Many believed the Florida Gators failed to close the 2012 recruiting cycle strong by not securing an uncommitted prospect on National Signing Day, but the potential to add a five-star player a position of need remained a strong possibility heading into Friday evening. Unfortunately for Florida, wide receiver Stefon Diggs (Olney, MD) announced that he would not be travelling down to Gainesville, FL to play college football and would instead stay in his home state and play for the Maryland Terrapins next fall.

Having narrowed his choices down to Maryland, Auburn, Florida and Ohio State, Diggs decided to hold off on making his destination known on National Signing Day (Feb. 1) in order to see more campuses and allow himself additional time to consider his options.

He took an official visit to OSU two weeks ago and checked out his hometown school last weekend before sitting down with his friends and family to make a final decision.

The Gators were happy to wait for his answer, knowing that landing a player of Diggs’s caliber at a position of need was of paramount importance, especially seeing as the team had already lost five-star WR Nelson Agholor (Tampa, FL) to USC.

The No. 8 player in the nation and second-best at his position according to Rivals.com, Diggs possesses a great combination of size and speed and would have been the third wide receiver in UF’s 2012 recruiting class.

Florida already has four-star Latroy Pittman (Citra, FL) and three-star Raphael Andrades (Tallahassee, FL) committed for 2012, though the former may be moved to the secondary and the latter is a candidate to redshirt his freshman season.

Click to expand and read the remainder of this story.

Tags: Avery Johnson, Brent Pease, Charlie Weis, Courtney Gardner, Fehoko Fanaika, Friday Night Lights, Latroy Pittman, Maryland Terrapins, National Signing Day, Nelson Agholor, Raphael Andrades, Stefon Diggs, Wes Brown

It has been a long ride through college for center/guard Dan Wenger, who spent five years with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish before receiving a waiver to spend his sixth year of college playing football for the Florida Gators.

His sights now set on the NFL, Wenger sat down with me for a pair of interviews before and after he participated in the Battle or Florida showcase in Boca Raton, FL. We discussed his time playing for Florida, his thoughts about the Gators program and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.

Check out Part One of my interview with Dan Wenger.

ADAM SILVERSTEIN: Going into the bowl game there appeared to be two main motivations for the team: finishing the season above .500 and sticking it to Urban Meyer. Some guys were a bit vocal about this to the media but for the most part it was kind of it in the background. Which motivation do you think fueled the team more – avoiding the losing season or showing Meyer that Florida was still the better team?
DAN WENGER: “For me that whole Urban Meyer thing wasn’t an issue. I know guys that were upset about the situation and wanted to kind of prove their point – whether it be that they didn’t want Urban to leave or they had something against him for leaving. Whatever the case may be that was never an issue for me. It was one of those things that’s talked about in the locker room but it was a conversation I didn’t get involved in. I had no experience playing under him. He recruited me but at the same time I didn’t spend five years at Florida before Coach Muschamp came in. That was not even a thought in my head. As far as the whole losing season, I’ve been 6-6 going into a bowl game at Notre Dame – once we went to a bowl game and won and the other time we didn’t go to a bowl game. There’s something about going into a bowl game and winning and coming out at that 7-6 and ending with a winning season. That sparks the fire again and the drive and the energy to be better and work harder going into the offseason. When we were 6-6 at Notre Dame in 2009, we didn’t go to a bowl game. Staying stagnant at 6-6, knowing that we couldn’t do anything else about it was terrible. We felt deflated. It was only the second time I had a full winter break. It was something I wasn’t used to and I didn’t know what to do with myself with that time. I was used to watching film and getting ready to prepare and fight that fight one more time. To me, it’s very important and I think that was mostly my motivation going into that game against Ohio State. To come out on top and more than anything I wanted to do whatever I could to help the other guys be ready and prepare them for the game.”

AS: Well I know it wasn’t a motivation for you, but Meyer taking the Ohio State job before that bowl game had to be on the mind of a lot of the other players. Was it something they just brought up here and there or was it a topic that you heard plenty about and thought was a real motivator for the other players?
DW: “You could say there was all of that going on. It was on everyone’s mind. Guys wanted to see if he was going to be there or on the sideline. It was very evident that it was going on in the locker room, all of that talk. A lot of those guys just had a point to prove. That’s fine. Everyone is motivated by different things. Whatever gets you going and gets you ready to give your best effort in a game, by all means use it. It might not be what motivates me, but hell, if it motivates you then let’s go into this game together both highly motivated and play to the best of our abilities.”

