Round 1 – No. 32
Matt Elam, S
Baltimore Ravens

Height: 5’10″ – Weight: 208 lbs.
Age: 21 – Class: Junior

It took longer than expected for the first Florida Gators player to be picked on Thursday during the 2013 NFL Draft, but safety Matt Elam got picked exactly where he was projected – late in the first round – when he was selected No. 32 overall by the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday.

Elam, arguably Florida’s best playmaker in 2012 and one of the top safeties available in the draft, was ranked No. 3 on most boards due to concerns about his height (5’10”). In every other aspect, Elam is a prototypical strong safety who hits hard, tackles well, forces turnovers, makes game-changing plays and can intimidate opposing pass catchers (and their quarterbacks).

“I just feel like my size won’t matter because when you turn on the film I’m a great competitor, I’m flying around, I’m hitting guys bigger than me. Size doesn’t matter,” Elam said. “I’m going to make receivers be scared when they come my way the next time. That’s in my job description.”

His versatility as nickel cornerback who that can blitz from the backfield or at the line of scrimmage made him a must-draft player for Baltimore, which lost both of its starting safeties at the conclusion of the 2012 season. The Ravens see Elam as a replacement for strong safety Bernard Pollard – not free safety Ed Reed – but he is talented enough to alternate between both positions in Baltimore’s defense.

“I’ve never been so excited,” general manager Ozzie Newsome said of Elam. “It was fun watching him play. To watch a player on tape and play after play you say, ‘Oh wow.’ The way he played on tape is the way you have to play in the AFC North.”

“He definitely has a chance to [start at strong safety],” said head coach John Harbaugh. “He’ll have to earn it. We have one veteran safety in there and some young guys that will be competing for it as well. But we always play the best guy, and that’s the guy that’s playing the best. Matt Elam will be right in the middle of that fight.”

Continue Reading » Ravens end first round by picking Gators S Matt Elam No. 32 overall in 2013 NFL Draft

Tags: Baltimore Ravens, Draft, Matt Elam, Minnesota Vikings, NFL, Sharrif Floyd

Round 1 – No. 23
Sharrif Floyd, DT
Minnesota Vikings

Height: 6’3″ – Weight: 297 lbs.
Age: 20 – Class: Junior

For someone who did not grow up dreaming of being a professional football player, Florida Gators defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd could not have been smiling any wider when commissioner Roger Goodell announced his name as the No. 23 overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft on Thursday evening.

Floyd, projected by many to be the best defensive tackle available and a top-five player in the draft, fell out of the top 10 and behind two other defensive tackles – Sheldon Richardson (Missouri) and Star Lotulelei (Utah).

Nevertheless, while sitting in the greenroom with family, friends, his agent and Florida head coach Will Muschamp, Floyd received a call from the Minnesota Vikings that would change his life. When he hung up the phone and was called on stage, he became the 44th first-round pick in Gators history and the first player selected by the Vikings since Percy Harvin (No. 21, 2009).

“The scenario with Sharrif, that one never really came up. … I don’t think any of us foresaw that he would come down to 23,” head coach Leslie Frazier said. “We all said it would be a no-brainer, and it turned out to be just that. There was no hesitation.”

“I couldn’t be part of a better ball club,” Floyd said. “This has been a goal of mine for a long time and now it’s here. I am excited to get out there and get started.”

A starter at Florida for two seasons, Floyd did whatever the coaching staff asked of him and made the most out of his opportunities. He started out of position at defensive end in 2011 but shined when he moved back to defensive tackle in 2012, recording 46 tackles including a team-high 13.0 for lost yardage. Floyd’s three sacks and six quarterback hurries were each second-most on the Gators, impressive statistics considering he was an interior lineman.

Continue Reading » Vikings select Gators DT Sharrif Floyd with No. 23 overall pick in first round of 2013 NFL Draft

Tags: Draft, Minnesota Vikings, NFL, Sharrif Floyd, Will Muschamp

OGGOA LIVE COVERAGE – April 25-27 – Florida Gators in the 2013 NFL Draft

Former Florida Gators are expected to come off the board quickly and often during the 2013 NFL Draft with the team assured of having at least eight players drafted over the three-day event for the first time since 2010. Florida has a legitimate chance to set a new school record with 10 or more players chosen from April 25-27.

