makes him the Roy Halladay of the SEC. Of course, price is never an issue for the Gators or Bulldogs, so the man is going to get paid. However, the current thinking that Charlie Strong will not bring any assistants to Louisville gets blown up if Nix is hired. Florida has very good position coaches in d-line coach Dan McCarney (who was d-coordinator at USF), assistant d-coordinator and safeties coach Chuck Heater, and corners coach Vance Bedford. If one of those guys think they should be the new d-coordinator, of if a new guy wants his own staff, heads will roll either voluntarily or not.

Dennis Pitta Does Not Win the Mackey Award for Best Tight End

Jeremy Mauss — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:54:18 -0000

More photos » by George Frey - AP

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Even though Denis Pitta was the nation's leader in all but two major statistically categories -receptions and touchdowns. However, the winner of the Mackey Award went to Aaron Hernandez out of Florida who was behind Pitta in all numbers except for catches which was only a difference of two.

2009	Receptions	Yards	Average	LNG	TD
Dennis Pitta	57	784	13.8	35	7
Aaron Hernandez	59	739	12.5	64	4
Dorin Dickerson	45	508	11.3	53	10

To me it is obvious that the reason Florida's Aaron Hernandez won is because well first off he plays for a marquee name in Florida and is on either CBS or ESPN every week. While Dennis Pitta plays for a known name in BYU, but nowhere near the caliber of Florida. Then his games are on the albatross television deal known as Versus which is not on DirecTv at the moment, CBS College is on an upper tier package, and The Mtn. which unless you live in the foot print or have the sports pack on DirecTv good luck getting that game.

The advantages again go to the BCS schools and the SEC, because they are most visible then the lowly Mountain West Conference who have a bad television deal. At least Pitta came away with being the tight end selection on the Walter Camp All American first team.

Bearcats Betrayed

GrantC — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:27:02 -0000

Although anyone with at least one wobbly glass eye could have seen this coming from a mile away, Univ of Cincinnati football head coach Brian Kelly has left the upstart program he created for greener pastures (or at least a lot of green) in South Bend. Kelly had a brief, albeit wildly successful, run in the Natti where he helped take a team that was mediocre in a non-BCS conference and turn them into a near national title contender.

But his team is P-O'd.

And not the, "Oh well we understand the opportunity" kind of semi-bothered - I mean there were definitely some serious "M-Fer" bombs dropped behind closed doors. Heck in front of the media they even claimed he had nothing to do with their success and that they were going to win in the bowl game literally in spite of him. YIKES - doesnt look like they'll be honoring him with a plaque on a bench in the locker room anytime soon.

From this angle he looks a lot like Charlie Weiss...

Having been at Miami when we finished the 2000 season in 2nd place and knew we were on the verge of getting back to the title game, only to see Butch Davis flee for the NFL just before signing day, I know the feeling all too well (side note: I happened to be in the UM quad selling ESPN magazine subscriptions for charity that day, so I guess that made me the sports expert that the local news wanted to interview on the subject - so I provided a high quality, lengthy answer questioning his decision and the only clip that made the evening news was me saying 'Cleveland?!?! - UGH!'... so I know how Charlie feels on that whole taken out of context thing). And I don't mind the players wanting to win out of spite and feeling like they were the reason they won - and if those guys are as good as that 2000 Canes team then they'll go out next year and win a national championship while some bozo offensive coordinator roams the sidelines pretending to coach (ahem, Larry Coker) - unfortunately for all of the Bearcat football fans (or should i say "both of them"), I dont think this team is quite as deep as The U and may be en route to a serious beat down at the hands of Urban & Timmy, who surely want to end their romance on a high note in the Sugar Bowl, and probably a quick fade back into college football oblivion. So while just starting to come out of our own dark era since the departure of Butch (and his players), it pains me to tell the UC fans that Kelly probably was the reason that they were any good and that while he seems like an A*hole, you'll be wishing you had him back in no time... Hey, at least the basketball team is back to looking like they belong in the Top 25 - onward to March Madness!

Poll

How do like the Bearcats chances against the Gators?

Coming Attractions; Alligator Army All-Decade Awards

mlmintampa — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:00:50 -0000

Monday, we will kick off our Alligator Army College Bowl Pick'em. Starting next week, we will also have our All-Decade Awards. You'll be able to pick an All-Decade Team in football (not basketball, because if you pick something other than Noah, Horford, Brewer, Humphrey, Green, you're an asshole). But you can select Best Basketball Player, Best Non-Major Sport Athlete, Football Game of The Decade, Basketball Game of The Decade and Gator of The Decade. If we had money, we'd send the winners a cool t-shirt, but we have no money.

