South Carolina Gamecocks defensive line coach Brad Lawing has officially been added to the Florida Gators coaching staff.
Florida announced Tuesday that Lawing will serve as assistant head coach and defensive line coach, sharing the latter job title with current staff member Bryant Young. Lawing will coach defensive ends while Young stays on as an assistant and coaches defensive tackles.
“We are excited to have Brad Lawing join our coaching staff,” said head coach Will Muschamp in a school release. “His track record speaks for itself – his nearly three decades of experience coaching defensive lineman, his familiarity with the SEC and our shared philosophical beliefs make him a perfect fit for our program.”
A long-time South Carolina assistant, Lawing spent 17 years at the school divided over two separate stints. He first worked for the Gamecocks from 1989-98 as a defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.
Lawing then spent four seasons at Michigan State (1999-2002) and three more at North Carolina (2003-05) with the same job description. Upon returning to Columbia, SC, he continued his high level of coaching and led a South Carolina defensive front that has been one of the best in the Southeastern Conference recently.
He has never previously worked on the same staff with Muschamp but did serve under Nick Saban for one year at MSU in 1999.
1 » According to ESPN insider Adam Schefter, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s new contract with the Seattle Seahawks is for three years and $5.7 million, or approximately $1.9 million per season. Quinn was set to earn just over $500,000 with the Florida Gators in 2013 though he likely would have received a raise.
2 » It has long been known that quarterback Tim Tebow will not be with the New York Jets next season. Even with that being the case, everyone involved with the decision to bring him in continues to do whatever is in their power to distance themselves from him. According to ESPNNewYork.com, team owner Woody Johnson – who fawned over Tebow when the franchise first acquired him from Denver – is the latest to pull this maneuver. He reportedly told former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist, who interviewed for the Jets vacancy, that the trade was “forced” on him and that he only “jumped on board” after the football personnel department convinced him it was a good idea. “They realized it was divisive and hard on the locker room, and they wanted an exit strategy,” he said.
3 » Former Florida safety Josh Evans and kicker Caleb Sturgis competed in the 2013 East-West Shrine Game over the weekend. Evans played sparingly on defense and special teams, but Sturgis accounted for seven of the East’s 13 points in the 28-13 loss as he connected on an extra point as well as field goals from 48 yards and 38 yards. Linebacker Lerentee McCray was invited to the game but chose not to participate as he continues to heal from the 2012 season. Similarly, LB Jon Bostic pulled out of the 2013 Senior Bowl set for Saturday at 4 p.m. Running back Mike Gillislee and left tackle Xavier Nixon will be the only two Gators participating in the game.
4 » Though two former Florida players have already lost their NFL head coaching gigs this offseason, another person with ties to the Gators has picked up a new job. Jedd Fisch, a graduate assistant at Florida from 1999-2000, was named the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday. Fisch has been coaching since starting out in the high school ranks in 1997 and was most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Miami (FL).
South Carolina Gamecocks defensive line coach Brad Lawing will be hired to a similar position with the Florida Gators, according to multiple reports on Saturday originating with one from FootballScoop.com.
As of Monday morning, neither school has confirmed the move, though it was reported over the weekend that Lawing was finalizing his agreement with the Gators.
A long-time Gamecocks assistant, Lawing had spent 17 years at the school divided over two separate stints. He first worked at South Carolina from 1989-98 as a defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.
Lawing departed USC and spent four seasons at Michigan State (1999-2002) and three more at North Carolina (2003-05) with the same job description. Upon returning to Columbia, SC, he continued his high level of coaching and led a Gamecocks defensive front that has been one of the best in the Southeastern Conference recently.
A spot on Florida’s staff opened up last week when defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was hired away by the Seattle Seahawks and linebackers coach and special teams coordinator D.J. Durkin was named as a replacement.
Durkin will continue coaching linebackers, which left open coaching positions for defensive ends and special teams.
Lawing will likely coach the entire defenisive line with a focus on the ends, leaving the defensive tackles for current assistant defensive line coach Bryant Young.
