A pair of senior Florida Gators football players – linebacker Jon Bostic and running back Mike Gillislee – spoke on Tuesday about the team’s activities during the offseason and how they each plan to improve heading into the 2012 season.

BOSTIC, JENKINS GETTING BIGGER AND BETTER

Even though Bostic was Florida’s leading tackler and one of the most productive players on the defense in 2011, he has spent the entire offseason – and will now spend all of spring practice – trying to get better. Though he may have the system down pat, the changes offensive coordinator Brent Pease is making to his side of the ball are giving Bostic and the rest of the defense even more looks than they are used to having.

“There’s something new to learn every day and get better at every day,” he said. “This spring, with this new offense and the shifting and adjusting that they’re doing, it’s really making us learn this defense and learn all these checks and adjustments that we need to make right off the top of our head, not where it’s something we need to learn by week.”

Nearly as effective as Bostic last year, redshirt junior LB Jelani Jenkins appears to have bulked up significantly since new strength and conditioning coach Jeff Dillman took over the program. Bostic says his teammate has “gotten a lot stronger” and weighed in at “236 or 238” pounds on Monday, crediting Dillman and his new style for the improvements to both of their physiques.

“It’s more Olympic-style lifts with the power cleans and stuff,” he said. I had never done those lifts before until I got here. We did some in high school but I didn’t do too much of it. I tried it once, couldn’t get the technique, so I just went about my business and did something else. I like it.”

GILLISLEE READY TO RUN
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Tags: Jeff Dillman, Jelani Jenkins, Jon Bostic, Marcus Roberson, Mike Gillislee, Tyler Murphy

In his second year at the helm of the Florida Gators, head coach Will Muschamp was forced to hire two new position coaches and find a new director of strength and conditioning as adjustments were made to the coaching staff following the 2011 season.

According to information released by Florida on Friday, offensive coordinator Brent Pease signed a three-year, $1.77 million contract with the Gators that pays him $490,000 per season along with a $100,000 signing bonus and a pair of $100,000 longevity bonuses following the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Comparatively, the contract Charlie Weis signed in 2011 was for three years and $2.625 million; it had made him the highest-paid assistant in school history.

It was also announced that offensive line coach Tim Davis signed a standard one-year, $275,000 contract and director of strength and conditioning Jeff Dillman was added to the staff on a two-year deal paying him $215,000 annually.

A look at the coaching staff’s 2012 salaries compared with their counterparts in 2011:

Universal contract notes and bonuses:
- All coaches receive a $10,000 bonus from Florida’s contract with Nike
- All coaches receive use of a car and other tangible incentives
- BCS National Championship Game appearance – up to 30 percent increase
- Other BCS bowl game appearance – 20 percent increase
- SEC Championship Game appearance – 10 percent increase
- Non-BCS bowl game – 10 percent increase
- Bowl game with less than $2 million payout – one month’s salary increase

Media outlets obtained the above salary information via an open records request.

Tags: Brent Pease, Charlie Weis, Jeff Dillman, Tim Davis, Will Muschamp

1 » Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp is set to make 10 appearances at local Gator Clubs (nine in the state of Florida and one in Atlanta, GA) as part of the team’s six-week 2012 Gator Gathering schedule. The events are open to the general public; however, tickets are sold for each speaking engagement with proceeds benefiting the individual Gator Clubs and the university. You can check out the entire schedule here.

2 » The Gators opened up the Griffin-Oakley Strength & Conditioning Complex to the media on Thursday making new director of strength and conditioning Jeff Dillman as well as a few Florida players available for interviews and to talk about how training is going heading into the 2012 season. UF released a video recap of the event, which you can view below, through their GatorVision.tv service.

ESPN explained his philosophy further:

Dillman described Olympic-style lifting as weighted plyometrics — essentially exercises with fast, powerful movements while lifting weights. It’s designed to provide a total-body workout and a cardiovascular workout in a short period of time. It includes numerous variations based on three main lifts: the power clean, the snatch and the split jerk.

Because Olympic weightlifting movements are done quickly with heavier weight, and require significant coordination and muscle control, they can help athletes with such quick movements as sprinting, jumping or firing off the line of scrimmage. They also develop a strong core, better conditioning, and better balance.

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Tags: Billy Donovan, Brady Quinn, combine, Denver Broncos, Gator Gathering, Jeff Dillman, John Fox, NFL, Tim Tebow, Will Muschamp

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp held a press conference after his coaching staff received 23 National Letters of Intent on National Signing Day.

