Gator Country

Florida junior defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd was tied for second on the team with three sacks this season. / Gator Country photo by Curtiss Bryant

English physicist Sir Issac Newton outlined in Principia Mathematica three basic principles of motion. It is not often that I can compare the football and Newton, but one of those laws plays perfectly into a situation the Florida Gators presently find themselves. Netwon’s third law of motion states, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Comparatively, when a college football team does well, it will often lose its best players to the NFL Draft.

For example, the Gators went 7-6 in 2011 and had zero players enter the draft early. The 2011 Gators lacked upperclassmen leadership on both sides of the ball and poor recruiting, evaluation and development by Urban Meyer left Will Muschamp with an empty stable of talent.

Fast forward to 2012, the Gators went 11-2 and earned their first BCS bowl berth in three years. With that, Florida is losing four juniors to the NFL Draft, including its leading receiver and its two best defensive players.

As the offseason begins and fans start looking toward 2013, the Gators need to focus on how to fill the role of their lost juniors.

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