Head coach Will Muschamp noted Friday during a press conference that he had “a lot of different avenues to travel down” as it pertained to making his next hire.
“I’ve been in situations where you have a special teams coordinator that coaches everything like D.J. did. I’ve been a part of staffs where we’ve been very successful in special teams where each coach had a part [of the special teams unit to coach]. I’ve been down a lot of those roads. The bottom line is we’re going to find the best fit for the University of Florida, and we’re going to make it work,” he said.
If Lawing’s hiring becomes official, it would appear as if the Gators have decided to coach special teams by committee, a stark departure and certainly a risk for a unit that has been arguably the best in the nation over the last few years.
1 » Final balloting for the fan vote for the 2013 NBA All-Star Game was released on Thursday evening and none of the players initially selected for the game were former Florida Gators. Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah (230,796 votes) finished seventh in Eastern Conference frontcourt balloting. Golden State Warriors power forward David Lee (165,875) checked in 10th in Western Conference frontcourt balloting with Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons (144,697) finishing 15th. The top three frontcourt players from each conference automatically became starters for their respective teams. The 30 NBA head coaches will vote for a total of 14 players – seven in each conference – to fill out the benches. Those reserves will be announced on Jan. 24 with Noah and Lee both expected to be chosen. Noah is averaging career-highs in points (12.4), assists (4.1), blocks (2.0), steals (1.3), minutes (38.4) and free throw shooting (.800) while also registering 10.7 rebounds per game. Lee is averaging 19.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists while playing a career-high 37.5 minutes.
2 » Arrested on Wednesday for third-degree felony grand theft of a motor vehicle and second-degree misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, Florida freshman offensive lineman Jessamen Dunker entered an Alachua County Court on Thursday morning and was eventually released on his own recognizance. Dunker, via his attorney Huntley Johnson, denied stealing the scooter that was reported stolen. “His position is he paid $600 for the scooter and I’m prepared to represent him on that basis,” Johnson told the judge, according to The Gainesville Sun. The State Attorney’s Office has yet to file formal charges against Dunker as it is still reviewing the case. He remains on the Gators football team as of press time, but head coach Will Muschamp is expected to address the player’s status on Friday at noon.
Florida Gators defensive coordinator Dan Quinn has left the team to take the same position with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.
Just hours after former Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was named the new head coach in Jacksonville on Thursday, Seattle head coach Pete Carroll tabbed Quinn as his replacement.
Quinn undoubtedly saw a fantastic opportunity to coach arguably the NFL’s best defense, one which surrendered the fewest points in the league this past season. Before joining the Gators, he coached the Seahawks’ defensive line from 2009-10.
His name also popped up as a candidate for the Jacksonville, Cleveland and Philadelphia defensive coordinator openings. Quinn turned down an opportunity to leave Florida and join Tampa Bay following the 2011 season.
“My wife Stacey and I loved our time in Gainesville,” Quinn said in a school release. “The last two years have been an awesome experience, working for Will [Muschamp] and Mr. [Jeremy] Foley and with a bunch of talented, great players and coaches. Even though we’ll be in Seattle, we look forward to keeping track of the Gators in the future.”
After serving as a collegiate defensive line coach from 1994-2000, Quinn spent 10-straight years in the NFL coaching the same position for San Francisco, Miami, the New York Jets and Seattle. Deciding to return to college was not a decision he took lightly.
“There was [trepidation] on my end because when you’ve done one thing for 10 years and you’re kind of settled, I certainly enjoyed [Seattle] and had a great time working with Pete Carroll and John Schneider, the GM there,” he said on Nov. 7, 2012.
“There was hesitancy, not from coming back to college or coming here or working with Will, but I enjoyed what I was doing there and was happy. I thought the opportunity was too unique to pass up and that’s why I wanted to come do it, and I’m certainly glad that I did.”
He continued, “I had been a defensive line coach for 10 years. For me the chance to, as a play caller and coordinator, lead a bigger group of people, that was one [reason] for me. And then at a place like this, I thought, ‘Where else would you rather do it?’”
Could the Florida Gators be in line for their sixth new coordinator in five seasons?