Opening statement:

“I’m real pleased with how recruiting went. Any time you get to this day, it’s a combination of a lot of hard work and effort by our staff. I think our staff did an outstanding job. You got to improve your program where you know you need to improve your program. Of the 23 players that joined our program today, 14 are line of scrimmage players – mid-skill and big-skill guys. We saw very easily in our season this year we struggled on both lines of scrimmage consistently being able to run the ball and stop the run. I certainly feel like we’ve addressed our most pressing need on both lines of scrimmage. We’ll develop playmakers and depth on both lines of scrimmage.

“I’m really excited about the guys we’ve got in that group and also eight skill guys, which includes a quarterback. We’d like to sign a quarterback every year. I think that’s important. A kicker, Austin Hardin, a guy that came in and did an outstanding job for us. We’re real pleased about him.

“We’ll know about this class in two or three years. I’ll tell you the same thing I did last year: Football is a developmental game, and you got to develop he players. I’m really excited about Jeff Dillman and Jesse Ackerman and our strength staff, our coaching staff – the job that they do in getting our players in here and doing a nice job with them. We’ll know a lot more about this class in two or three years. At the end of the day, this is a developmental game. We’ll be able to address that. It’s not about winning in February. It’s about winning in the fall and developing your football team and addressing your needs, and I think we’ve done that.”

» On Florida recruiting so well in the state of North Carolina: “D.J. Durkin, first of all, is our area recruiter for that area. He does a really nice job of recruiting, period. It was a full team effort. [...] We honed in on the guys we want and the guys we feel like can come and make a difference in our program, and we go after those guys.”

» On three/four-star defensive end Alex McCalister: “Alex McCalister is a guy that came to our camp, he broad jumped over 10 feet, close to a 40” vertical leap. A guy that is 6’6” and 220 lbs., his best football is ahead of him. That’s a very, very explosive athlete and a guy that hasn’t played a whole lot of football.”

» On flipping five-star DE Dante Fowler: “You recruit through this process and sometimes when you get there on signing day, you’re leaving it up to the young man and his family to make a decision. I think Dante had a good fit here at Florida as far as his position was concerned, his opportunity was concerned. We’re excited to add another good pass rusher to our program.”

Continue Reading » Will Muschamp on Florida’s 2012 recruiting class

Tags: Alex McCalister, Austin Hardin, Brent Pease, Brian Poole, Brian White, Bryan Cox, Bryant Young, Colin Thompson, D.J. Durkin, D.J. Humphries, Dan Quinn, Dante Fowler, Jafar Mann, Jeff Dillman, Jeremi Powell, Jessamen Dunker, Jesse Ackerman, Jonathan Bullard, Kent Taylor, Latroy Pittman, Marcus Maye, Matt Jones, National Signing Day, Quinteze Williams, Raphael Andrades, Skyler Mornhinweg, Will Muschamp

1 » Appearing Monday on WKOV 690 AM in Jacksonville, FL, new Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan responded to a caller who was wondering if he would consider trading for Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow should he be made available. “You know something? I think I can tell you this. I had a long chat with Wayne [Weaver] that year. Obviously the Rams drafted Sam Bradford, and I was talking to Wayne then on what they ought to do,” Khan said. “I should have an offline conversation with you, OK? I’m going to absolutely talk your ear off. Some of the stuff might not be politically correct, but I share your sentiment. I think, when is the next time Jacksonville is going to have an athlete like Tim Tebow? Coming from being raised in Illinois, I couldn’t see Red Grange playing for anybody other than the Bears or Dick Butkus playing for anybody other than the Bears. I don’t want to get into 20/20 hindsight, and God help us, the draft record has not been the best with the Jaguars.”

Khan was then asked by the host if he would have drafted Tebow had he been owner of the Jaguars at the time. “100 percent I would have. Absolutely,” he said. “The first Jaguars game I came to was in ’10, we played Denver here. There were a lot more Tebow jerseys in the Jaguars stands than the teal jerseys for any player, let’s face it. You hate to get into 20/20 hindsight and finger pointing, but certainly [I would have] if I had anything to do with it. We probably won’t have a chance like that again.”

