1 » Former Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer said Thursday something that many fans of quarterback Tim Tebow demanded from the Denver Broncos throughout the 2011 season. Asked how the New York Jets should utilize Tebow while making an appearance on ESPN, Meyer said simply, “Let him play. Just let him play.” He went on to note that Denver did not do that with Tebow often enough last year and that the coaches were way too conservative with him overall. The Broncos’ coaching staff received plenty of praise for the way they “handled” Tebow but Meyer, like Tebow’s supporters, seemed to contend that they were hindering his effectiveness rather than giving him an opportunity to blossom. “When they had success I think they [let him play],” he said. “When you started seeing him throw against those easy coverages it was because they had to stop the run.”

2 » ESPN.com featured former Florida (more recently North Alabama) cornerback Janoris Jenkins on its front page for a good period of time Thursday afternoon. The front page display linked to a video of Mel Kiper, Jr. discussing Jenkins’s talents, an article about him walking a tightrope as he prepares for the 2012 NFL Draft and another listing him as the second-best playmaker at his position.

One portion of the former article, found below, was particularly interesting in regards to how Jenkins has since rebounded from the mistakes he made in Gainesville, FL.

Jenkins met with Muschamp while Cornelio and William listened to the coach’s reasoning for dismissing his star cornerback. The coach told Jenkins he had two options: enter the NFL supplemental draft or transfer.

[...]

During the four-hour ride back to Pahokee, Cornelio clarified things even more while William glared at his son.

“I told him he had three choices,” Cornelio said. “When he finished college, he was either going to the NFL, the Army or back to Pahokee to work with his father [driving a truck]. He had to decide. And to his credit, he needed about 30 seconds to make the right choice.”

“They basically told me that I had made my mistakes,” Jenkins said. “And now I had to figure out how to deal with them.”

William and Cornelio agreed that allowing Jenkins to enter the supplemental draft would be counterproductive. Along with losing money, Jenkins wouldn’t have paid a steep enough price for his mistakes.

Tags: Denver Broncos, Janoris Jenkins, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer

1 » Despite well-documented problems off the field (marijuana arrests) and a number of questions about his maturity (four children under the age of four supposedly by three different women), former Florida Gators cornerback Janoris Jenkins continues to be a hot name for teams looking for secondary talent in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions have recently emerged as a team in serious contention for Jenkins’s services with the No. 23 overall pick. However, the team and its front office are undoubtedly doing their due diligence on Jenkins. According to the Detroit Free Press, the Lions met with Jenkins at the 2012 Under Armour Senior Bowl and “are expected to host him on a visit” soon. When asked about him in particular, general manager Martin Mayhew played coy: “Wouldn’t you like to know that?” he said. “Like I said, we’ve got a lot of work to do in the process, and we haven’t done it all.”

2 » Florida senior center fielder Michelle Moultrie picked up a second weekly award on Tuesday as she was named the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Week for her dominant performance the prior weekend. Moultrie went 8/11 with two home runs, three doubles, four RBIs, six runs and a stolen base as UF swept Arkansas on the road. She was also named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday for her efforts.

3 » In a question-and-answer session with ESPN, Gators five-star defensive end/Buck linebacker commitment Dante Fowler, Jr. divulged some specifics about his personality and excitement to don the orange and blue sooner than later. Fowler noted not only that he recently got some advice from junior Buck LB Ronald Powell but also that he is “actually like a big teddy bear” instead of a “big, mean person” that some think he is just because he plays football. “People might say that I’m kind of shy because I put my head down when I talk and stuff,” he said. “But I’m a big teddy bear. My favorite TV show is iCarly. I’m going to be a big teddy bear off the field, but on the field I’m all business.”

4 » USA Today has released a compiled list of the salaries of the 68 head coaches participating in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Florida’s Billy Donovan came in No. 4 on the list in terms of total pay, earning $3.64 million for 2011-12 with a maximum bonus of $454,000. Though Donovan’s salary and bonuses are high, they are very much in-line with what Kansas’ Bill Self ($3.63M, $425K max bonus) and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo ($3.60M, $425K max bonus) bring in annually. The only men above Donovan are Kentucky’s John Calipari ($5.39M, $850K max bonus), Louisville’s Rick Pitino ($4.81M, $575K max bonus) and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski ($4.70M). Alabama’s Anthony Grant ($1.84M, $415K max bonus) is ranked No. 18 on the list and Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart ($1.21M, $621K max bonus) checks in at No. 30.