On Thursday, Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley was hired as the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Immediately thereafter, Florida defensive coordinator Dan Quinn’s name popped up both as a potential replacement for Bradley in Seattle or as his hire for defensive coordinator in Jacksonville.
According to ESPN insider Adam Schefter, “there is a ‘strong possibility’” that Quinn “will return to Seattle to replace Gus Bradley.” He also noted via Twitter that the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles are interested in Quinn.
One year ago, after a season in which he led the Gators to a top-10 defense in his first year at the helm, Quinn reportedly turned down an offer to coordinate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ defense after Greg Schiano was hired as head coach.
For as much as the Florida Gators accomplished on the field in 2012 (check out Monday’s post), the Gator Nation was making plenty of news off of it as well. From crazy occurrences and strange decisions to receiving major awards and being involved in the biggest sports stories of the last 12 months, Florida was spread all over the sports landscape in 2012. Below are OGGOA‘s Top 12 Off the Field Stories of the Year.
12 » A WACKY YEAR, INDEED
For every major story and exciting moment that occurred in 2012, there were plenty of instances in which Gators fans could not do anything but shake their heads, furrow their brows or shrug their shoulders at something they just saw or heard. Below is a list-within-a-list of the 10 most absurd moments of the year (sorted chronologically). Don’t worry, the rest of these stories are much shorter, so keep reading.
(1) Right in the middle of spring practice on Feb. 17, with coaches raving about team chemistry and noting massive improvement from the previous year, junior safety Matt Elamtweeted out a picture that looks like junior defensive end Dominique Easley riding his scooter inside the Florida football facility and around the Gator Head the players touch before heading out to the field each week. (2) One week after playing his last game as a member of the Gators basketball team, then-senior point guard Erving Walker found himself in trouble with the law when he was charged on March 30 with two misdemeanors for allegedly stealing a taco from a street vendor and evading police in Gainesville, FL. (3) Need a lesson on how to turn off an employer? Veteran wide receiver Jabar Gaffney went off on an epic Twitter rant on April 12, sending out derogatory statements about his wife and cousin (fellow former Gators star cornerback Lito Sheppard) only to claim three hours later that his account was hacked. (4) What better way to honor your favorite player than to get your hair cut and designed to look like him? That’s what San Antonio Spurs fan Patrick Gonzalez did for forward Matt Bonner. Gonzalez’s hair cut nearly got him suspended from school on May 16, but it also got Bonner’s attention and resulted in a pair of tickets and a meeting at a playoff game. (5) After some rather mundane barbs went back-and-forth between Florida head coach Will Muschamp and Texas A&M Aggies head coach Kevin Sumlin over the summer, Mayor Nancy Berry of College Station, TX decided to post a comedic video of her poking good-natured fun at the former Texas defensive coordinator on June 1.
(6) Hours after taking home the first NCAA Outdoor Championship in program history on June 10, Gators track & field suffered a serious scare in the air when its plane suffered a cracked windshield at 37,000 feet and underwent a rough landing in Tuscaloosa, AL. The windshield shattered after the plane landed but everyone was OK. (7) How do you answer a quarterback controversy and answer questions about which signal caller is going to start the first game of the season? Start both of them! That’s what Muschamp did on Sept. 1 when sophomores Jacoby Brissett (quarterback) and Jeff Driskel (wide receiver) both came out with the starting offense on its first play from scrimmage against Bowling Green. (8) With Muschamp leading the team, he is sure to find his way on this list at least once per year. In a 13-day span, Muschamp made headlines by being himself. After Florida defeated LSU at home on Dec. 7, he decided to celebrate by crowd surfing over his own players in the locker room. Two weeks later, at halftime against South Carolina, Muschamp vented his frustration about the officiating to Brady Ackerman of the Gator Radio Network. He saw an official walking by as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms and made sure to make it known how upset he was at some of the calls in the first half. “Well, we just gotta continue to capitalize on what we’re doing and OVERCOME THE ADVERSITY ON THE FIELD!” (9) With ESPN’s College GameDay in Gainesville for the South Carolina game, having former Gators swimmer Ryan Lochte on set as the guest picker was an easy and obvious decision for the network. Never did ESPN guess that he would find difficulty in reading off the list of picks provided for him. (10) Why is Chad Johnson in Gainesville … and why is he meeting with Florida? Those were questions fans asked on Nov. 2 when it was revealed that the NFL free agent wide receiver – fresh off being embarrassed on national television when he was cut by the Miami Dolphins after being arrested for allegedly hitting his wife – had shown up in town and was taking pictures with players on the team one day before UF took on Missouri.
