Good morning, Gator Nation: A short and sweet edition of the Thoughts of the Day as I attempt to get done before the sun rises over Sabal Trace.
1. REST IN PEACE: The prayers of Gator Nation go out today for Jarvis Williams, a hard-hitting All-American defensive back for Galen Hall’s Gators and member of the Florida Athletic Hall of Fame. Williams, who turned 45 just 10 days ago, died suddenly Tuesday just before midnight in his hometown of Palatka from an acute asthma attack, according to the Putnam County Medical Examiner’s office. Said Norm Carlson, Florida’s athletic historian and long-time SID, “He came to play every day in practice and on Saturday. He was a team player, a quiet leader who led by example.” Williams, who twice was an All-SEC first-teamer and an All-American his senior year, had 10 interceptions and 239 tackles during his college career. He played for the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants, and he had been recently the defensive coordinator at Interlachen High School. His son, Jarvis Jr., is a fullback at Jacksonville University, where he plays for Williams’ former Florida teammate Kerwin Bell. “He was a guy who loved being from Palatka,” Bell told the Florida Times-Union’s Mike DiRocco. “If he wasn’t playing football, you’d find him in Palatka. He’s just one of those guys who loved his hometown.” Palatka and Gator Nation felt the same way about Jarvis Williams.
2. GATORS TO PLAY UCF – IN BASKETBALL: Billy Donovan will get his chance to coach at the new Amway Center in Orlando. No, Billy isn’t going to coach the Orlando Magic (who beat Boston in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals to close Boston’s lead to 3-2 in the best-of-7 series). Donovan’s Gators will play UCF and face his former assistant Donnie Jones, the new head coach for the Knights. The game is scheduled for Dec. 1 in Orlando. Jones was an assistant on Florida’s national championship teams in 2006 and 2007, after which Donovan accepted an offer to coach the Magic. But Billy D. changed his mind as soon as he returned to Gainesville and you know the rest of the story.
3. COLLEGE HALL ANNOUNCES CLASS: The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2010 this morning in New York, and believe it or not, there isn’t one Florida Gator on the ballot that listed 7 coaches and 77 players. Not one. But Lawrence Taylor of North Carolina is. It will be interesting to see how the Hall of Fame handles Taylor’s situation in light of his recent legal problems. Brothers Randall Cunningham and Sam Cunningham are on the ballot – Randall as a punter at UNLV from 1982-84 and Sam as the battering-ram fullback at Southern California from 1970-72. It was said that Sam Cunningham’s performance in USC’s 42-21 victory over Alabama did more to integrate college football in the South than Martin Luther King could accomplish in 16 years. Hoping my old college classmate, Dave Casper, the captain of Notre Dame’s 1973 national champions, gets the nod. Casper was one smart cookie and he loved the outdoors. He and a few teammates went fishing in Lake Michigan once and Casper caught a fish with his bare hands. He also caught more than a few touchdown passes from Kenny “The Snake” Stabler with the Oakland Raiders.
4. BAD SEEDS: If you’re an SEC baseball fan, you’re scratching your head this morning after the top four seeds in the tournament at Hoover, Ala., all lost their first games Wednesday. The big shocker, of course, was No. 8 Louisiana State’s 10-6 victory over top-seeded Florida. It followed No. 7 Alabama’s 7-1 victory over No. 2 Auburn and No. 6 Mississippi’s 3-0 shutout of No. 3 South Carolina and it was followed by No. 5 Vanderbilt’s 2-0 whitewash of Arkansas. That sets up the first two games today – the opener pitting Auburn and South Carolina followed by Florida and Arkansas – and the losers of those games will be saying adios to Regions Park. Not sure how an 0-2 performance by the Gators will be looked upon by the NCAA Baseball Committee, but I still expect Florida’s body of work will give the Gators a top-8 seed in the NCAA bracket, assuring them of home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the tournament.
5. GRITTY, GRITTY PERFORMANCES: I still can’t say enough about the work of sophomore Joanna Mather and senior Marrit Boonstra in almost pulling out a victory for Florida Tuesday in the NCAA Women’s Singles Team Championship against Stanford at Athens, Ga. Good show, ladies. With freshmen Lauren Embree and Allie Will returning, coach Roland Thornqvist’s team will be favored to get back to the championship next year when the tournament is played in Stanford, Calif.
6. DARKNESS OVER TAMPA BAY: Those Rays of sunshine early this Major League Baseball season have been replaced by clouds as the Boston Red Sox came into Tropicana Field and swept the Tampa Bay Rays in three games. Tampa Bay, which was 32-12 after taking four of five on the road, isn’t hitting and now is slumping on the mound. It’s not unlike a golfer who suffers from the yips. Pretty soon, the poison starts working its way through the rest of the golf bag.
7. MY BIGGEST QUESTION: Can someone tell me when the new fall television season is going to start? After watching the final episode of the season on NCIS, I don’t know if I can wait to see if Gibbs can protect all of those close to him against the Mexican drug cartel. I’m hooked on this television show starring Mark Harmon, the son of the late Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon of Michigan. Well-written and a great cast.
8. MY NEW FAVORITE NUMBER: It’s 8. It’s worn by Jason Bartlett, the heart and soul (in my book) of the Tampa Bay Rays; it was worn by my son Matthew this past high school baseball season. And it was worn by my late mother’s favorite player, Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, who recently (May 12) celebrated his 85th birthday. My Dad used to court my Mom by taking her to games played by the Newark Bears, and Mom used to regale me with stories of how Yogi would run out of the fog in right field, seemingly out of nowhere, and make a shoestring catch. I got the chance to tell that story to Yogi, who laughed and said, “That wasn’t fog. That was the garbage dump burning beyond the outfield fence.”
Mom would have loved that reply. Then again, I know she loves it. Take care of Jarvis Williams for us, Mom.
And since that’s 8 items, that’s enough for today.
Later Gators.
John Fineran