Read the rest of Part Two – for FREE – on InsideTheGators.com.

Photo Credit: Associated Press

Tags: Charlie Weis, Dan Wenger, Frank Verducci, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp

It has been a long ride through college for center/guard Dan Wenger, who spent five years with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish before receiving a waiver to spend his sixth year of college playing football for the Florida Gators.

Wenger, who suffered a pair of concussions that forced him to miss what would have been his redshirt senior season and was not cleared to play for Notre Dame this past year, was cleared by Florida doctors and joined former coaches Charlie Weis and Frank Verducci on the Gators.

With Florida badly in need of healthy bodies on the offensive line and both Weis and Verducci vouching for him after his concussion tests came back clean, head coach Will Muschamp granted Wenger a spot on the Gators for 2011.

He wound up starting 11 of 13 games for Florida (including 10 at left guard and one at center) while also serving as a mentor and leader for a young unit trying to learn Weis’s complicated pro-style offense.

His sights now set on the NFL, Wenger sat down with me for a pair of interviews before and after he participated in the Battle or Florida showcase in Boca Raton, FL. We discussed his time playing for Florida, his thoughts about the Gators program and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.

ADAM SILVERSTIEN: The way you came into the program was unique. Not only did you join a very young unit, but you happened to be the most experienced player based on the years you spent in the system at Notre Dame. As it turned out, your teammates looked to you in many ways as a leader and a teacher even though you were one of the team’s newest players. How strange was that situation for you?
DAN WENGER: “Yeah. It wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable, but it was something that I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect the guys would respond so well to me. The reason for that is you see guys transfer most of the time and for a lot of guys it’s a tough transition, whether it be guys on the team worried about this new kid taking their position or just not fitting into the new environment and trying to figure out how everything goes. I kind of thought that’s how it was going to be when I got there. Surprisingly enough it wasn’t; the guys responded well. As we did our player practices in the summer, I definitely saw kind of the lack of knowledge, the lack of understanding of what we were going to do with the new offense. Being my last go-around, I bought into everything and said whatever happens, that’s what my role is going to be. I’m going to do my best, starter or scout team, to help these guys understand this so we’re all on the same page to help us be as good as we possibly can be. Those guys responded great to it. I helped with film in the summer and explaining stuff in practice like some of the drills. I did whatever I could so these guys had a really good comfort level going into the season so we weren’t picking up any slack and actually made progress from where they had left off in the spring. That was my whole goal of trying to come in and teach and be a little bit of a coach to those kids.”

AS: For someone stepping into the program for a relatively short period of time who has worked with other head coaches and “been around the block” so to speak, what did you think of Muschamp’s style, the way he ran things in his first season and what he’s trying to do at Florida?
DW: “In my honest opinion, I couldn’t have been happier to have played for a head coach like Coach Muschamp. He was exactly what I want in a head coach. He’s a blue collar guy. He’s hard-nosed. He expects a lot out of his players, expects us to work hard. There’s a genuine caring for his players. You can tell that. It was just an awesome experience to play for him. In all honesty, I loved my time at Florida. I loved playing for Coach Muschamp and being a part of the Florida Gators. It was probably one of the best things – if not the best thing – that could have happened to me in my college experience.”

Read the rest of this interview – for FREE – on InsideTheGators.com.

Photo Credit: Associated Press

Tags: Charlie Weis, Dan Wenger, Frank Verducci, Will Muschamp

The Florida Gators may have three quarterbacks already on their 2012 roster, but new offensive coordinator Brent Pease is in search of one more to add to the fold.

In addition to soon-to-be sophomores Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel, both of whom will compete for the starting job beginning in spring practice, and redshirt sophomore backup Tyler Murphy, Florida has reached out to a pair of 2012 signal callers who may be interested in joining to the program this year.

Continue Reading » Gators in the market for another young QB?