As fans of the 32 NFL teams look on nationwide, those supporting the Gators are just as excited to see where the players they used to watch on Saturdays will be playing on Sundays in the fall.

The fact of the matter is that few things are certain when it comes to the NFL Draft. Trades can occur at any moment and each team views its most pressing needs and what each player on its board brings to the table differently than analysts do. Rather than try to predict the unknown variables and tell you what could happen, OGGOA is here to set your expectations for what should go down Thursday-Saturday.

» Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd will be the first Florida player selected but may fall short of being the highest-drafted player in program history.

Over the last few months no first-round player has seen more hype as it relates to his rise in the draft than Floyd, who started the process as a pick in the teens or early 20s and is now believed to be a consensus top-10 selection and the top player at his position in the draft. Most mock drafts heading into Thursday have Floyd slotted at No. 3 overall to the Oakland Raiders; a selection there would make him the highest-drafted player in Gators history, tying him with DT Gerard Warren (No. 3 – 2001), wide receiver Wes Chandler (No. 3 – 1978) and quarterback Steve Spurrier (No. 3 – 1967). However, there is no guarantee that Oakland will stay at No. 3 overall; in fact, multiple reports on Thursday have the Raiders preferring to trade back in the draft because the front office has so many holes to fill on its roster. Should Oakland move out of its spot, Floyd could still go No. 3 overall (to a different team) or may even fall to the bottom half of the top-10 depending what other moves are made. The only thing known for sure is that Floyd will be the first (and possibly only) Florida player drafted on Thursday and will be the first Gators defensive lineman selected in the first since Derrick Harvey (No. 8 – 2008).

Continue Reading » Florida Gators 2013 NFL Draft viewer’s guide

Tags: Caleb Sturgis, Draft, Earl Okine, Frankie Hammond, James Wilson, Jelani Jenkins, Jon Bostic, Jordan Reed, Josh Evans, Lerentee McCray, Matt Elam, Mike Gillislee, NFL, Omar Hunter, Omarius Hines, Sharrif Floyd, Will Muschamp, Xavier Nixon

1 » Rutgers Scarlet Knights sophomore guard Eli Carter, who received his release from the school last week and plans to transfer, met with Florida Gators head coach Billy Donovan in his home on Monday, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Carter has a number of teams interested in receiving him as a transfer including Duke, Maryland and Texas, but Florida has a lot going for it in this particular situation. Like former Gators guard Mike Rosario and current assistant coach Rashon Burno, Carter spent his youth playing at St. Anthony’s High School in New Jersey under head coach Bob Hurley. The relationship between Donovan and Hurley goes back a ways and having Burno in the fold certainly does not hurt. “I think with Rashon Burno there and two guards leaving, one guard signed, [Kasey] Hill is the only guard coming in, they can I think talk to him about playing time,” Hurley told Zagoria. “When you transfer you have to go someplace where you’re gonna play. You can’t go someplace and play less than you did where you were before.”

Carter averaged 14.9 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists as a true sophomore but shot just 38.4 percent from the field and 32 percent from downtown. As a freshman against Florida in 2011, he scored 31 points on 12-of-24 shooting with seven rebounds and seven dimes (in double overtime). The Gators have one open scholarship for the 2013-14 season, which Carter would take if he transferred to Florida, even though he would have to sit out the season due to NCAA rules.

2 » It took a while for criticisms about Florida defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd to pop up, but it did not take the potential top-five overall pick much time to respond to them. “In my eyes there is no road-block that is going to stop me,” Floyd said on NFL AM on Tuesday. “A lot of people ask me, ‘Do you feel as though your arms are short?” and I say, ‘I don’t play like my arms are short.’ So my tape speaks for itself and the type of person I am speaks for itself.” Check out this three-minute interview with Floyd, which was aired Monday on ESPN.

Tags: Bob Hurley, Eli Carter, Kasey Hill, Mike Rosario, NCAA, Rashon Burno, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Sharrif Floyd

1 » No. 1 Florida Gators gymnastics did not conclude its incredible weekend on Saturday after it won the 2013 NCAA Championship, the first NCAA title in program history. Instead, Florida was right back at it on Sunday as its gymnasts competed in individual events with the hopes of bringing additional championships back to Gainesville, FL. Freshman Bridget Sloan, who captured the 2013 NCAA Championship in the all-around on Friday, doubled up with a title in the balance beam (9.900) on Sunday. She actually would have won three individual championships had it not been for junior teammate Alaina Johnson, who edged Sloan 9.9125 to 9.900 in the uneven parallel bars to win a title of her own.

