Gator Country

Who will succeed Trey Burton as one of the Class of 2011's Pied Pipers? / Gator Country file photo by Tim Casey

Good morning, Gator Nation: Florida’s baseball and softball teams came up with a pair of victories Saturday that kept their momentum going heading to the postseason.

The Gators’ fifth-ranked softball team was in Mississippi Saturday where the weather was ominous. Nevertheless, Tim Walton’s team scored a pair of five-inning victories, 8-0 and 9-1, to solidify its position at the top of the SEC Eastern Division at 17-4 (37-7 overall).

http://www.gatorcountry.com/other_sports/article/gators_make_short_work_of_msu/9027

Meanwhile, the sixth-ranked baseball team got a strong pitching performance from freshman Hudson Randall on its way to a 7-1 victory over defending NCAA champion Louisiana State. Then coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s Gators (30-11, 14-6 SEC East) finished off Friday’s suspended game, 8-5, to move within a game of South Carolina, which fell 6-4 at the hands of Alabama.

http://www.gatorcountry.com/baseball/article/randall_hurls_florida_past_lsu_7_3/9026

1. THE PIED PIPERS OF THE CLASS OF 2010: Freshmen Trey Burton and Ian Silberman finally have a semester and one spring practice under their belts, but it seems like they’ve been around the program as long as some of the upperclassmen. That’s because Burton, a quarterback from Venice, and Silberman, an offensive lineman from Orange Park, gave Urban Meyer and his staff verbal commitments in July of 2008. Enough can’t be said about the job they did in helping convince other recruits to commit to Florida. But perhaps their biggest achievement was keeping the class together during those uncertain days when Meyer’s coaching future was in doubt. Burton and Silberman (and others) called and text-messaged their future classmates to keep other schools from taking advantage of the situation. Having good recruiters on your coaching staff is important, but the top programs succeed because they have players and recruits who can sell the program to others.

2. SO WHO WILL BE THE PIED PIPERS FOR 2011? At this time a year ago, Florida already had verbal commitments from 10 players – Silberman, Burton, Matt Elam, Jonathan Dowling, Michael McFarland, Leon Orr, Gideon Ajagbe, Jaylen Watkins, Jordan Haden and Gerald Christian. Right now, Florida has just four: cornerback De’Ante Saunders of DeLand (who committed in October 2009), athlete A.C. Leonard of Interlachen (November 2009), defensive end Jeoffrey Pagan of Asheville, N.C. (April 2010) and quarterback Jeff Driskel over Hagerty H.S. in Oviedo. It would be only natural to assume that the 6-4, 224-pound Driskel will step forward and be one of the leaders in recruiting the 2011 class as well. I can’t think of any team that has won a national championship that hasn’t had great leadership at the quarterback position.

3. IT’S WHY THEY ARE CALLED STUDENT-ATHLETES: This weekend, 52 current and former Florida student-athletes are participating in commencement ceremonies on campus. Among them are eight football players: Rick Burgess, John Fairbanks, Corey Hobbs, Brandon James, Wondy Pierre-Louis, Joey Sorrentino, Bryan Thomas and Mike Williamson. Another 11 football players received their degrees in December commencements: Markihe Anderson, Simon Codrington, Jermaine Cunningham, Cade Holliday, Mike Nattiel, David Nelson, Chris Scott, Ryan Stamper, Tim Tebow, Christopher Coleman and Levi Leigh. That speaks well of the program, don’t you think?

4. SPRING PRACTICE BEGINS: High school football programs in Florida are allowed 20 practices during the month of May, one of which can be either a spring game or jamboree. It’s also a chance for Florida’s coaching staff to fan out around the state and to touch base with coaches and evaluate players. The NCAA passed a rule on Thursday that allows only two coaches to visit a high school on the same day. The rule essentially prohibits college programs from sending multiple coaches to schools to evaluate players. For the past two years, Auburn has used limousines to ferry its coaches to high school practices in a practice that became known as “Tiger Prowl.” Some believe the practice was done more to make a splash rather than to evaluate. Kind of like when Lane Kiffin helicoptered in to watch Mack Brown, a Florida recruit, play last fall. “Many institutions are unnecessarily expending resources in order to have multiple assistant coaches attend these evaluations as a result of the perceived recruiting benefit,” the NCAA said. “By permitting only two football coaches per institution to visit a prospective student-athlete’s school on any given evaluation day, it would preclude institutions from sending a large number of assistant coaches to a school just for perception purposes.”

5. WHO? RAYS! Despite losses in its last two games, Tampa Bay maintains a 1½ -game lead over the New York Yankees in the AL East. The Rays’ bats were silent for the second straight night as Kansas City scored a 4-2 victory in extra innings. Tampa Bay and New York have the best starting rotations in the division, and the Rays look like they have enough good arms in the bullpen to be a factor again. Plus I think this team is deeper and more talented than the one which lost to the Phillies in the 2008 World Series. It would not surprise me to see Tampa Bay win it all in 2010.

6. NEW TAMPA BAY STADIUM? The Rays’ ownership, of course, would like either Tampa or St. Petersburg to come forward and build a new stadium with a retractable roof, like the one Miami is currently building for the Marlins on the old Orange Bowl grounds. I’ve always believed that Major League Baseball should follow the National Football League’s lead and help pay a fair share of the new stadiums that are built.

7. TIGER MISSES THE CUT: I never thought I’d say this but Tiger Woods sure didn’t look like he wanted to be at the Quail Hollow. In a related story, Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik, who along with his wife introduced their then nanny Elin Nordegren to her future husband Woods, says that Woods is no longer welcome at his Orlando home after all the revelations of his marital infidelities. As for meeting Woods during a tournament, Parnevik said he’s not looking forward to that meeting. “But I won’t hit him with a golf club,” he said.

8. FUNNY SCENE: From Woody Allen’s “Take the Money and Run.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8g24ml5cPc

9. TWO GREATS: Florida’s own Red Barber speaking about Jackie Robinson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJNNH2Rizt8

10. A REPLAY: Ah, football.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A_X1DYvl9k&feature=related

Later Gators

John Fineran

More Football | RSS