Gators capture SEC Title on the Road!
Posted by UFreak in 
The 39th and 40th victories of the season, and the ones that secured the SEC Title, came tUFf at USCe IN Prime Time and in front of 8,188 and 8,240 screamin’ Gamecock fans! That’s getting it done! The Pittsburgh Pirates count gate receipts like that as a good day!
UFlorida and USCe were all tied up heading into the Thursday-Saturday 3-game series,….UF sitting at #4 in the country, and USCe ranked #6….Aside from both being top tem teams, each was sitting at 20-7 in the SEC, with an SEC Championship and #1 Seed in the Tourney hangin’ in the balance.
Two games into the set though, and its ALL over. Florida took the first two games (3-2 and 5-2), and will enjoy the spoils: The SEC Title, #1 Seed in the SEC Tourney, and (almost assuredly) Host in the Super Regional and Regionals. USCe and Auburn will finish in the top 3, with few teams in the country playing a well as Auburn of late!
UKentucky, with a win yesterday would have hooked THEIR wagon (once again) into the Tourney but have been denied 2 straight times against Jawja!…..JAWJA!….who had just 3 SEC victories ALL year entering this series!!!, Yeah!,..THEY beat UK 8-6 on Thursday and 20-0 UFriday night!…This follows a weekend sweep by the ‘Kats over Reigning Champ LoSerU, that had them back in the hunt! That’s got to sting a little….Too bad John Wall can’t play baseball too?!?!
UCats to be offensive again?…
Well, last year they were suppose to struggle!…Instead, they blew away the league competition and earned their beloved (and somewhat Fat-Guy) Coach a FATASS gig with the Gold Domers in South Bend! (Yeah!,..BOOO!) In short, they were fantastic on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively?…well, they were Big(L)East good, but against that often hated and disputed SEC speed?…Not so good!
BUT HEY!…The offense is entertaining, right?….and it should be once again; at least potentially! Led by (you’d think at this point anyway) Zach Collaros who was brilliant in support of Tony Pike at QB, and what could be just a SICK stable of wr’s. This team SHOULD explode for points! Collaros brings the TEBOW-element to the ‘Cats offense, an “option” not found there last year. He will mix that in with a HEAVILY talented “wr” corp led by (you’d hope) Vidal Hazelton(5*) and Kenbrell Thompkins(4*). Two wr’s who flirted with the idea of becoming Gators (among others) during their recruiting process. Hazelton was Scout’s #3 rated (overall) player, and rivals’ #7 back in 2006. Yes, that magical year produced some incredible talent; Tim Tebow (#21/#22) and “Oh Mercy”!…”it’s Percy!” (#13/#1) who went on to become the NFL Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler!..The 2006 class also included; Andre Smith, Bean’er Wells, Gerald McCoy, Sergio Kindle, Matt Stafford, CJ Spiller, Myron Rolle, Brandon Spikes, Taylor Mays, Micah Johnson (UK), and Knowshon Moreno, among others! What a great freakin’ class! Vidal was right there in the middle of it, in fact he was the center-piece of the USC class that year! HE was THEIR Percy Harvin!….only,..well…you know.
Mr Hazelton was a gifted athlete who did it all. He BLOCKED (so he’s not a Chud DUD), he ran great routes and he had great hands. His only concern was a slight dip in top end speed…..Enter Kenbrell Thompkins! This kid will cover the speed part of the equation pretty well. 4.4 speed, great size (6’3″) and he too was coveted by ALL the big boys a couple years ago. Before UC recently landed him, LoSerU was all over his jock! Grades derailed his initial attempt at DIV I, but he’s done his JUCO time and is IN CLASS now at UC (and participating in Spring Work). Now, toss in the returning WR’s who were running along side Mardy Gilyard last year, (DJ Woods and Armon Binns) and WOW!, you see MANY-MANY TD’s in their future! –RB Isaiah Pead, and TE’s Travis Kelce and Ben-Ben Guidugli will round out the “skill” postion pretty nicely! The O-Line (as it is with most teams) will need to hold up their end, but they were mostly no-names last year too!
Sure, it was a beat down in the Sugar Bowl, but every team has taken at least one of those on the way to the top. Hey, those same Gators got “FRAZIER’ED” in the 1995 Natty Title game before they rebounded and won it all the following year! (Tommie Frazier, Lawrence Phillips AND Ahman Green in the same backfield?…) Maybe that’s a little ambitious considering the ‘Cats blow on defense, but hey,…we’ve seen good things happen here before, right?!!??! -AND!,…AND, UC doesn’t have Mikey Brown in charge!…heh?…heh??….yes, 2010 will be a FINE year (again) for the UCats!
NSD, and you know it!
National Signing Day!…the day silly ass College Football junkies (like myself) are glued to their favorite sites waiting for 17 – 18 year old kids to commit their College choices! For the Florida Gators, the class is pretty much complete; and all before 11am! This is the earliest I can recall this being “over”!…Well, there is a highly regarded OL Chaz Green who they still hope to get, but the rest are Signed sealed and ALL GATORS!. Check out that link, and dot the lines on what will be an amazing Defensive Line.
5* DE Ronald Powell (#1 overall recruit, per Rivals)
5* DT Sharrif Floyd (#4 overall recruit, per Rivals)
5* DT Dominique Easley (#7 overall recruit, per Rivals)
4* DE Lynden Trail (#123 overall recruit, per Rivals)
Add Safety Matt Elam (5*, overall #25 player, per Rivals) and Cornerback Joshua Shaw (4* overall #28 player, per Rivals) and the Defense might be kinda strong!…AGAIN!
Collectively, 10 of the Rival Top 100 are signed in as Gators…well, Travon Van isn’t “in” yet, but should be (HE’S SIGNED NOW!) (He’s not in the top 100 though). If Chaz Green (#43 overall, per Rival / OL) avoids the UTenn temptations, he could make 11 of the top 100 that are Gators (& 5 of the top 28 !). Not bad for a Coach who nearly had to quit due to health problems, in the middle of recruiting! Just added Adrian Coxson, 6’2″ wr from Maryland. 27 loi’s, one spot left….for Mr Green!?!?!?!
OSU is humming right around the #26 mark, though when OL Seantrell Henderson (#2 overall recruit, per Rivals) commits, that will shoot them back in the top 20 easy! They really didn’t have a whole lot of need this year. Young team, pretty much already set for 2010. Still, got a good class.
UC hasn’t cashed in, they are listed at #56…B-Kelly left no favors when he parted. They’ve lost a few of the touted recruits they had. By late afternoon they could fall into the 60′s in class rank.
The SEC is, once again, taking the bulk of the talent, by conference. Seven of the top 19 ranked classes are from the SEC. (Florida, Auburn, Alabama, LoSerU, Tennessee, Jawja, and Ole Miss ; SoCarolina fell to #26) Making it once again, the top conference in recruiting. Somehow people STILL doubt they are the best!…As if 4 National Titles in a row, and 5 out of the last 6 didn’t nail it down for them….???