From time to time, OGGOA will come across a plethora of news and notes that we wish to share with our readers. In those instances, we present a special post: Gator Bites. Enjoy.

» Florida Gators associate athletics director Steve McClain spoke with The Florida Times-Union about head coach Urban Meyer’s leave of absence. He had this to say: “If you compare [what Meyer is doing now] to what he was usually doing, it was very different. He [has] made a lot of changes.”

» In a meeting with the media today, running backs coach Stan Drayton told reporters that redshirt sophomore Chris Rainey will be both a rusher and slot receiver next season. While this may seem like big news to some, it is important to realize that former kick returner Brandon James technically held this job last season and amassed a grand total of 24 catches for 215 yards. Obviously Rainey is more talented offensively, but the “change” in position is less important than an increase in production would be.

• Expect redshirt junior RB Emmanuel Moody to see a big increase in carries.
• Freshman RB Mike Gillislee could see more game action, too.

Plenty of additional news and notes are available after the break! Keep reading…
Continue Reading » Gator Bites for Wednesday, February 17

Tags: Allie Will, Carlos Dunlap, Chris Rainey, D.J. Durkin, Draft, Emmanuel Moody, George Edwards, Joe Haden, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Gillislee, National Signing Day, NFL, SEC, Sekou Bangoura Jr., Stan Drayton, Steve Addazio, Steve McClain, Teryl Austin, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer

1 » Redshirt junior transfer running back Emmanuel Moody always seems to be injured. Whether it is a sprained ankle, tweaked knee or pulled hamstring, something is consistently there preventing him from performing at 100 percent. Moody told The Gainesville Sun on Sunday that bone spurs are actually the cause of the majority of his ankle injuries both previously with the USC Trojans and now with the Florida Gators. Surgery last week cleaned out the fragments and has him excited for next season.

2 » Unranked Florida women’s basketball (9-7, 2-1 SEC) fell to the No. 8 Georgia Lady Bulldogs (16-3, 3-0 SEC) 61-52 Sunday evening in Athens, GA, at Stegeman Coliseum. Redshirt sophomore guard Jordan Jones led the Gators with 13 points while freshman forward Jennifer George nabbed a career-high and team-high 10 rebounds. Florida returns home to face the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers (14-1, 2-0 SEC) on Thursday in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center at 7 p.m. The game will air live on Comcast Sports South.

3 » Conversely, the Gators men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams had a great weekend, as the No. 6 men’s team took down the No. 18 LSU Tigers 157.5-134.5 and the No. 7 women defeated No. 21 LSU by 171-121 in the O’Connell Center. Senior Kara Salamone set a school-record in the one-meter springboard diving competition with a 318.15; she would also win the three-meter competition on Sunday. The UF women won 13 of 16 events while the men took 10 of 16. Check OGGOA’s weekly schedule to the right for the next Gators swim meets.

4 » Gators freshman golfer Tommy Mou took home the 84th annual New Year’s Invitational at the St. Petersburg Country Club with a four-day score of 2-over 290. “I tried to play my game, and it was so hard to do that (Sunday),” Mou told the St. Petersburg Times. “I only hit four or five greens all day. It was tough out there.”

Tags: diving, Emmanuel Moody, Georgia Lady Bulldogs, golf, Jennifer George, Jordan Jones, Kara Salamone, LSU Tigers, O’Connell Center, Stegeman Coliseum, swimming, Tommy Mou, USC Trojans, women's basketball

Each week following a Florida Gators game, ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive grades the team position-by-position based on each unit’s performance. This week, we look at how the Gators fared against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the final game of their season, the 2010 Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA.

QUARTERBACKS: A+
When the best player in school history plays the best game of his career in the final game of his career, it is tough not to give him an “A+” grade. And that is exactly what senior quarterback Tim Tebow has earned – not just for his outstanding performance Friday evening but for his career in the Orange and Blue. Pick your poison: was it the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award he was given before the game, the Sugar Bowl record 12 consecutive completions, the career-long 80-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Riley Cooper, the Sugar Bowl and BCS bowl game record 533 yards of total offense, the Sugar Bowl/BCS record 482 passing yards, the 31 completions which set a new Sugar Bowl record, the Sugar Bowl high four touchdowns or the 88.6 completion percentage that set a BCS record? The answer, of course, is “all of the above.”

