FOUR BITS: Rainey, soccer, volleyball, Tebow

By Adam Silverstein
August 18, 2010

1 » Florida Gators redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Rainey was named to the first annual Paul Hornung Award preseason watch list on Tuesday. To be given to the nation’s most versatile collegiate football player, it will be presented by the Louisville Sports Commission sometime during the 2010-11 bowl season. Seven other Southeastern Conference players – Brandon Boykin (Georgia), Stephon Gilmore (South Carolina), Demond Washington (Auburn), Randall Cobb (Kentucky), Derrick Locke (Kentucky), Leon Berry (Mississippi State) and Warren Norman (Vanderbilt) – were also on the initial list.

2 » No. 11 Gators soccer, which begins the University of Florida’s 2010-11 athletic season on Friday at home against Miami, was picked by SEC coaches to defend its conference championship in 2010. The conference also announced that two Florida volleyball players were named to the 2010 Preseason All-SEC Team with juniors outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel and setter/right-side Kelly Murphy earning the honors.

3 » Interesting note coming from the Palm Beach Post this morning as four-star defensive end recruit Giorgio Newberry (Fort Pierce, FL) claims the Gators stopped pursuing him after he skipped Friday Night Lights. “I went to Florida State when [Florida] had Friday Night Lights and Urban Meyer and everyone and the whole coaching staff took offense,” Newberry told reporter Jeff Greer. “I couldn’t really do anything because I had an injury at the time so I just ended up only going to Florida State. They took it the wrong way. I’m still interested, but they just stopped talking to me.” As the Post’s Jason Lieser points out, UF is unable to respond to these accusations because NCAA regulations do not allow them to discuss recruits.

4 » ESPN’s AFC West blogger Bill Williamson makes a case that many Denver Broncos fans have been arguing – it has come time to make rookie quarterback Tim Tebow the team’s top reserve while demoting Brady Quinn to the No. 3 QB role. He puts it bluntly, “Let’s face it: Tebow is the future in Denver. Quinn is not. Move the kid up.” And more specifically, “It’s time for Tebow to play more in the preseason and that can be done if he is made the No. 2 quarterback. Denver is going to use Tebow in special packages during the regular season anyway, so he might as well get backup repetitions now.”

Also from ESPN, James Walker notes the five things “we learned” about Tebow last week: (1) Tebow’s mechanics must improve, (2) The arm strength is there, (3) Tebow isn’t used to the speed and feel of the NFL yet, (4) Tebow is resilient, and (5) The No. 2 quarterback job could be Tebow’s for the taking. Read his thoughts in detail.

Photo Credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

4 Comments

  1. Bowtiegator says:

    Pretty sure Percy would have won that award 2 out of his 3 years.

  2. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    The arm strength comments from James Walker and others I have heard are funny…..TT was throwing balls 60 plus yard in high school for crying out loud

  3. ApkGator says:

    Pretty sure they sould just name it the Percy Harvin Award, Guy plays all over the place

  4. Jennifer says:

    They just now learned that Tebow is resilient? Must not have been paying attention over the past four years.

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