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Gators in the NFL Save the Day/Season

2011 was not a good football year for Gator fans, as we run the risk of assembling a losing season for the first time in something like four decades.

Fortunately, Gators in the NFL have come on strong to salvage football for this year, at least for this Gator fan. It's not hard to see why UF was so successful from 2006-2008 - the list of NFL starters/meaningful contributors from those teams includes (in rough order of entry into the League)

• Reggie Nelson
• Andre Caldwell
• Ray McDonald
• Brandon Siler
• Marcus Thomas
• Derrick Harvey
• Percy Harvin
• Louis Murphy
• Joe Haden
• Maurkice Pouncey
• Tim Tebow
• Brandon Spikes
• Jermaine Cunningham
• Aaron Hernandez
• Riley Cooper
• David Nelson
• Mike Pouncey

I'm probably missing quite a few, but the number of meaningful NFL players on those teams is just staggering.

These players have kept weekends this fall bearable for Gator Fans in a year when Gator Football is simply painful to watch, between the games themselves to the mass transfers of both players and coaches. The players listed above have been very successful. Last weekend's reunion of Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin was a veritable exhibition of former Gators as both players had very good games for their respective teams.

We always knew Percy Harvin would be a star in the NFL. Tim Tebow, however, has been doubted ever since he was picked in the first round of the 2010 draft.

Tebow-mania is just completely mind blowing. Since getting his chance to start at Denver over a struggling Kyle Orton, Tebow is 7-1, while being behind or tied in just about all of those games. His play has left much to be desired, as he has typically stunk up the joint until the last 5 minutes of the game, which the media now endearingly refers to as Tebow Time. In fact, Cherry and I were listening to the Denver-Chicago game last night on the radio when Chicago went up 10-0 with just 5 minutes remaining, and the announcer made the statement that Denver has Chicago right where they want him! At that time, we were thinking that Tebow's luck has definitely run out - there's no way that he can come back from yet another double digit deficit with just 5 minutes remaining.

Lo and behold, the end of the game goes on like this:

• Tebow tosses his first TD of the day with just over 2 minutes remaining
• Denver fails to recover onside kick
• Chicago RB Marion Barber inexplicably runs towards the sideline on 3rd and long and gets pushed out of bounds, forcing a punt
• With no time-outs remaining, Tebow drives to the Chicago 41, where kicker Jeff Prater nails a 59-yard field goal to tie up the game and send it into overtime
• Chicago wins the toss and drives to the Denver 41, where Marion Barber breaks away and appears to be on a long run, but the ball is stripped and Denver recovers
• Tebow manages to get close enough for Prater to kick  a 51-yard field goal to win the game

The luck is astonishing. Divine even. Denver has a great defense, but why doesn't the offense do anything until the fourth quarter? Tebow's fourth quarter statistics are incredible. Despite having 5 fewer starts than most other starting QBs in the league, he as more 4th quarter passing yards than any other QB. His 4th quarter passer rating is double that of his rating in Q1-Q3. It's incredible and a lot of fun, especially for Gator fans. Hearing about/watching his heroics has really made football season fun for me, and a lot of the rest of the country. It might not last, but for now, it's a heck of a ride!

Courtesy of one "gators_and_niners": "I don't always complete my passes, but when I do, I prefer doing it in the 4th quarter."

- Tim Tebow, the world's most interesting quarterback

New Lows for Florida Football

Sigh. Just one week after Florida clawed back into the rankings, with the allure of a guaranteed berth in the SEC championship game by beating South Carolina, the Gators put up another atrocious performance, getting handily beaten to the tune of 36-14, despite the Gamecocks spotting Florida a quick 7 on the opening kickoff. The game was South Carolina's first ever victory in the Swamp, first SEC East Championship, and also Steve Spurrier's only victorious Swamp visit on the opponent's sideline.


Now, I don't claim to be one of those Gator fans that have been following the team since the early 1900s or anything like that, but I have been watching them pretty closely since I started going to school there in the late 90s. In fact, a large part of my college career was spent during the "Dark Ages", where one Ron Zook was at the helm. But even the Zook teams didn't look as horrendous as this Tebow-less, Harvin-less, Hernandez-less, Gator team.


A lot of the blame can be placed on the losses of some pretty fine NFL talent over the last few years, but the Gators have recruited as well as anyone in the country since Urban Meyer's tenure.