RUNNING BACKS: A-
Tebow was once again the leading ball carrier for the Gators with 14 touches for 51 yards and a touchdown, but both redshirt junior Emmanuel Moody and redshirt sophomore Chris Rainey came up big throughout the game. Moody rushed eight times for only 14 yards but scored two touchdowns on the ground (he also had four receptions for 19 yards) while Rainey caught four passes for 71 yards and ran four times for 27 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Mike Gillislee cleaned up at the end of the fourth quarter and took a ball 52 yards for a final line of five carries for 78 yards. Sophomore Jeff Demps, the true starter, left the game after he dislocated his elbow on his third rush of the game. Though the attempts and yards were not there, three rushing touchdowns brought this unit up a half-grade.

Read the rest of Florida’s grades from the Sugar Bowl after the jump…
Continue Reading » Grading the Florida vs. Cincinnati game

Tags: Aaron Hernandez, Ahmad Black, BCS, Brandon Hicks, Brandon James, Brandon Spikes, Caleb Sturgis, Carlos Dunlap, Charlie Strong, Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, Cincinnati Bearcats, David Nelson, Deonte Thompson, Dustin Doe, Emmanuel Moody, Janoris Jenkins, Jeff Demps, Joe Haden, Justin Trattou, Louisiana Superdome, Major Wright, Mardy Gilyard, Mike Gillislee, NFL, Riley Cooper, Ryan Stamper, Scot Loeffler, SEC, Sugar Bowl, Tim Tebow, Tony Pike, Urban Meyer, Vance Bedford

Coming of a week filled with seemingly endless questions and distractions, the No. 5 Florida Gators (13-1) eased tensions and erased any doubts (at least temporarily) with a dominating 51-24 victory over the No. 3 Cincinnati Bearcats (12-1) in the 2010 Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome.

In the final game of his college career, Gators senior quarterback Tim Tebow went 31-of-35 for a career-high 482 yards passing and three touchdowns through the air. He also carried the ball 14 times for 51 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Completing his first twelve passes in what was arguably the best performance of his entire career, Tebow finished with 533 total yards – more than anyone in both BCS and Sugar Bowl history. Tebow’s three touchdown passes went to senior wide receiver Riley Cooper, junior tight end Aaron Hernandez and redshirt sophomore WR Deonte Thompson.

“It was incredible,” Tebow said of his third BCS bowl game victory. “Just a great game. It was exactly how you want to go out with these seniors and these coaches in your last game and your last time together. It just really doesn’t get any better than this.”

Cooper caught seven passes for a career-high 181 yards, Hernandez brought in nine balls for 111 yards and Thompson snagged five for 63 yards. Redshirt sophomore running back Chris Rainey caught four passes for 71 yards; he also rushed four times for 27 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt junior transfer RB Emmanuel Moody had the first two touchdown game of his career though freshman RB Mike Gillislee ended up as the team’s leading rusher (79 yards) after taking a hand-off for 52 yards in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, junior cornerback Joe Haden once again shut down his assignment, allowing Bearcats senior wide receiver Mardy Gilyard to gain only 41 yards. Florida’s pass rush and blitzing was on-point all night, holding Cincinnati senior QB Tony Pike to 27-of-45 passing for 170 yards. Pike, however, completed three touchdown passes after the game was out of hand. Junior defensive end Carlos Dunlap earned two of the team’s three sacks on Pike, the secondary had numerous interception opportunities and senior linebacker Brandon Spikes was flying around the ball all evening.

The Gators outgained the Bearcats 660-to-246 in total yardage, though the time of possession battle was close to even because Florida scored quickly. The Gators’ 660 yards was also a Sugar Bowl record. With the win, Florida became the first school in Football Bowl Subdivision history to win 13 games in consecutive seasons.

Going into the game, the Gators were without senior kick returner Brandon James (foot), redshirt junior LB A.J. Jones (knee) and redshirt junior defensive tackle Terron Sanders (hip), though additional injuries piled up before and during the game. Junior center Maurkice Pouncey spent five hours in the hospital earlier in the day passing a kidney stone and left the game in the second half to pass another. Sophomore RB Jeff Demps dislocated his elbow early on and redshirt junior left guard Carl Johnson hurt his shoulder. Sophomore CB Janoris Jenkins and redshirt senior LB Ryan Stamper were both down on the field for a while but would return to action.