We'll also get more into the Sugar Bowl and what a headless Cincinnati means for the Gators. We'll look at the Gators rebuilding for 2010, hopefully without someone accusing us of being a Miami fan because God forbid someone predicts UF might finish 8-5 or 9-4. Maybe we'll have an exit interview with Evil Tebow too, or at least ask him what he thinks about Good Tebow taking a brain cancer patient to the ESPNU College Football Awards Show.

Talking Auburn Football and Other Stuff

Jay Coulter — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:00:14 -0000

More photos » by Todd J. Van Emst - AP

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It was good to see former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville's name mentioned in connection with the Notre Dame job. On Wednesday the South Bend Tribune reported that his name had come up in discussions. Nobody really expected Tuberville to get the job, but being considered should help him with other programs...

If the non-conference results are any indication, Auburn basketball is in for a struggle this year. Phillip Marshall of Auburn Undercover noted yesterday that only three Auburn coaches have ever had back-to-back winning conference records since 1963. With the new arena set to open next season, Auburn officials will have a tough decision to make on Jeff Lebo should things go south this year. To complicate matters, it appears that Auburn and North Carolina have reached an agreement for the two schools to meet in the first game at the new arena. Lebo was the driving force in making it happen...

As War Eagle Atlanta noted on Wednesday, the Tennessee football program is in big trouble for allowing recruiting hostesses to drive as much as four hours to watch high school games that Volunteer recruits were playing in. Auburn recruit Marcus Lattimore, the talented five-star running back from Duncan, South Carolina got some ink in a New York Times story on the subject. When asked whether these girls being at his games had an influence he said, "You don't want to go to a college where they ain't pretty." No argument here...

What recession? Auburn officials promised the Outback Bowl they would bring the fans and on Thursday they delivered. In less than four days, Auburn sold its allotment of bowl tickets and have requested more. With tickets going for $70 each plus hotel, gas and food, it's apparent that Auburn people are coping just fine with this economic downturn...

This season was a frustrating one for former Auburn Heisman Trophy winner and current Samford coach Pat Sullivan. The Bulldogs struggled to a 5-6 record...

The move by Tennessee running backs coach Eddie Gran to Florida State is an interesting one. The former Auburn assistant spent one year in Knoxville before bolting to join Jimbo Fisher's staff in Tallahassee. The question is, what made him leave Lane Kiffin's after only a year? Was it the pending NCAA investigation or having to endure the immaturity of Kiffin and his unusual staff? We'll probably never know...

What's the over/under on how many years Mark Richt has left at Georgia? Next season is his best shot at getting off the hot seat. With Urban Meyer rebuilding at Florida and Kiffin struggling internally, but still recruiting strongly, Richt needs to beat both schools in 2010 or he's likely out sooner than later...

Auburn officials need to begin making serious plans for increasing the capacity of Jordan-Hare Stadium. It's been 22 years since any sizable addition. Enclosing the north end-zone and adding skyboxes is a necessity if Auburn is going to keep up with the other top programs in the SEC...

Not since Bo Jackson edged Iowa's Chuck Long for the Heisman Trophy in 1985 has a race come down to the wire like this year's award. It's still unclear who'll join sports most exclusive fraternity tomorrow night in New York. It will likely come down to how many voters held their ballots until after the conference championship games last weekend. If the majority of votes were cast prior to last Saturday, look for Texas quarterback Colt McCoy to take the prize. If voters waited until Sunday, you have to give the edge to Alabama's Mark Ingram. The wild card in all of this is Stanford's Toby Gerhart. There seemed to be a groundswell of support for him in the final weeks of the season. Being the only viable candidate west of Texas, it will be interesting to see how he figures into the balloting...

Have a great weekend and don't forget the last regular season football game tomorrow with Army taking on Navy. These days it rarely means anything to the college football standings, but it still means a lot to the country. War Eagle!

Billy Gonzales Going To LSU

mlmintampa — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:00:40 -0000

Just when you thought the Gators had survived Charlie Strong going to Louisville without any UF assistants, the Orlando Sentinel reports that receivers coach Billy Gonzales is going to LSU.

Gonzales' wife, Julie, said nothing is finalized because the change is happening fast, but Gonzales is in talks to become the "pass-game coordinator" while also coaching wide receivers. LSU's offensive coordinator is Gary Crowton...Gonzales told the Sentinel earlier in the week that he didn't have immediate plans to leave the Gators.

Most of the message board rumors had Gonzales to Louisville and Meyer looking outside the program for a new defensive coordinator. Now it appears that Meyer needs a new receivers coach and fix whatever offensive staff issues there may be. Educated fans know that Gonzales was a part of the three-headed monster calling plays with Steve Addazio and Urban Meyer. Perhaps there were behind the scenes workings that led to Gonzales to cut ties with a head coach he has worked with at Bowling Green and Utah.

Who are the All-Decade offensive tackles? (select 2)
	Kenyatta Walker
	Mike Pearson
	Max Starks
	Phil Trautwein
	Jason Watkins

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