Tags: Anthony Grant, Billy Donovan, Dante Fowler, Detroit Lions, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, John Calipari, Michelle Moultrie, NFL, Player of the Week, Ronald Powell, SEC, Senior Bowl, Shaka Smart, softball, USA Softball

With the Florida Gators set to begin 2012 spring practice on Wednesday, head coach Will Muschamp and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn met with the media Tuesday to discuss a variety of topics concerning the team’s defense.

RELATED: Muschamp, Pease talk Florida Gators offense | Spring depth chart

PRIORITIES FOR 2012

Just as offensive coordinator Brent Pease listed his five offensive philosophies heading into the season, Muschamp took time before answering questions on Wednesday to discuss – in detail – his three priorities for the Gators on both sides of the ball this year.

(1) As we hit spring, the emphasis to me as a team [is on] turnover margin. We’re minus 12 last year. We’re 113th in the country. It’s really a minor miracle we won seven games. You can’t win games turning it over and not getting turnovers. When I was at Texas my second-to-last year, I think we led the country in turnovers. We emphasize it. It’s not like we’re all of a sudden going to start emphasizing it. Dan talks about it with our defense every single day. We’ve got to find different ways to emphasize it. I don’t know what if you do the same things you’re going to get the same results. We had 15 dropped interceptions, so we had 15 times where we have both hands on the ball. And we’ve got to finish plays. We’re going to do more ball drills. We’re going to do some things that we’ve got to do to get the ball in position for our offense and let Brent and the guys have a chance. That’s a huge point of emphasis.

(2) We need to make a lot more explosive plays, but we need to limit them on defense, but turnover margin is really the emphasis we’re looking at. Ball possession, security of the ball offensively, big emphasis.

(3) Mental and physical toughness. We had some discipline issues and that falls on my shoulders – 41 what I would call ‘discipline penalties,’ jumping offsides, false starts, 23 false starts, 18 offside penalties defensively, so that’s almost half of our penalties. Those are things we will not tolerate. We’ve got more depth on our football team now. There were some opportunities last year where a guy would jump offsides and we didn’t have anybody else to go to. That guy won’t play anymore, so we’ll get him out of the game and put somebody else in there. [...] The physical toughness of stopping the run and being able to run the ball when you need to, and again, not being hardheaded, we’re trying to run the ball. When they load the box, you’ve got to be able to create some match ups outside and win, but to do the things you’ve got to do to win games, and we’ll talk a little bit about that further.

» Quinn on improving turnover margin: “There’s really two kinds of turnovers. There’s one that I’ll call a conscious effort: You strip the quarterback, you’ve got a big hit on the running back. Then there’s some that are just an unconscious effort: There was an overthrown ball, you picked it [up]. We’ve got to do a much better job of the conscious effort, making a big emphasis on taking the ball away. As coach had talked about, it’s something that we address a lot. So what did I do this offseason that was an important part for me, to call some other clubs and say what are some of the things you’re doing that you guys played so well to get the ball away. I talked to the guys at San Francisco; they had a terrific turnover margin this year so important for me to reach out. Are you doing anything different? [...] It’s awareness for the players, and I emphasized it, and as Will said, if you can do the same thing you’ll get the same results. We’re going to challenge, do some different drills for it, and we’re going to improve in that area.”

» Quinn on mental and physical toughness: “The off season program was the first step in that, and that’s what you’re trying to do. Let’s face it, everybody in the country is talking about being a tough, physical team. Who wouldn’t want to be on a tough, physical team? We all would be. How do you put that into action? And I think it starts in the weight room. [...] There’s something that you get accomplished when you go through a physical offseason program that you come out the other end and you feel a little stronger, and you feel a little more ready to take on a different role on the field. And then when you get out on the grass it’s the competition, and I think that’s one of the really exciting things about coaching at a place like here that there’s some really good competition on the other side of the ball. I think you gain something from that as a player when you have to go against a certain player, whether it’s covering him or taking him on at the line of scrimmage or in that physical element. So that’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to is competition going forward into spring practice.”