2 » Florida’s national championship-winning gymnastics team will be honored at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center during a special celebration on Monday at 7 p.m. Gates open at 6 p.m. and access to the event is free. The celebration will be the first held inside the O’Dome for a Gators championship-winning program since basketball won its second of back-to-back titles in 2007. GatorVision.tv will have a live stream of the event for fans outside of Gainesville. OGGOA will tweet a link at 7 p.m.

The Florida school website on Monday posted a terrific feature on head coach Rhonda Faehn, who has been nothing short of spectacular since joining the program in 2002. Though the national title had been elusive for Faehn, she knew that the Gators could be one of the top programs in the country when she took the job. “It was a gold mine just waiting for success,” she told senior writer Scott Carter about Florida. “I felt there was so much potential. Who wouldn’t want to go there? It was undiscovered almost and people needed to see how amazing it was. That’s what I felt for years when I was coaching at other places, that Florida was just incredible.” Added athletic director Jeremy Foley about Fahen: “She built our program. When we hired her, the goal was we wanted to be like Alabama, we wanted to be like Georgia, we wanted to be like Utah, we didn’t understand why we couldn’t be like them. We wanted to be a factor. Look at what she has done. I feel great for her, her staff, and obviously these kids.”

Check out four more Florida Gators news BITS…after the break!
Continue Reading » SIX BITS: gymnastics, Floyd, Kansas, Parsons

Tags: Big 12, Chandler Parsons, Draft, Eli Carter, gymnastics, Houston Rockets, Jeremy Foley, Kansas Jayhawks, NBA, NCAA, NCAA Championship, NFL, Playoffs, Rhonda Faehn, Sharrif Floyd

1 » Golden State Warriors All-Star forward David Lee was ruled out for the season on Saturday after he tore his right hip flexor during Game 1 of his team’s first-round playoff series. “I knew [Saturday] night when I did it. I felt it pop,” Lee told a group of reporters before his team’s Sunday practice. “I went to run back on defense and had absolutely no sensation in my leg. It wasn’t even painful as much as it was just [numb].” Though Lee is unlikely to need surgery on the tear, he is expected to remain off the court for at least three months. He led the NBA in double-doubles this season and was ranked top-10 in the league in a number of other categories including defensive rebounds, total rebounds, efficiency, field goals made and triple-doubles. “We can’t replace him, and we know that,” head coach Mark Jackson said. “We have some guys on our bench that can do some things to cover up his absence, but we cannot replace David Lee.”

2 » FORBES contributor Darren Heitner penned an article that took a look at Florida Gators safety Matt Elam as the only top prospect set to enter the 2013 NFL Draft without an agent. Though Elam at some point will need to at least hire a contract advisor or lawyer to help him sort out a deal after he is drafted, he has been able to go through the process up to this point without one because of the financial backing and experience of his brother (NFL safety Abram Elam). “Not to discredit any agent, but Matt has done the things to put himself in a position to have a high draft grade without an agent,” Abe Elam told FORBES. “There is no contract right now to be evaluated because he hasn’t been drafted yet. At some point we will have to address whether Matt should hire an agent or an attorney. We are not biased against agents; we have just been able to delay the process because of the resources he has.”

3 » Quarterback coach Steve Clarkson spent much of last week praising quarterback Tim Tebow, claiming he fixed problems with the player’s mechanics after spending three days working with him earlier this offseason in Scottsdale, AZ. And while Clarkson’s evaluation of Tebow may very well be correct, not much about his statements appears to be accurate. According quarterback coaches Dennis Gile and Mike Giavondo, who spoke with SB Nation over the weekend, Clarkson only spent a single day working with Tebow while they worked with him for three months in Scottsdale. “We put in a lot of time and effort for [no pay] to really help [Tebow],” Gile told the website. How much did Gile and Giavondo actually help Tebow improve? “Steve Young’s mouth was hitting the floor,” said Gile after noting that both Young and Jim Zorn watched Tebow throw. “’Wow, you got it!’ is what he said exactly.”