A lot of the blame also admittedly lands on John Brantley as well, the square peg that we have tried to forcefully plug into a round hole all season long. Once upon a time, the coaching staff was able to adjust the Florida offense to better fit the skills of their supremely talented passer in Chris Leak. John Brantley, to this point, has not been afforded that luxury - rather, he is trying to be a pocket passer on a team that is simply better suited for a running quarterback. Brantley supporters insist that Brantley would be an excellent quarterback at a more pass-oriented team, such as Texas or Oklahoma, and as such, many fans such as myself gave him a pass, especially during the beginning of the season, when pass protection was porous. However, watching the game last night, pass protection looked pretty good. Sure, a blitzer got through every so often, but much to my chagrin, each time this happened, a negative play resulted. This is because Brantley simply can't read defenses and can't get away from a blitz, or identify the soft spot vacated by the blitzer. Brantley's accuracy has also been far from advertised. Sure, when he has ideal pass protection, he does a good job of hitting the wide open guys that are about 10-12 yards down the field, but swing passes, screens, and deep balls are like rolling dice.


Yes, Brantley is clearly not a good fit. Especially when we saw what a Tebow-esque quarter back like Jordan Reed was potentially capable of doing last weekend. But I hate to hate on a player. The bottom line is that the coaching staff hasn't done a good job of making the offense work, be it for Brantley or otherwise. Even when we got our running QBs in the game, it wasn't effective because they didn't present a threat to throw, which is what made Tebow so dang effective. The offense doesn't look well coached, and a senior-laden offensive line hasn't played up to snuff all year long - clearly an effect of having the offensive line coach play a dual role as the offensive coordinator, which Addazio isn't particularly skilled at either.


It's been a while since I've ranted (positively or negatively) about the Gators, but this team really has been just about the worst squad I personally have seen, even with the Zook years in recent memory!

The Legend Continues...

A successful draft for the Gators thus far. Cornerback Joe Haden was selected seventh overall to the Cleveland Browns, making him the first top ten pick from UF in quite some time. Center Maurkice Pouncey was also selected in the top twenty by the Steelers. And of course, the huge surprise of the evening, quarterback Tim Tebow was selected 25th overall and will be playing for the Denver Broncos! The legend continues!

Tim Tebow NCAA 2011 Cover Athlete

Some really nice high quality videos covering Tim Tebow at the Cover Athlete shoot for the NCAA 2011 game! I love the comments about him playing NCAA against his brother and friends!



Keep watching past the first break to see all the footage of Tim!

Awesome Percy Harvin 2009 Highlight's Vid

A fantastic compilation of Percy Harvin's Rookie of the Year campaign.



Vote for him for the Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Year!

Percy has no Mercy, even in the NFL!

He's done it! Garnering 41 of 50 possible first place votes, Percy Harvin was the runaway Offensive NFL Rookie of the Year for the 2009 season! Read all about his and other Florida receivers accomplishments here: Florida Receivers

UPDATE 5:26 PM Eastern
Harvin was also added to the Pro Bowl roster earlier this week, according to this Nice new writeup from Forbes on Harvin winning the award

2009 Sugar Bowl: UF 51-Cincinnati 24

Sorry for the huge delay between posts... I've been a busy bee for the past few weeks, and as a result, I have a lot of posting about the winter holiday, St. Louis, and the Gators to catch up on!

I'll start with the Gators, since the news is the most recent and since it should not be episodic, unlike the other two categories of posts I plan to catch up on.

Through the last month, the University of Florida football program has been in a state of disarray. The Gators lost their last game against Alabama in the SEC championship game, but the chaos had really started before that, as many of the players partied hard the week before and focus was all but lost. Following that game, Urban Meyer was hospitalized for a night, and wide receivers coach Billy Gonzalez left the program, some say allegedly because he was presiding over the excessive celebration leading to the DUI charges. Stud defensive coordinator Charlie Strong finally got a head coaching job and announced that he would be leaving after this season, taking along with him defensive backs coach Vance Bedford, who transformed the maligned 2007 secondary into the vaunted unit featuring first-team All-American corner Joe Haden. Earlier this week, Urban Meyer added to the drama by first announcing that he was "stepping down" as the head coach of the Florida Gators, citing health concerns, only to retract the statement 20 hours later, downgrading himself to a leave of "indefinite length", during which time offensive coordinator Steve Addazio would serve as "interim head coach". The coaching chaos was not limited to just the Gators - Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly had accepted the head coaching post at Notre Dame a few weeks before and would not be coaching the final game against the Gators, opting instead to get an early start on recruiting for the Domers.