2 » Even though his team is not participating in Super Bowl XLVI, Tebow will be in Indianapolis, IN for festivities over the course of the week. He will also be a guest on NBC‘s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Wednesday along with actor/comedian Tracy Morgan and musical group All American Rejects. Tebow’s name has been a hot topic on Fallon’s show recently as the host as done a parody character of him and David Bowie and also used him in a number of jokes over the last few weeks.

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Tags: Arkansas Razorbacks, Ashanée Dickerson, Denver Broncos, Draft, gymnastics, Jacksonville Jaguars, Janoris Jenkins, Jeff Dillman, Jeremi Powell, Jesse Ackerman, Kytra Hunter, MacKenzie Caquatto, Marissa King, Marshall Thundering Herd, Maryland Terrapins, National Signing Day, NFL, Stephen C. O'Connell Center, Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLVI, Tim Tebow

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp held a 20-minute-long press conference on Wednesday to officially announce his hiring of Brent Pease as the team’s new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Throughout the course of the interview, Muschamp answered a number of questions fans undoubtedly have expressed about Pease, new strength and condition coach Jeff Dillman and the team heading into the 2012 season. Aside from his opening statement, OGGOA has rearranged and grouped Muschamp’s responses together in different categories for clarity.

OPENING STATEMETNS

On Pease: “Really excited to have Brent Pease join our staff as offensive coordinator. When you go out and talk to numerous people, many [of whom were] very qualified for this job, he really is the right fit for us. And really I go back to that word ‘fit.’ We have an outstanding offensive staff – Frank Verducci, Brian White, Aubrey Hill and Derek Lewis – and really it was about bringing a guy in that was going to be a good fit for the room, bring some new ideas, bring some new energy to what we’re trying to do but understand we’re not changing philosophically about where we’re headed with this thing. Understand what we need to do to continue to move forward, bring some new ideas as far as personnel groupings, formations and all that is great but understand we’re not changing who we are and what we are. Brent understands that.

“He’s got a great experience in a lot of different places. [Him] having coached in this league and called offenses in this league and in this stadium was important to me. He understands this stage and what you’ve got to do to be successful, and really offensively he’s been the backbone at what they’ve done at Boise for the last seven years. They’ve had tremendous success. Obviously coaching quarterbacks is his expertise and playing in the NFL as a quarterback [is a plus]. You also look at the success he had coaching wide receivers at Boise. He did an outstanding job with that group there.

“At the end of the day, [he can provide] the balance we want to remain on offense and [was] the right fit for we’re looking for. It’s really exciting. He watched our practice at the Gator Bowl practices, came back and he and his wife Paula, who’s wonderful, this past weekend came and spent the weekend in Gainesville and they wanted to be Gators. [They are] really excited.

“When you have an opportunity and you have an opening, you need to make sure you make yourself better. And I think we did with Brent, and I’m really excited about him being a part of our staff. He’s an outstanding recruiter. I ran across Brent about 12-14 years ago. I was at Valdosta State and he was at Northern Arizona. We were recruiting a young man out of Lowndes County – Vincent ‘Sweet Pea’ Burns. He got [him] to leave Lowndes County to go to Northern Arizona, so right then I knew he could recruit. He’s a guy that has been on my radar for a long time as a football coach. I faced him when we were at LSU and he was at Kentucky. Again, really liked what he did what he did with that team offensively, creating ways to get his playmakers the ball, creative in the play calling and the tempos and the different stuff. As he’s progressed, he and I have kept in pretty good contact through that time. A lot of respect for this guy as a football coach. When you meet him and get to know him, you’re going to see a very intelligent guy that is going to add a lot of the University of Florida. Really excited about this hire.”

On Dillman: “Also, after the bowl game, we named Jeff Dillman our head strength and conditioning coach. He will oversee all of our programs and was hired by the athletic department. Really excited about Jeff. Jeff and I were together at LSU – won a national championship together. He left and when to Appalachian State for three years where he won two national championships in ’06-’07. Jerry Moore, a guy who I have tremendous respect for at Appalachian State, I called and asked him about Jeff and he just had nothing but great things to say. Of course most recently he’s been working at IMG, preparing a lot of guys for the NFL Draft and then NFL players are coming back and training under him. He brings a lot of passion and energy and expertise in the weight room. We’re going to go to more of an Olympic-style lifting, what I was exposed to at LSU. Very excited about what he brings to the table.”

Continue Reading » Muschamp answers questions about Pease hire

Tags: Brent Pease, Brian White, Jeff Dillman, Kerwin Bell, Will Muschamp

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp has chosen Jeff Dillman as his team’s new strength and conditioning coordinator, the University of Florida announced on Tuesday.