Read more about the defense’s players and the coaches’ philosophies…
Continue Reading » Muschamp, Quinn talk Gators team, defense

Tags: Bryant Young, Damien Jacobs, Dan Quinn, Dominique Easley, Earl Okine, Graham Stewart, Janoris Jenkins, Jelani Jenkins, Jeremy Brown, Jon Bostic, Leon Orr, Lerentee McCray, Marcus Roberson, Matt Elam, Neiron Ball, Omar Hunter, Ronald Powell, Sharrif Floyd, Will Muschamp

1 » The four-seed Florida Gators (22-9, 10-6 SEC) learned Thursday that they will take on the five-seed Alabama Crimson Tide (21-10, 10-7 SEC) in the second round of the 2012 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The game, which will air live nationally on SEC Network, is the second meeting between the two teams this season. Alabama beat South Carolina 63-57 on Thursday, giving head coach Anthony Grant his second opportunity to defeat his former boss – Florida head coach Billy Donovan – this season. Donovan is 3-0 against Grant since the latter coach took over the Crimson Tide program. More information on this game will be available in Friday’s Gameday Preview here on OGGOA.

2 » Speaking with ESPN’s Mel Kiper, Jr. on Thursday, OGGOA was told by the NFL Draft analyst that he believes Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey raised his stock at the 2012 NFL Combine. Previously projected to be selected in the third or fourth round, Rainey may go a full round higher now, according to Kiper. “Rainey is an all-purpose guy. He’s got the big-play potential; you can utilize him in a lot of different ways,” he said. “I think he could be in that second- or third-round discussion because of the weapon he could be.” Kiper also discussed with OGGOA the future of former Florida cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who was dismissed from the team over the summer and spent the 2012 season with North Alabama.

Click to expand and read the rest of the BITS in this post.

Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Anthony Grant, Bill Belichick, Billy Donovan, Chris Rainey, combine, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, NFL

ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive continues our coverage of the three former Florida Gators players participating in the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.

Former Florida Gators cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who was dismissed from the team and spent the 2011 season with North Alabama, had already been weighed and measured, completed exams, met with the media, been interviewed by teams and undergone psychological tests before he completed his full workout on Tuesday afternoon. Below are the results of how Jenkins measured in and performed during his four days at the NFL Combine.

Cornerback Janoris Jenkins (Group 10, DB27)
Height: 5’10″
Weight: 193 lbs.
Arm Length: 32 in.
Hand Size: 8 1/4 in.

40-Yard Dash: 4.46 seconds (Video)
Broad Jump: 121.0 inches
Vertical Jump: 33.5 inches
Bench Press: DNP

Overview: A prototypical cornerback at the next level with immense ability and athleticism, Jenkins may very well have been a first-round pick in 2011 if a shoulder injury did not play a part in him returning to school. After being dismissed from Florida for multiple arrests for possession of marijuana, Jenkins found himself at North Alabama where he had a solid year against a lower level of competition. Character concerns and integrity issues will be the main problems Jenkins has to overcome but all the positives he brings to the table could wind up outweighing those deterrents in the long run. In addition to being a solid cover corner, Jenkins has also shown an aptitude for returning kickoffs and punts, which may given him additional value in some teams’ eyes. His speed and quickness, fluid hips, coverage skills and strength at the line of scrimmage allow him to cover in both man-to-man and zone defensive schemes.
Strengths: Coverage, athleticism, speed/quickness, fluidity, hips
Weaknesses: Character concerns, off-field issues, size

Click to expand and read the remainder of this post.

Tags: Chris Rainey, combine, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, Jaye Howard, NFL

ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive continues our coverage of the three former Florida Gators players participating in the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.

Florida Gators defensive tackle Jaye Howard had already been weighed and measured, completed exams, met with the media, been interviewed by teams and undergone psychological tests before he completed his full workout on Monday afternoon. Below are the results of how Rainey measured in and performed during his four days at the NFL Combine.

Defensive tackle Jaye Howard (Group 07, DL22)
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 301 lbs.
Arm Length: 33 in.
Hand Size: 9 7/8 in.

40-Yard Dash: 4.82 seconds (No. 12 time of any DL)
Broad Jump: 106.0 inches
Vertical Jump: 27.5 inches
Bench Press: 24 reps (of 225 lbs.)

Overview: With plenty of size, strength and off-the-ball quickness, Howard can impact the game at defensive tackle and proved during his senior season that he can perform well while on the field for the majority of downs. He did his best to erase concerns raised during his junior season in which he disappeared at times in games, showing that he is a durable and affecting player who can make a difference when he’s on the field. Howard became a trustworthy veteran for a team in need of leadership, but his perceived inconsistency will be something teams focus on throughout the evaluation process.
Strengths: Size, strength, durability, tackling
Weaknesses: Inconsistency, effort, blocking

Former Florida cornerback Janoris Jenkins (Group 10, DB27) will participate in NFL Combine workouts on Tuesday, while Gators running back Chris Rainey (Group 06, RB24) completed his on Sunday with some great times.