1 » Preparing for the 2012 NBA Draft, Florida Gators freshman guard Bradley Beal is up in Chicago, IL training with former college coach Josh Oppenheimer, the same trainer that Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons used one year ago. Beal, who like Parsons also signed with agent Mark Bartelstein of Prioirty Sports, told SLAMonline that he is working on his game in hopes of impressing scouts and being selected as high as possible. “I’m looking to really focus on creating my own shot offensively,” he said. “Just beating guys off of the dribble then finishing with a floater or pull-up in the lane. [I] just have to continue having high IQ for the game, focus in on ball handling and work on creating more space off the dribble.” Ironically enough, Parsons will be in New York, NY on Wednesday representing Houston on stage at the 2012 NBA Draft Lottery. The Rockets only have a 1.81 percent change of receiving a top-three pick (lowest amongst the 13 teams) so it is quite likely that Beal winds up elsewhere.
2 » Former Gators soccer star and current U.S. Women’s National Team defender Heather Mitts (34) told NBC on Sunday that the 2012 London Olympics this summer (her third appearance on the Olympic team) will be the end of the road for her as a soccer player. “Feeling the way I feel, it’s kind of weird to say that, but it’s always been my plan to hopefully play in one last Olympics and step away from the game kind of on my own terms,” she said. “I do love the game, and I am going to miss it, but I also have other things that I want to do. I just feel like I want to go out at the right time.” Mitts seems to excel Olympic years with her best performances coming in 2004 and 2008. Though she started all eight of the United States’ Olympic matches in 2008, she did not play in the 2011 Women’s World Cup and may not step on the pitch this time around either. “Ideally I want for our team to go over there and win gold,” Mitts said. “It would be great to play, but if I don’t play, I’ve been through that once before to be there and be supportive.” Despite her decision to hang up her cleats, Mitts says she is “probably the fittest I’ve ever been,” is completely healthy and still loves playing. “I feel so sharp and strong,” she added. Mitts has made 123 career appearances in the red, white and blue. Check out NBC‘s video interview with Mitts from this week.
3 » In an interview with his new team’s website, Seattle Seahawks rookie defensive tackle Jaye Howard expressed his excitement about finally being in the NFL and playing alongside some guys he grew up watching. “It’s been an unreal experience,” he said. “Walking into the same locker room and seeing Marshawn Lynch – a player that I look up to – and now I’m actually in the same locker room. It’s a great feeling. So I’m just embracing this moment right now.” There were also positive comments directed at Howard from head coach Pete Carroll and defensive line coach Todd Wash. “Jaye Howard showed up. He did some good things. He showed up on pass rush a couple of times. I know Todd mentioned that he was surprised at his quickness. That’s a really good sign,” Carroll said. Wash added, “Jaye is an explosive player. He’s learning that this level is a little bit different once our veterans got here. But we’re very excited about his progress. He’s eager to learn. He wants to know exactly what he can do better. He does a great job in the classroom, too. So we’re really pleased with what we’ve got so far.”
4 » According to The Florida Times-Union, seven former and current Florida golfers “will play in a 36-hole U.S. Open sectional qualifier Monday at Black Diamond Ranch Quarry Course in Lecanto.” Among those players competing will be junior T.J. Vogel, freshman J.D. Tomlinson, redshirt senior Zach Lee and former players Tyson Alexander, Andres Echavarria, Brett Stegmaier and Bank Vongvanij. With the Gators competing for the 2012 NCAA Championship this week, Vogel, Tomlinson and Lee could have a tight window to get into town for the qualifier depending how well Florida does at the event.