Amidst all this drama, I felt legitimately concerned that the Gators would come out uninspired, similar to last year's SEC conference runner up, Alabama, who lost in embarrassing fashion to an undefeated Utah in last year's Sugar Bowl. The setup was eerily similar - we had coaching changes, off-the-field distractions, some player injuries, and were playing in a bowl that we arguably didn't want to be in. Fortunately, the Gators were too big, too fast, and too strong as Tim Tebow, sporting eye black referencing Ephesians 2:8-10, routed Cincinnati for a career high and Florida Football record 482 yards passing, three touchdowns, and nearly 90% completion rate on his way to a BCS game record of 533 yards and four total touchdowns of total offense, smashing Vince Young's record set in his memorable victory over USC in the 2005 National Championship game. It was a great way to end an amazing college career for one of the sport's all-time greatest players!

Other notable offensive performers were WR Riley Cooper, who caught Tebow's season-long 80-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter on his way to 180 yards on the day, starting RB Jeff Demps, who went out early in the game with a fractured arm, RB Emmanuel Moody, who tallied two rushing touchdowns in relief of Demps, Mike Gillislee, who romped for over 80 yards in mop up duty at the end of the game, Deonte Thompson, who showed off his bottled-up talent , and first-team All-American tight end Aaron Hernandez, who once again put his great hands and open-field moves on display yet again on another 100-yd day.

The Gator defense held Cincinnati's vaunted 40-point-per-game offense nearly scoreless in the first half, letting up in the second half as game unraveled out of reach. Key defensive performers included Carlos Dunlap, who recorded multiple sacks, and Major Wright, who had the most action he'd seen in a while, blowing up several Cincinnati receivers along the way. Linebacker Brandon Spikes also had a good outing, as did most of the defense all night.

At the conclusion of the game, Urban Meyer was asked what was next for him, and he replied "I'm going to be the coach of the Florida Gators!" Hopefully that will be true, but his health and family should come first. Either way, last night was a great end to the 2009 Gator season. The 2009 UF senior class will leave with the winningest record of all SEC graduating classes, and also left Florida with two back-to-back 13 win seasons, a first in NCAA history.

Go Gators!

And it all comes crashing down...

So this is what the Patriots must have felt like in 2007...

32-13, Alabama wins over Florida. It was a good run, but Alabama executed, shredded Florida's vaunted Defense, and prevented Tim Tebow and Co. from making history this season.

The Life of Urban

Surfing around the Gator Boards in the last few days before the showdown between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama, I came across this incredible article about Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer.

I never knew much about him, especially outside of his coaching life, but this article really dives deep. Read it!

Urban Meyer Article

Tate Casey Autograph!

Behold! My first autographed photo from a Gator football player!

As previously mentioned, in the tailgating activity prior to this past weekend's beat-down of FSU, Cherry and I ran into Tate Casey, former tight end for what seemed like ages at UF (in fact, he was at UF for about six years). He came in right around when former Gator Great tight end Ben Troupe, AKA "The Hurdler" for his memorable hurdles over defenders when he had the ball in his hands, had gone and left for the NFL. He was a dual sport athlete at Florida, also playing baseball in his time here, similar to another UF player today, Riley Cooper. But perhaps what he is most known for is catching Tim Tebow's first career touchdown pass, the famous "Jump Pass" that arguably started the Tebow Legend!


Unfortunately, I was too star-stunned to remember to take a photo with him...

End of an Era!

It all went by so fast! It seemed like just the other day, Tim Tebow threw his first touchdown pass at LSU on the now legendary "Jump Pass". Today, November 28, 2009, was the 2009 edition of the annual matchup between the Florida Gators and the FSU Seminoles, but perhaps more importantly, it was the last game in the Swamp for the winningest senior class in SEC history, a class led by the likes of WR David Nelson, Athlete Brandon James, linebackers Ryan Stamper and Brandon Spikes, and of course Superman himself, Tim Tebow. This special class had racked up a record of 46-6 over the last four years entering the game tonight, more than any SEC team before it, including the great Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida teams before it.

Cherry and I would start the afternoon scoping out the tailgating scene around campus. Most of the year, we'd stayed in the library until about an hour before the game because we had a lot of homework to do. This week was not really that much different, but who could pass up the last home game of the season?

We quickly ran into Ray, one of the early members of the Meihua Student Association of Martial Arts. While chatting with him, we noticed that it was time for the traditional Gator Walk, where all the players walked into the stadium. We rushed over to try to get a glimpse of the players, but that's about all we got - we couldn't really even get a good shot of any of the players, although we heard the ruckus when Tebow went up the stairs into the stadium.