The event, which is held for six days from Feb. 22-28, consists of more than 300 players being put through a series of drills, tests and interviews while more than 600 NFL personnel in attendance (including coaching staffs, executives, player personnel and medical staffs) look on and evaluate each of them. It amounts to the final job interview these athletes will participate in before the 2012 NFL Draft commences on April 26.

Tags: Chris Rainey, combine, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, Jaye Howard, NFL

ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive continues our coverage of the three former Florida Gators players participating in the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.

Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey had already been weighed and measured, completed exams, met with the media, been interviewed by teams and undergone psychological tests before he completed his full workout on Sunday afternoon. Below are the results of how Rainey measured in and performed during his four days at the NFL Combine.

Running back Chris Rainey (Group 06, RB24)
Height: 5’8″
Weight: 180 lbs.
Arm Length: 30 3/4 in.
Hand Size: 9 1/2 in.

40-Yard Dash: 4.45 seconds (No. 2 time)
20-Yard Shuttle: 3.93 seconds (No. 1 time)
60-Yard Shuttle: 11.06 seconds (No. 1 time)
3-Cone Drill: 6.50 seconds (No. 1 time)
Broad Jump: 120.0 inches
Vertical Jump: 36.5 inches
Bench Press: 16 reps (of 225 lbs.)

UPDATE: Rainey’s times in the shuttles and three-cone drill are the fastest of any player who has participated in this year’s combine through Monday.

Overview: With speed and quickness rivaling or topping every other running back in the 2012 draft class, Rainey is agile and electric on the field, making him an intriguing prospect as a rusher, wide receiver or kickoff and punt returner. He is powerful for a player his size with track-like speed and top-notch elusiveness. However, he is not a polished blocker and is much more effective outside the tackles where he can make plays in space as opposed to between the tackles where he is forced to draw contact.
Strengths: Speed, quickness, agility, experience
Weaknesses: Size, blocking, next-level durability

Quote: “I’m going for the 4.1. I’m going for the big one.” – Rainey on trying to break the combine 40-yard dash record

Florida defensive tackle Jaye Howard (Group 07, DL22) and former Gators cornerback Janoris Jenkins (Group 10, DB27) will participate in NFL Combine workouts on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

The event, which is held for six days from Feb. 22-28, consists of more than 300 players being put through a series of drills, tests and interviews while more than 600 NFL personnel in attendance (including coaching staffs, executives, player personnel and medical staffs) look on and evaluate each of them. It amounts to the final job interview these athletes will participate in before the 2012 NFL Draft commences on April 26.

Tags: Chris Rainey, combine, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, Jaye Howard, NFL

OGGOA has learned that three former Florida Gators players have been officially invited to participate in the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.

The event, which is held for six days from Feb. 22-28, consists of more than 300 players being put through a series of drills, tests and interviews while more than 600 NFL personnel in attendance (including coaching staffs, executives, player personnel and medical staffs) look on and evaluate each of them. It amounts to the final job interview these athletes will participate in before the 2012 NFL Draft commences on April 26.

The three former Gators student-athletes invited to the combine include:

Running back Jeff Demps – Group: 6; Camp: RB06
Defensive tackle Jaye Howard – Group: 7; Camp: DL22
Running back Chris Rainey – Group: 6; Camp: RB24

Former Florida cornerback Janoris Jenkins (Group: TBD; Camp: DB27) was also invited and is expected to participate in the event.

Demps, on the other hand, is unlikely to take part in the combine as he has decided to run track for the Gators and attempt to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics.

The two notable names left off the invite list are those of quarterback John Brantley and wide receiver Deonte Thompson. Other draft-eligible Florida players include center/guard Dan Wenger and defensive end William Green.

Read about each player’s day-to-day schedule in Indianapolis after the jump!
Continue Reading » Three Gators invited to 2012 NFL Combine

Tags: Chris Rainey, combine, Deonte Thompson, Draft, Janoris Jenkins, Jaye Howard, Jeff Demps, John Brantley, Lucas Oil Stadium, NFL, Olympics