Gators head coach Urban Meyer, who resigned on Saturday before changing his mind and deciding to take a leave of absence instead on Sunday, said at the trophy presentation after the game that he hoped to return to the sidelines for the 2010 season. “I plan on being the coach of the Gators,” Meyer said. On Tebow, Meyer said he “will go down as one of the great players, if not the greatest player, in college football [history].” Tebow won the game’s Most Outstanding Player Award, thanking the coaches, his teammates and Gator Nation while accepting it on the podium. He took a moment to specifically thank Meyer for making him a Gator, telling him that he loved him and hugging him.

Tags: A.J. Jones, Aaron Hernandez, BCS, Brandon James, Caleb Sturgis, Carl Johnson, Carlos Dunlap, Chris Rainey, Cincinnati Bearcats, Deonte Thompson, Emmanuel Moody, Janoris Jenkins, Jeff Demps, Joe Haden, Louisiana Superdome, Mardy Gilyard, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Gillislee, Most Outstanding Player, Riley Cooper, Ryan Stamper, Sugar Bowl, Terron Sanders, Tim Tebow, Tony Pike, Urban Meyer

1 » Amid speculation that he was considering entry into the 2010 NFL Draft, Florida Gators redshirt sophomore running back Chris Rainey told the Orlando Sentinel that he will stay in Gainesville, FL, for “at least another year.” With Rainey, sophomore Jeff Demps and redshirt junior transfer Emmanuel Moody all coming back next season, the Gators’ running back unit may be the deepest it has been in years. Also on the roster will be sophomore Mike Gillislee, redshirt junior walk-on Christopher Scott and four-star 2010 commitment Mack Brown (Lithonia, GA).

2 » After starting the 2009 campaign 8-0 including wins over the Florida State Seminoles and then-No. 2 Michigan State Spartans, the Florida basketball team rose to No. 10/11 in the AP and USA Today/ESPN Top 25 polls, respectively. Consecutive losses to the No. 5/5 Syracuse Orange and unranked Richmond Spiders (both at neutral sites) have since dropped the Gators down to a No. 18 ranking in both polls. Florida has returned home to the Stephen C. O’Connell Center and will take on the South Alabama Jaguars Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Tags: Chris Rainey, Christopher Scott, Draft, Emmanuel Moody, Florida State Seminoles, Jeff Demps, Mack Brown, Michigan State Spartans, Mike Gillislee, NFL, O'Connell Center, Richmond Spiders, South Alabama Jaguars, Syracuse Orange

Each week following a Florida Gators game, ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive will grade the team position-by-position based on each unit’s performance. This week, we look at how the Gators fared against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2009 SEC Championship in Atlanta, GA. Following those grades, OGGOA has provided its overlooked grades (without explanations) for the Florida State Seminoles game.

QUARTERBACKS: B
Florida seemingly decided to put the entire offense on senior quarterback Tim Tebow’s shoulders. How else could you explain the 35 passing attempts and team-high 10 carries? On the ground, Tebow rushed for 63 yards. Through the air, he completed 57 percent of his passes for 247 yards and a touchdown. But he also threw a costly interception into the end zone and came up short on numerous occasions. Like the strategy or not, Tebow was responsible for almost every offensive snap of an offense that failed to get the job done against a stout Alabama defense.

RUNNING BACKS: I
Inexplicably, Florida’s running backs touched the ball a total of three times on Saturday. Three. In the Gators’ first 12 games, sophomore Jeff Demps averaged eight carries (7.7 yards), redshirt sophomore Chris Rainey averaged seven touches (6.4 yards) and redshirt junior transfer Emmanuel Moody averaged five rushes (7.3 yards). That is a total of 20 running plays and well over 100 yards of rushing that were not part of Florida’s offensive game plan. The only possible grade for this unit is “incomplete.”