Tags: Brent Pease, Charlie Weis, Jacoby Brissett, Jeff Driskel, Marty Mornhinweg, National Signing Day, Paxton Lynch, Skyler Mornhinweg, Tyler Murphy

From time to time, OGGOA will come across a plethora of news and notes that we wish to share – too much to fit into one of our truncated BITS segments. In these instances, or when stories fall through the cracks, we catch and wrap them all up with Gator Bites.

» In a poll conducted by ESPN and calculated monthly, Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow topped the December list as the United States’ favorite athlete. Tebow is “just the sixth different athlete to finish No. 1 in the monthly rankings since 2007” and, in the 18 years of the poll, only 11 different athletes have ever held that distinction.

» In addition to the Top 10 list OGGOA posted Wednesday from CBS’s the Late Show with David Letterman, Tebow was also brought up on TBS’s Conan. Host Conan O’Brien, claiming he was absent the budget to air actual game footage, had his staff put together a recreation of his game-winning play from Sunday…with peanuts replacing the players.

Continue Reading » Gator Bites for Thursday, January 12th

Tags: Abby Wambach, Adam Sitter, Billy Gonzales, Brian Schottenheimer, Chandler Parsons, Charlie Weis, Chris Rainey, Corey Brewer, Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Heather Mitts, Houston Rockets, Jack Johnson, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jaye Howard, Jeff Blasko, John Pelphrey, Justin Trattou, Kansas Jayhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Marcus Thomas, Maurkice Pouncey, Miami Dolphins, Michelle Moultrie, Mike Mularkey, Mike Pouncey, NBA, New York Giants, New York Jets, NFL, NHL, Pittsburgh Steelers, Playoffs, Scott Holsopple, Scott Vestal, soccer, softball, Tim Tebow, U.S. National Team, World Cup of Softball

Who is Brent Pease and how will he fit as the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the Florida Gators? While the second part remains to be seen, OGGOA attempted to get you some answers to the first question and four others by checking in with beat writer Chadd Cripe of the Idaho Statesman, who has been covering the Boise State Broncos throughout Pease’s entire tenure on staff.

QUESTION: What kind of coach do you perceive Pease to be in terms of his manner on the field and the way in which he interacts with his players?
CHADD CRIPE: “The best I can tell he’s got a very good relationship with the players. He’s a fiery guy, particularly when he was the wide receivers coach. It’s pretty famous around here that he got into it pretty good with Titus Young on the sideline at Hawai’i when Titus [Young] had decided to fly the hang loose sign when he scored touchdowns that day. I think he did it two or three times, and the last time he got a penalty for it, so the coaches were not happy.

“He definitely has a fiery side to him. My understanding of the relationship with the players is that they have appreciated what he has done for them in terms of what he has taught them and the way he’s pushed them. I actually talked to Titus the other day and he mentioned sort of how Pease helped him get where he is. You look at the players he’s coached and the results they’ve gotten. He’s coached some of the best wide receivers in the history of Boise State and gotten their best years out of them. With Kellen [Moore] this year, he got Kellen’s best season out of him. The results are very good.”

Background: Pease has coached and developed four of the best wide receivers in school history including Young, Austin Pettis, Jeremy Childs and BSU single-season touchdown record holder Tyler Shoemaker (16, 2011).

Continue Reading » Getting to know new Florida OC Brent Pease

Tags: Boise State Broncos, Brent Pease, Charlie Weis, CHris Petersen, Kentucky Wildcats, Will Muschamp

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp completed his 2012 coaching staff on Wednesday by hiring Brent Pease to succeed Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator.

A member of the Boise State Broncos’ staff since 2006, Pease has served as the team’s wide receivers coach (2006-10), assistant head coach (2007-10) and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach (2011). Prior to his stint with Boise State, he was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Baylor (2003-05), Kentucky (2001-02), Northern Arizona (1999-2000) and Montana (1996-98).

“I’ve had him on my radar for a while,” Muschamp said in an official school release. “I think we have improved our football program. We’re on the same page philosophically with what we want to be, and that to me is what strikes you the most. He’s not a stat guy. He is a guy who wants to win football games. If you look at the last six or seven years at Boise … they won football games. He was really a strong force behind what they have been doing offensively.”