Two sources close to the program told OGGOA last month that Dillman was considered a top candidate for the position and the likely successor to Mickey Marotti.

The former director of strength and conditioning at Appalachian State, Dillman met Muschamp when both were assistants at LSU. The former was a strength coach, while the latter was a linebackers coach and later a defensive coordinator under Nick Saban.

“What I like about Coach Muschamp is his intensity and his fire and his directness,” Dillman said. “That’s the same way I coach. I believe in coaching kids. I don’t believe in crossing your arms and putting your hands in your pockets. I’m a big, big believer in if you coach them hard in the weight room, and you coach them hard in running, when they get out on that field, it’s easy for them. It’s all about eliminating that gray area.”

During his three years at LSU, he worked with teams that have won BCS National Championships, competed in the Final Four and played in the College World Series.

“The strength coach is such an important part of your program,” Muschamp said in a school release. “Jeff has a championship pedigree. He’s been a part of several championship teams and that’s what we’re trying to be here at the University of Florida. He is my voice in the weight room when the coaches can’t have contact with the players. It’s very important for someone to share the same philosophies and approach as I do on how to build a championship program.”

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Tags: Jeff Dillman, Mickey Marotti, Scott Holsopple, Will Muschamp

The Florida Gators (7-6) capped their lackluster 2011 season with a rousing victory against the Ohio State Buckeyes (6-7) in the 2012 Gator Bowl at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, FL on Monday. After the contest, head coach Will Muschamp and some Florida players were made available to the media to discuss some of the notable occurrences before, during and after the game.

MUSCHAMP’s TWO POST-GAME STATEMENTS

Accepting the trophy on stage after the team sang the school alma mater and fight song, Muschamp delivered the following statement to his players, their families and the fans remaining in the crowd after the game:

“I can’t talk real well right now. I’m proud of these players, fighting through a tough situation, a tough transition, but they hung with us all the time. I appreciate the Gator Nation. We’re building a program, not a team, and it takes time, and I appreciate your patience. I’m going to tell you what. We’re going to have a better football team next year because of these young men you got right here. And you’ve got an outstanding staff. Go Gators.”

He began his post-game press conference in a similar fashion:

“[This was about] sending the seniors out the right way. We got a lot of good kids in that locker room. We got some guys that have had a very frustrating year. The realization of this whole thing, if you really want to see big picture, is in the last two years at the University of Florida we’re 15-11. That’s unacceptable. That’s what we are. We’re one game’s difference from last year. We’re 7-6; we were 8-5 last year. Sometimes I think you got to put your realistic glasses on of where you are and what you are as a program right at this point. And it’s not where we’re going to be very long, I can assure you of that. We’re moving in the right direction.

“I’m very pleased with the attitude and the effort and the drive of our young men. They kept fighting in the game and kept playing; they did it the entire season. I don’t think you could turn the tape on and watch a team that wasn’t giving effort, wasn’t trying to play with the right kind of toughness. It wasn’t always what we wanted at times. It was frustrating at times, and I appreciate the backing of our administration in what we’re trying to do. I’ve said it before and I mean this sincerely: We’re not building a team, we’re building a program. That takes a foundation to start, it really does. You stay the course with what you’re trying to do and what you believe in and the hardcore values of what you want. It isn’t always what you want. You get criticized and those sort of things, and that’s part of the deal. That’s part of being the head coach at the University of Florida, and I fully accept that.

“[I’m] excited for our football team. We need to get better and that starts with me. For our entire organization, 7-6 is not acceptable at the University of Florida. We’re looking forward to getting started on January 9. When we start school, we’re going to have a good team meeting that day and get these guys ready to go. That’s when our season starts for next year. It’s good momentum. There are a lot of guys out there knowing their opportunity to come a place like Florida, get an outstanding education, play for a great staff and be a part of a winning tradition..”

HIRING PROCESS WILL NOW BEGIN
Continue Reading » 2012 Gator Bowl: Florida vs. Ohio State post-game

Tags: Andre Debose, Brian White, Chaz Green, Chris Johnson, D.J. Durkin, EverBank Field, Gator Bowl, Jaylen Watkins, Jeff Dillman, Jelani Jenkins, Jeremy Foley, John Brantley, Jon Bostic, Ohio State Buckeyes, University of Florida, Will Muschamp, Xavier Nixon