After all the players made their way in the stadium, Cherry and I continued our quest around campus for free Gator memorabilia. First on our list was getting eye black to wear for the game, which was to be the "theme" of the game, in honor of Tebow's tradition of wearing eye black displaying select bible verses. We immediately became much better football players as a result!


We continued down the street, observing some pretty cool (and abhorrently expensive) street art and also got to sample all sorts of weird drinks and tailgate food. We managed to pick up a few cool posters and I got to meet former UF Tight End Tate Casey, who signed a photo for me! I'll try to post it when I get it scanned in.


When we eventually made our way into the Swamp, along with a record 90,905 other fans about thirty minutes before kickoff, we observed a pretty interesting pre-game show. Much to our surprise and to some fans' dismay, FSU's marching band took the field before "the Pride of the Sunshine". It wasn't an act of disrespect - in fact, the producers of the game planned for both bands to play the National Anthem, making one huge band of probably over 600 musicians!


Next up was the send off for the UF seniors, starting with Michael Guilford, who passed away a few years ago in a motorcycle accident and would have been part of this year's senior class, when with the practice squad and backup seniors. Of course, the biggest standing ovation was saved for a tearful Tim Tebow, but it was really something to see all of the seniors run out of the tunnel, one by one, one last time! Make sure to checkout my Facebook Album to see pics of each senior running into the Swamp!


Finally, kickoff ensued. The game was somewhat predictably a blowout, a fitting end for Tebow's career at the Swamp as he accounted for over 300 yards of offense and five TDs in roughly three quarters, helped in part by fellow senior and roommate Riley Cooper and stud junior tight end Aaron Hernandez, who had a highlight reel-busting catch and run in the second quarter. Tebow yielded the field to John Brantley about halfway through the fourth quarter, after scoring his 2nd rushing touchdown of the night in a spectacular flood of camera flashes (that was much prettier than the actual touchdown run itself)!

The final score was 37-10, and the Gators had commanding advantages in all statistical categories - most notably in third down conversions as the Gators converted over 75% of their third downs!

So thus ends the Tebow era of Gator Football History in the Swamp. Of course, Tim Tebow still has two more games to play before he completes his college career. I will be sure not to miss them!

Look What We Bought!

This weekend was a bit of a change of pace for us. The Gators were playing an away game, so Cherry took the opportunity to come down to Melbourne and have her teeth cleaned. As a result, I got very little (read: none at all) work done over the weekend!

Instead, on Saturday morning (or as close to morning as we ever really get up and go out) we went furniture shopping. See, we've been in this new house for over two years now, and we haven't bought any new furniture since we moved in. Instead, we've used an old couch that my parents' friends donated to us when we first moved to Melbourne up until now. Or at least until my new furniture arrives!

After shopping around for about two and a half hours, we finally were able to haggle our way down to an acceptable price on the living room set shown here:


However, we didn't stop there. We figured, since we'd gone through so much pain already, we might as well get an entertainment center too. As you might recall from about a month or so ago, we also recently bought a 50-inch plasma TV, which looks something like a Katamari Prince because it's sitting on my skinny little stand that used to hold my 32-inch CRT that I brought with me to college nine or so years ago!

After we did our splurging, we decided to save a bit and watched the UF-South Carolina game at home. Truth be told, we probably got a better picture that way than we could have hoped for at a sports bar! Florida won 24-14 in yet another uninspiring offensive showing, although for a moment there it looked as though Florida might bust it wide open when Tebow's first pass attempt of the day was a 63-yd touchdown pass to Riley Cooper! But, alas, the play of the game turned out to be a 53-yd interception return by defensive end Justin Trattou. That's right, a defensive end. However, his play was "Justin" time, because South Carolina was driving and about to take the lead!

It's good to be 10-0!

UF 27 - Vanderbilt 3

If I'm not mistaken, the first Gator game I ever watched in person was UF vs. Vanderbilt in the 1999 season. I don't remember the score, but I am pretty sure we won because according to the record books, we haven't lost to Vanderbilt since something like 1988, though we've had a few close calls. One especially memorable close call was when Jay Cutler took us down to the wire, forcing us into three overtimes in 2005. Of course, Jay would later be selected to the Pro Bowl in just his second season in the NFL a few years later.

Saturday's game would have nothing of the sort. Vanderbilt came into the game with just two wins on the season, while the Gators were on their way to 19 wins in a row and 9-0 for 2009. Iowa had dropped its first game earlier in the afternoon, leaving just six undefeated teams in the Bowl Championship subdivision (formerly Division I-A).