Check out one more BIT on Sharrif Floyd…after the break!
Continue Reading » FOUR BITS: Lee hurt, Elam, Tebow, Floyd doubted

Tags: David Lee, Golden State Warriors, Matt Elam, NBA, NFL, Sharrif Floyd, Tim Tebow

Despite being incredibly busy this week, the NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah sat down with OGGOA late Thursday night for a wide-ranging look at the Florida Gators available in the 2013 NFL Draft. Unfortunately, the device used to record the detailed conversation froze during the process of saving the interview and the content disappeared. However, detailed notes were taken so not all was lost.

Below is an abridged version of Jeremiah’s thoughts on most of the Gators that are expected to be selected at some point during the draft.

Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd
Projection: First round (No. 3 overall)
Analysis: “When I started the process of watching him, I thought, ‘This is a top-10 pick all day long.’ And then I picked up the phone and called a couple friends around the league that I highly respect. All of them think it’s a no-brainer, he’s a slam-dunk top-10 pick. He has the athletic ability to play the three-technique and get up the field. That’s where he belongs. I think he’s got NFL size, first and foremost. You have to like that about him. You’re looking for qualities that you have that are kind of elite qualities. If you’re picking somebody up in the top part of the draft, you don’t want somebody who is kind of good at everything. You want somebody who has some elite characteristics, and to me, his quickness is elite. He’s got quick feet, quick hands. He’s very nimble, athletic. I just love the way he can get around blocks. A lot of times guys get around blocks and they’re segmented in their movement. He doesn’t do that; he can wrap around blockers all in one motion. It’s not a two-step process. That’s stuff that kind of jumps out at you when you watch him. He’s got lateral range and can make plays down the line of scrimmage. I think he’s just tapping into what he can be as a pass rusher. He has all the tools. He’s just scratching the surface of what he can do.”

Safety Matt Elam
Projection: Late-first, early-second round (top 30 overall)
Analysis: Jeremiah said the main drawback with Elam, of course, is his height (5’10”) but that otherwise he is a fantastic player and prospect. In addition to being good in coverage, Elam can be put at the line of scrimmage as a blitzer and has proven that he can play nickel cornerback. Jeremiah loves him as a possibility for Baltimore but not as a replacement for Ed Reed. Rather, he thinks compares better to Bernard Pollard, another safety the team lost this offseason.

Continue Reading » Jeremiah evaluates Gators for 2013 NFL Draft

Tags: Draft, Jelani Jenkins, Jon Bostic, Jordan Reed, Josh Evans, Lerentee McCray, Matt Elam, Mike Gillislee, NFL, Sharrif Floyd, Xavier Nixon

In exactly one week’s time, the 2013 NFL Draft will commence from Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY. Florida Gators defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd, a consensus top-10 pick, will be in attendance but plenty of his teammates will be watching just as intently hoping to hear their names called.

The NFL Network’s Mike Mayock, the featured analyst on the network’s coverage and one of the most respected draftniks around, is bullish on most of the players coming out of Florida and has given high marks to many Gators during his pre-draft evaluations.

Mayock believes that Floyd, who could very well become the highest-drafted player in program history if he goes in the top three picks of the first round, is the cream of the crop and has him listed as his No. 2 overall prospect.

“That tells you how much I like Sharrif Floyd. What I love about the kid is he’s a prototypical three-technique, a defensive tackle in a 4-3 defense. His quickness and ability to get up the field and disrupt the pass game is unique for a defensive tackle. If you can get a defensive tackle that can affect the pass game, you got something special,” he said on Thursday.

“He’s also stout enough to play the run. I’ve got him No. 2 on my board. I love the kid.”

Also a potential first-round selection is safety Matt Elam, who Mayock thinks will be selected in the 25-32 overall pick range. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he slid into the second round, but I like him as a first-round safety,” he said.

Mayock addressed Elam’s primary flaw, his height, which is the main reason why he is not a sure-fire first-rounder.

Continue Reading » Mayock high on most Gators in 2013 NFL Draft

Tags: Caleb Sturgis, Draft, Earl Okine, Frankie Hammond, James Wilson, Jelani Jenkins, Jon Bostic, Jordan Reed, Josh Evans, Lerentee McCray, Matt Elam, Mike Gillislee, NFL, Omar Hunter, Omarius Hines, Sharrif Floyd, Xavier Nixon