“I’m excited to join the University of Florida football family and The Gator Nation,” Pease said in kind. “I’ve always had the utmost respect for Coach Muschamp and the UF program and I’m honored to have the opportunity to work at one of the premier institutions in the nation. I look forward to working with a tremendous coaching staff and, from what I hear, a great group of eager, young football players.

“Coach Muschamp and I share a lot of the same philosophies so this was a perfect fit. I want to be multiple in our offensive formations and have a balanced attack with tempo. I firmly believe in being fundamentally sound and red-zone efficient. I want to develop our players in a pro-style offense that can help them at the next level. ”

Pease signed a three-year contract with the University of Florida that is set to pay him approximately $500,000 annually, according to the Associated Press.

He arrived in Gainesville, FL last Friday afternoon, as OGGOA first reported, and met with Muschamp over the course of the weekend.

However, The Gainesville Sun‘s Pat Dooley revealed Tuesday that Muschamp first held an interview with Pease in late December in Jacksonville, FL as his team was practicing for the 2012 Gator Bowl. Dooley also reported that the Gators met with or interviewed 12-15 candidates before deciding to hire Pease, who was reportedly also being considered by head coach Nick Saban for the same job with Alabama.

In his one year as offensive coordinator at Boise State, Pease’s Broncos finished ninth in total offense (481.3 yards), fifth in scoring offense (44.2 points), 40th in rushing offense (171.9 yards) and 11th in passing offense (309.4 yards)

He will join a Florida team looking to improve its offense in a major way. The Gators were ranked No. 105 in total offense at the conclusion of the 2011-12 season, gaining just 328.7 yards per game. Florida was 71st nationally in scoring offense (25.5 points), 73rd in rushing offense (143.0 yards) and 89th in passing offense (185.7 yards).

Continue Reading » Brent Pease named Gators offensive coordinator

Tags: Boise State Broncos, Brent Pease, Brian White, Charlie Weis, CHris Petersen, Gator Bowl, Nick Saban, Will Muschamp

1 » One of the most famous moments in professional wrestling history actually occurred outside of the ring as “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was being coronated King of the Ring in 1996. As he was being interviewed, Austin caught a glimpse of a John 3:16 sign in the crowd and spouted, “You talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16, Austin 3:16 says I just whopped your ass!” The “Austin 3:16” phrase immediately became a hit in what is now known as WWE and spawned signs from fans, T-shirt sales and plenty of other merchandise. With Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow throwing for exactly 316 yards and averaging 31.6 yards per completion on Sunday against Pittsburgh (the final quarter-hour rating of the game was also a 31.6 overnight), Austin was asked by TMZ if he minded that it was being used with Tebow nowadays. “Austin 3:16 still rules,” he told the website. “If Tebow can throw for 316 yards again this weekend then hell, he can have the numbers and I’ll have no problem with it. A guy named John was using it before me so if Tebow can do it again, more power to him! I wish him all the luck in the world. [...] I’m not a Denver fan but Tim’s a great role model for kids.”

2 » In the final USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll of the 2011-12 season, the Florida Gators earned a single vote, meaning the team was listed at No. 25 by one participating coach. The final rankings had Alabama as the unanimous No. 1 (59 first-place votes), four Southeastern Conference teams in the top eight and eight SEC teams receiving at least one vote. Missouri and Texas A&M, the two teams joining the conference next year, each received votes though neither finished in the top 25. The Associated Press Top 25 had Alabama as the overwhelming No. 1 (55 of 60 first-place votes) with LSU in second (one first-place vote) and Oklahoma State in third (four first-place votes). Four SEC teams were ranked in the top nine and six received votes with Auburn the only one unranked. Missouri got 23 votes in the AP poll, but Texas A&M did not receive any.

Click to expand and read two more BITS (and an extra Tebow BIT) in this post.

Tags: Adam Sitter, Charlie Weis, Denver Broncos, Kansas Jayhawks, NFL, Scott Holsopple, Scott Vestal, Steve Austin, Tim Tebow, Top 25, Urban Meyer, WWE, Zach Azzanni