So yes, Florida would essentially have its way with this year's edition of Florida vs. Vanderbilt. However, despite what Urban said after the game about "nothing ho-hum about being 9-0", there's no denying that the game itself was pretty undramatic. The Gators struggled to execute on offense and Tim Tebow was sacked several times yet again. However, the defense and special teams were stellar once again, holding Vanderbilt to under 200 yards and only a field goal.

The most exciting part about the game for us arguably was our fantastic seats. When I first saw that we were in Row 51 in Section 27, way in the northeast corner of the stadium, I thought we had horrible seats. However, I would later find out that these seats were right on the edge of the balcony that sports the famous "Work 'Em Silly, Gators!" sign! Purportedly, Kaveh and his girlfriend Trista had seats right over the tunnel where the Gators come out onto the field, and Chris was able to join us at the game late in the fourth quarter, relinquishing his nosebleed seats that he got courtesy of my MBA ticket contact.


But wait! That's not all that was exciting at the game after all! A couple of Gator heroes, specifically Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin, had the weekend off this past Saturday and were on the sidelines. From our great seats, we couldn't really see them that well, but we could see the television screens in the skyboxes that were showing them being interviewed! I wish I would have been watching the game on TV so I could have gotten to see that interview!

All semi-kidding aside, it really is great to be 9-0 on the season, particularly because I don't think I've ever been part of a 9-0 season. Plus, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally became the last team to win a game in the 2009 season, as rookie quarterback Josh Freeman made his first start and led his team to the first win of the season with 3 touchdowns against the Green Bay Packers! If the Bucs can turn their offense on, surely the Gators can!

Good to have you back, Mr. Tebow

Maybe we Gator fans just need to bitch more, or maybe the Gators just got tired of sucking, because yesterday, Tebow and Company looked a lot like their old selves again finally. Georgia's newfangled black helmets did not do much to stop Tebow from tossing two TDs, including a very nice one-handed grab by roommate Riley Cooper, and rushing for two more, fittingly breaking Georgia great Herschel Walker's long-standing SEC career rushing TD record and extending his own record to 51. The vaunted Gator D also did its part - although they surrendered two passing touchdowns, they held the Bulldogs to under 300 yards of total offense and forced four turnovers, including two interceptions returned for touchdowns!

Everything seemed to work right for the Gators yesterday. We had very few penalties (despite a very chippy game). Brandon James was finally allowed to actually run a few punts. Chas Henry showed us yet again why he is such a highly touted punter as he boomed punts of 61 yards and placed a bunch of punts inside the 10-yd line. Even Caleb Sturgis was on fire, making good on all of his field goal attempts, especially on his career long 56-yd field goal that would have been good from at least 60!

With the victory over Georgia and South Carolina's loss to what appears to be an increasingly strong Tennessee team, the Gators have clinched a spot in the SEC title game! Let's hope we can keep the momentum rolling, because if we can regain our mid-season form from last year, it will be pretty tough for anyone to stop us!

The image below pretty much sums up our feelings after the game!

Florida Survives... Again

When will the bleeding stop?

Just when I was thinking to myself, "Ha ha at all the media douches that put Alabama ahead of us in the AP poll - Alabama had to block a last second field goal just to beat Tennessee 12-10!", I found my Gators making bonehead play after bonehead play as we escaped Starkville with a victory for the first time since 1985.

Sure, we've stomped the Mississippi State Bulldogs several times in Gainesville, but something magically evil seems to happen in the state of Mississippi.

It probably didn't help much that Mississippi State's head coach is none other than former Gators offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, who is said to have been the aggressive part of Urban Meyer's offensive playcalling in all their years together. But I'm not sure you had to be all that familiar with our offense to have been able to guess what we we were going to do on most of our plays tonight.

At one point the commentators even mentioned that we only run 2 plays out of a certain formation. We have no creativity at all, calling pointless dive runs with our 180-lb running backs and relegating our 210-lb power back to outside runs. Tebow ran more than 20 times, yet again. We are predictable as all hell, our offense is worthless in the red zone, and Tebow can't throw downfield to save a Filipino baby's life - as shown by not one, but two INTs returned for touchdowns.

It's a miracle we made it out 29-19 - good thing we have such a good defense (not to mention the BS call that allowed us to keep Dustin Doe's pick-6 that he decided to showboat too early on)! And next week, we get to play a well-rested Georgia Bulldog team, who should be very, very upset about what the Gators did to them last year...

