Tag: The Swamp

Florida 2018 Preview: Can Dan Mullen improve Florida?

Trainwreck doesn’t cover just bad Florida’s 2017 season was. There was a bit of a smile when they beat Tennessee on a Hail Mary in one of the plays of the season, but that was it, save for Jim McElwain’s nudist battle with a shark. Dan Mullen arrived to the pomp and circumstance (and some new Jordans), but he’s had to deal with non-stop disciplinary crap – something that must be weighing on Gator Nation. You know, that and the rise and rise of one of their most hated enemies. OFFENSE Every time we think about UF’s offense, we get squeamish. The Gators were 110th in total offense, good enough for the second-worst in the SEC behind Tennessee (the third-worst

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Spring Game Round-Up: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina

The round-up from the first two Spring Games in the SEC are this: Florida and South Carolina seem to have their starting quarterbacks in place, and Auburn doesn’t. GATORS CHOMPING WITH DEL RIO Florida fans are suddenly excited that in the post-Grier and (thankfully) post-Harris world, they suddenly looked as they have a starter for 2017: Luke Del Rio. And while Del Rio is hardly a new face in college football – he walked on at Alabama, transferred to Oregon State, then transferred to Florida in 2014, where he sat out a year. He’s now a graduate, and suddenly the face of Gators football. Del Rio went 10-11 for 176 yards and 2 TDs. Sure, the defense wasn’t exactly vintage

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Hey Gators! The Will Grier loss ain’t that big!

Sorry to have missed the memo from the University of Florida, but apparently starter-and-school-hero-until-he-took-PEDS Will Grier decided that he didn’t want to play in Florida anymore, and decided to transfer to West Virginia, where no doubt he’ll be welcomed by burning couches and beautiful rattle of “Deliverance”. If you’re a West Virginia fan, you’re delighted because Grier will take the year off – as you have to if you’re a transferred player (and the Mountaineers are quite used to transferring players) – and come back good-as-new in 2017. He’s a winner, an inspirer, and will be fine in Dana Holgerson’s offense (if Holgerson’s still around). If you’re a Florida fan, you’re happy because Grier and the ghost of Grier and

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Week 7 Rankings: LSU, Bama roll while Georgia plunges

The SEC was dealt another blow by minor league opposition when Memphis beat Ole Miss, but otherwise things stayed with the favorites. Alabama went to Texas A&M and romped home thanks to the help of A&M QB Kyle Allen gifting them THREE pick-6s, LSU beat Florida on a fake field goal (we love you, Les Miles!), and Georgia and Missouri played a baseball game in which Georgia won 9-6. Oh, and South Carolina, free from visors and Spurriers, beat Vanderbilt. After a lay-off of rankings last week, here’s our rankings after Week 7: Alabama (1): Texas A&M couldn’t stop Alabama’s rush, and Texas A&M couldn’t stop Alabama’s secondary (you remember: The guys we all thought would be ‘soft’?) snaring THREE

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Live! The Quarterly SEC Awards (Or SECs)

  Is that Derrick Henry? Is that Nick Saban? Is that Lane Kiffin with Nick Saban’s daughter? Is that Leonard Fournette, brushing off all the reporters as he goes? Is that Les Miles, who’s stopped to say something that no-one understands? Yes folks, it’s your quarterly SEC Football Blog Awards, given out to the players, teams and coaches who have made a difference – good or bad – in the first quarter of the season. And afterwards, we can all go to Chilli’s with players from the University of Georgia and threaten people. (DRUMROLL PLEASE) THE GOOD AWARDS BEST PLAYER Leonard Fournette (LSU) BEST IMPRESSION OF THE INCREDIBLE HULK  Leonard Fournette, in his performance against Auburn. BEST QUARTERBACK PERFORMANCE Greyson

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Florida suspends key players

Florida has suspended quarterback Treon Harris and cornerback Jalen Tabor for the Tennessee game. Gators head coach Jim McElwain refused to go into details of the suspension. However, ESPN’s Brett McMurphy said that they came about because Harris had failed a drug test and Tabor had refused to take a drug test, resulting in an automatic suspension. Harris had been battling QB Will Grier for the starting job in The Swamp. He’s passed for 269 yards and 2 TDs in two games for Florida, and run for 55 yards. Grier played well in the 14-9 at Kentucky on Saturday night, and would probably have started the game against Tennessee. Tabor will be a monster loss for Florida in the secondary. Florida

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Florida 2015 Preview: In Defense We Trust

Will Muschamp pissed off a lot of Florida Gators fans in 2014, as the team stumbled to 7-5 and 4-4 in the SEC. It wasn’t really about the defense- they were great – it was about the goddawful offense. The goddawful offense was — you’ve got it — goddawful. The great defense simply couldn’t do anything about it. And now Jim McElwain’s been hired away from Colorado State, and Florida Gators fans are already furious at McElwain for his failure to choose between Treon Harris and Will Grier as to who will be the starting QB on Saturday. His line: “Treon Harris will start but Will Grier will play some” didn’t exactly sit well with a Gator faithful destroyed by

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Florida RB to miss spring practice

Florida running back Matt Jones is to miss the spring practice after needing another knee surgery. Is it not known whether Jones – who needed surgery on his left knee after destroying it in the Gators’ loss at LSU in mid-October after he started four games this season – will be fit enough to start Game 1 in September against Idaho at The Swamp. BOTTOM LINE: It’s not great news for Florida that Jones is out, but Florida at least has some experience and depth at the position in Kelvin Taylor and Mack Brown. This isn’t good news for the ‘turnaround season’ that Will Muschamp was looking for.

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Florida AD backs Muschamp

Florida AD Jeremy Foley has backed under-fire Head Coach Will Muschamp. He told Florida Gators website Gatorzone.com: “As athletic director, I’m a thousand percent convinced that Will Muschamp is the guy to lead this football program,’’ Foley said inside his office at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. “Nothing has changed in what we feel about Will Muschamp from the day we hired him. “Everyone around here wants the same thing. We want to do what is right for the University of Florida. We understand that this football season has not gone the way any of us wanted it to go, certainly not the way our fans wanted it to go, and most of all, not the way Will Muschamp wanted it

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