1 » Having just completed a $900,000 renovation that included – most notably – brand new seats in the lower bowl along with wider aisles and handrails – the Stephen C. O’Connell Center continues to remake itself year after year. Through the brand new seats will be more comfortable for students and season ticket holders, they still do not have seatbacks (an addition that would have cost the arena nearly 1,000 seats, according to O’Dome director Lynda Reinhart). As it stands now, the capacity has been reduced by approximately 200 seats and is now somewhere around 11,800, according to The Gainesville Sun. The paper also reports that “the men’s basketball practice courts inside the arena were re-surfaced” and “gate signs were re-numbered and work was done on the pool deck.” Financing for the project came directly from the arena’s reserve with no additional contributions needed.

2 » Three Florida Gators baseball players – redshirt junior first baseman Vicksah Ramjit, senior infielder Jeff Moyer and redshirt freshman INF Alex Freedman will be playing for the Wilmington Sharks of the Coastal Plain League over the summer. Freedman, who redshirted the 2010-11 season, has been with the team all summer; Ramjit and Moyer joined this week. All three will be back in Orange & Blue next year.

3 » As OGGOA has reported numerous times, former Gators defensive lineman Thaddeus Bullard continues to work toward being a full-time WWE wrestler as he competes with Florida Championship Wrestling, the organization’s primary developmental territory. On Friday, Bullard (who wrestles as Titus O’Neil) will return to Gainesville, FL for a FCW show at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Multipurpose Center.

4 » Florida redshirt senior defensive tackle Jaye Howard and junior tackle Xavier Nixon were both named to the 2011 Outland Trophy Watch List on Friday. The Outland Trophy, which is awarded to the best interior lineman in college football, has never been awarded to a Gators player. The closest one has come to winning it was when tackle Jason Odom finished in the top three alongside Ohio State’s Orlando Pace and UCLA’s Jonathan Ogden (the award’s winner) in 1995. Howard was also named to the watch list for the 2011 Bronko Nagurski Trophy, an award presented to the country’s top defensive player.

Tags: Alex Freedman, baseball, Bronko Nagurski Trophy, FCW, Jason Odom, Jaye Howard, Jeff Moyer, O'Connell Center, Outland Trophy, Thaddeus Bullard, Titus O'Neil, Vickash Ramjit, Wilmington Sharks, WWE, Xavier Nixon

1 » No. 1 Florida Gators volleyball (17-1, 10-0 SEC) improved to 9-1 against top 25 opponents this season with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-20) shutout victory over the No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers (15-5, 7-4 SEC) on Wednesday at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL. Florida junior outside hitter Kristy Jaeckel led the Gators with a team-high 12 kills. Junior right-side/setter Kelly Murphy contributed a match-high 15 digs along with seven kills and 17 assists, while senior OH Callie Rivers added nine kills and seven digs. Florida is rated No. 1 in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and has won 12-straight matches since falling to then-No. 1 Penn State on Sept. 10.

2 » Former Gators linebacker Channing Crowder of the Miami Dolphins, spoke out Wednesday when asked about the NFL’s decision to seriously crack down and possibly suspend players for helmet-to-helmet hits. “If I get a chance to knock somebody out, I’m going to knock them out and take what they give me,” Crowder said. “They give me a helmet, I’m going to use it. If I’m knocked out, I don’t know where I’m at, I can’t say my name, now I can’t play football. If I get hit in the head and black out for a second and now I get back up dizzy, OK, I’m ready to go.” Crowder believes the NFL is “making a big deal about nothing, adding, “They want to save the receivers and quarterbacks because they sell all the jerseys. They don’t give a damn at all about the defensive players because we don’t sell as many jerseys as them. If they want to change football to a graceful sport, change it all the way to a graceful sport. Don’t try to save the quarterbacks and receivers because they make the money, which that’s what they’re doing.”

Extra BIT » Over the summer we here on OGGOA covered former Florida defensive end Thaddeus Bullard‘s journey with World Wrestling Entertainment as he “competed” on the WWE NXT television program created to find the company’s next breakout star. Though he was eliminated early on, Bullard’s background as a football player and master’s degree recipient from the University of Florida was played up heavily by the producers/announcers; he even did a Gator Chomp at the top of the entrance ramp before entering the ring. As his in-ring character Titus O’Neil, Bullard returns to Gainesville on Friday, Oct. 29 as he competes with current and future WWE superstars in a Florida Championship Wrestling event at the Alachua County Fairgrounds. A member of UF’s Hall of Fame, O’Neil was also a Student Body Vice President in 2000.

Tags: Callie Rivers, Channing Crowder, FCW, Florida Gators, Gator Chomp, Hall of Fame, Kelly Murphy, Kristy Jaeckel, Miami Dolphins, NCAA, NFL, NXT, O'Connell Center, SEC, Tennessee Volunteers, Thaddeus Bullard, Titus O'Neil, University of Florida, volleyball, WWE

1 » OGGOA has extensively covered former Florida Gators center Maurkice Pouncey’s transition to the NFL and the Pittsburgh Steelers, including his lining up at right guard while he waits for his true position to open up along the offensive line. ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli profiled Pouncey last week, nothing that he truly has the chance to be something special in the NFL. “He’s the kind of guy where, if he makes a mistake on a play, he’s immediately right over to you to get [an explanation],” offensive line coach Sean Kugler said. “You’ve got to tell him, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll go over that.’ He really wants to be good; he’s into it.”

2 » The name “Titus O’Neil” may not be familiar to Gators fans, but perhaps Thaddeus Bullard rings a bell. While Bullard is a former Florida defensive end, O’Neil is a professional wrestler about to make a splash as one of the newest members of World Wrestling Entertainment‘s NXT television program. Fact is – they are one and the same. Bullard, now 33, was one of the nation’s top defensive linemen coming out of high school in 1995. Unfortunately, his football career never really panned out after registering 56 tackles in 47 games with the Gators as a back-up from 1997-2000. After playing in the Arena Football League for three years, he decided to try his hand at sports entertainment and began competing with Florida Championship Wrestling in 2009. The now-named O’Neil has been called up from FCW to WWE and is set to take part in the second season of the company’s NXT brand – a faux-reality show attempting to find WWE’s next breakout star. OGGOA will follow along with Bullard’s journey over the next few months as he attempts to “win” a full-time contract and pay-per-view title match.

Tags: AFL, FCW, Maurkice Pouncey, NFL, NXT, Pittsburgh Steelers, Sean Kugler, Thaddeus Bullard, Titus O'Neil, WWE