UF 23 - Arkansas 20

The day started perfectly for a game that should have been a blowout, with the Gators being favored by over 20 points over visiting Arkansas, who came in with the last-ranked defense in the SEC. The weather was a crisp 65 degrees, and the defense was stout, quickly getting their first three-and-out and forcing Arkansas to punt.

However, for the next three quarters, the sick feeling that we all had last year when one Ole' Miss came to town dominated our guts. Tebow dropped back to pass, held the ball too long, and lost a fumble. Fortunately, the defense was there to save the day, and soon the ball was back in Florida's hand again. Enter a fumble from Brandon James. Then one more by all-around badass Aaron Hernandez. It was a miracle we were only down 10-3 at the half.

In the second half, things started looking mildly better when we quickly marched down the field, but then sputtered and had to settle with another field goal (which was a bit of a miracle in its own right, being from 51 yards). Then, enter the final fumble of the day from "Crazy Legs" Chris Rainey, who somehow managed to get the ball kicked out of his hands on a screen pass that looked destined to be a touchdown. But yet again, the Defense held and on the next drive, Tim Tebow completed the longest touchdown pass of his career - 77 yards to Deonte Thompson, finally giving Florida their first lead of the night. This touchdown pass also gave Tim Tebow the SEC record for TD responsibility, breaking Danny Wuerffel's former mark of 122 TDs.

At this point, the defense must have decided that they had done their part for the night, as Arkansas came roaring back with huge runs and pass plays, gashing what had at that point been a very solid showing from our defense. However, we were finally able to prevail that cold night on a last second field goal, earning Urban Meyer's 50th win at Florida.

The next day, Florida had dropped to second in the AP poll, but came out on top in the first BCS poll of the 2009 season. There was no "Promise" speech from Tebow after this game, but something needs to happen soon if we plan to get out of this season unscathed!

Urban Meyer - Iconic

Sweet.

Florida 13, LSU 3

The score may not be sexy, but the W sure is!

Since it was an away game, Cherry and I had to watch the game on TV. However, my classmate Ryan was much more fortunate than we - due to his standout performance at work, his boss took him out to Baton Rouge to watch the UF-LSU game in row 14!

We started Saturday morning not knowing whether or not Superman, er, Tim Tebow, was going to play in the much anticipated showdown with #4 LSU in Tiger Stadium, where they had not lost a Saturday night game since the dawn of time. However, at around noon, the announcement came that Tebow was medically cleared (from his concussion two weeks ago at Kentucky) and would in fact start at LSU.

Not only did he start, he played the whole game, and even lowered his shoulder a couple of times, looking more or less like the Tebow of old. The game seemed to go by really fast, no doubt aided by our clock-controlling game plan. The Tigers were getting crushed up front by our offensive line, and they could not stop our simple dive-up-the-middle runs by Jeff Demps, Emmanuel Moody, Chris Rainey, and, of course, Tim Tebow himself. Throughout the course of the game, the Gators amassed nearly 200 yards rushing, to LSU's 162 total offensive yards, as Florida's defense swarmed and suffocated the Tiger offense.

The passing game left a little to be desired, with just two wide receivers catching passes. Tight end Aaron Hernandez was his usual stud self, collecting the most receptions for the Gators that night and also adding 18 yards on an option pitch. Tebow ended the game with just 138 passing yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, but to get out of Death Valley on Saturday night with a victory is good enough to keep us at number 1!

Can't wait for Arkansas to visit Gainesville this Saturday!

Quick! Before they take it down!

We never used Percy Harvin on kickoff or punt returns in the three years he was at Florida, thanks largely to one Brandon James who was very, very proficient at the art of returning. We put him in a few times to prevent opposing teams from kicking away from said Brandon James, however. Between the two of them, teams still preferred kicking to the diminutive James, despite the fact that he has 4 punt return TDs and one kickoff return TD on his resume and is on track to break SEC records in return yardage and touchdowns.

However, in the absence of their own returner extraordinaire, the Minnesota Vikings have been using Percy as their full time kickoff returner, and boy, has it paid dividends quick! In Percy's third ever NFL outing, he racked up four receptions for 51 yards, including a critical first down catch that allowed Brett Favre to make the very amazing in its own right game winning touchdown in the final seconds of the game. But Percy's biggest highlight came on this 101-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Percy makes one hard cut, then screams past the entire 49er's coverage untouched in just under 12 seconds.

See it here before they take the video down!!!