Read the rest of Florida’s grades from the SEC Championship after the jump…
Continue Reading » Grading the Florida vs. Alabama game (+ FSU)

Tags: A.J. Jones, Aaron Hernandez, Alabama Crimson Tide, Brandon Hicks, Brandon James, Brandon Spikes, Caleb Sturgis, Carlos Dunlap, Charlie Strong, Chas Henry, Chris Rainey, Colin Peek, David Nelson, Deonte Thompson, Draft, Emmanuel Moody, Florida State Seminoles, Greg McElroy, Janoris Jenkins, Jeff Demps, Joe Haden, Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Marquis Maze, NFL, Nick Saban, Riley Cooper, Ryan Stamper, SEC Championship, Steve Addazio, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, Xavier Nixon

Location: Georgia Dome – Atlanta, GA [Capacity: 71,228]
Time: 4:00 p.m. (EST)
Weather Forecast: N/A

TV: CBS / CBSHD
Online: CBSSports.com
Sirius: 123; XM: 144

Odds: Florida -5.5, O/U 41
Head-to-Head Stats: Gainesville Sun

KEEP AN EYE ON…
- Florida’s 2009 senior class…the winningest group in Southeastern Conference history with a 47-6 overall record. The seniors will be playing in their third SEC Championship game in the Georgia Dome in four years.
– Senior quarterback Tim Tebow and Alabama running back Mark Ingram…who will both be making their respective cases for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Considered two of the main competitors for the award, Tebow and Ingram each have a chance, through their play, to make an argument that they should win the trophy.
- Junior defensive end Justin Trattou…who along with redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Jaye Howard will be filling in for suspended junior starting DE Carlos Dunlap.
- Junior cornerback Joe Haden and wide receiver Julio Jones…who will face off in what could potentially be the match-up of the game between one of the best CBs and one of the best WRs in the nation.
- Head coach Urban Meyer…who is 2-0 in the SEC Championship and a combined 5-1 with Florida in championship or bowl games.
- Kick returners Brandon James and Javier Arenas…who each have a chance to make a difference in the game on special teams. James will be going up against one of the worst coverage units in college football while Arenas, one of the best returners in 2009, will be going up against the best punt coverage in the nation (13 total yards allowed). In 11 of 12 games, Florida have allowed zero punt return yards.
- Experienced players…the Gators feature 19 starters and 44 players who saw action in the 2008 SEC Championship, while the Crimson Tide return 10 starters and 36 players of their own from the game.

STREAKS:
- The Gators are in the middle of the longest winning streak in school history with 22 consecutive victories. They also hold the longest active winning streak in the NCAA and the best in the nation in the last 15 years. 21 of Florida’s 22 wins have been by a double digit margin. The team is also 12-0 for the second time in school history, the first time solely in the regular season.
- Florida and Alabama meet in the SEC Championship for the second year in a row and seventh time since the game was instituted in 1992. The Gators are 4-2 in these games and 6-4 overall in the last 10 meetings. Alabama leads the all-time series 20-14.
- For the first time in SEC Championship history, both division leaders are undefeated.
- Florida has the most SEC Championship game wins and appearances by any team.
- The Gators lead the SEC in total offense (451.3), rushing offense (236.7) and third-down efficiency (.500). They also come in No. 2 in scoring offense (36.5). Florida’s offense is the only unit in the nation that has posted at least 2,800 rushing yards and 2,575 passing yards on the season.
- On defense, the Gators have only surrendered 11 touchdowns (nine from scrimmage) all season (both totals fewest in the nation). The unit has only allowed 14 field goals for a total of 118 points (9.8 per game) – tops in the nation. The defense is also No. 1 in total defense (233.1 yards per game) and pass defense (143.2 yards per game).
- The Gators have not thrown an interception in over a month (Oct. 24); however, the defense has recorded 13 interceptions over the past six weeks – most in the nation.
- Florida’s defense has held nine of its 12 opponents under 100 yards rushing. The secondary has held four opponents under 100 yards passing and forced six to complete fewer than 50 percent of their pass attempts.

Read OGGOA’s Florida Gators vs. Alabama Crimson Tide preview after the jump!
Continue Reading » 2009 SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – (Atlanta, GA) – No. 1 Florida Gators v. No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide

Tags: A.J. Jones, Alabama Crimson Tide, Brandon Antwine, Brandon James, Carlos Dunlap, Cory Reamer, Emmanuel Moody, Georgia Dome, Heisman Trophy, Janoris Jenkins, Javier Arenas, Jaye Howard, Jermaine Cunningham, Joe Haden, Julio Jones, Justin Trattou, Mark Ingram, Nick Saban, SEC Championship, Terron Sanders, Terry Grant, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer