From time to time, OGGOA will come across a plethora of news and notes that we wish to share – too much to fit into one of our truncated BITS segments. In these instances, or when stories fall through the cracks, we catch and wrap them all up with Gator Bites.

» Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah continues to play a major role for his team, posting a line of 20 points and 17 rebounds (13 offensive) on Sunday night to help lead Chicago past Detroit in overtime. Noah now has 21 double-doubles on the season though that was his first in the month of April.

» Atlanta Hawks forward/center Al Horford told OGGOA on Friday that it is “realistic” to believe that he will be able to return to his team for the playoffs after tearing his pectoral early in the season. Horford, who has missed almost the entire shortened season, said he doubts he will be at 100 percent when the playoffs begin because he will not have the proper time to practice and condition. However, he hopes to be able to contribute in some way and help his team win.

» Unlike Horford, Golden State Warriors F/C David Lee will not see a basketball court again this year. Lee, whose Warriors are out of the playoffs and vying for a better draft slot, will be benched for the remainder of the season after injuring his groin last week. He was already dealing with a hip injury and will be rested mostly for precautionary reasons. Lee averaged nearly a double-double this season, posting totals of 20.1 points and 9.6 boards per game.

» Julie Quittner of Gainesville Television Network sent over a copy of her interview with former Florida Gators running back Chris Rainey that aired on Friday. In the piece, Quittner asks Rainey directly about the allegations made recently in a Sporting News column about former Florida head coach Urban Meyer. Below are a few standout questions/answers from the interview:

Did you see the incident when Billy Gonzales was apparently choked by Percy Harvin at practice and apparently he wasn’t disciplined for it? Is that a situation where maybe guys like that got away with certain things?
Rainey: “I heard that story from players; I ain’t never saw it and just like I said, players like that…certain players even the coaches are scared of and there are certain players that the players were scared of but you can’t just answer a question like that because they’re good in sports and you just can’t do nothing about it.

What do you mean by scared?
Rainey: “Scared, like a player if you’re scared of another player…just like that. Coaches can be scared of players.”

What do you have to say to the fact that [safety Bryan Thomas] said at one point that the program got “out of control”?
Rainey: “It wasn’t ever ‘out of control’ they just were scared of certain players and when the younger guys can’t do nothing but watch and see, you’re scared for your life too, so you just got to be quiet because if you say the wrong thing, you might get beat up from him or get in trouble by a coach.”

Do you remember incidents here that happened with [those elite players] specifically that you can remember them getting special treatment or something being covered up for them?
Rainey: “I don’t remember everything being covered up, but I just know a lot of stuff that happened through my college career…like you see people doing bad stuff off the field, fights, getting in trouble in school, whatever it is but if they made it to the NFL, they made it. It’s too late now.”

Continue Reading » Gator Bites for Monday, April 16

Tags: Ahmad Black, Al Horford, ALC, Atlanta Hawks, Brian Gay, Chicago Bulls, Chris Rainey, David Lee, Golden State Warriors, golf, Joakim Noah, Kitty Cullen, lacrosse, Minnesota Vikings, NBA, NFL, Percy Harvin, PGA, RBC Heritage, SEC, Shannon Gilroy, South Carolina Gamecocks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tennis, Tim Tebow, Tim Tebow Foundation, TPC Sawgrass, Urban Meyer, Vanderbilt Commodores

1 » Though junior Buck linebacker Ronald Powell’s injury was more serious and detrimental to the Florida Gators considering he is an entrenched starter on defense, the unit also lost another player to surgery recently. Florida announced Wednesday that senior defensive tackle Nick Alajajian had successful surgery on his right wrist on Tuesday. Alajajian, who moved over to defense after spending three years with the Gators as an offensive lineman, is expected to be healthy enough to return for fall camp.

2 » South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier opened up to ESPN.com recently about a number of topics including his team’s game against Georgia being moved back four weeks (“I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”), Nick Saban (“If he wants to be the greatest coach or one of the greatest coaches in college football, to me, he has to go somewhere besides Alabama and win, because they’ve always won there at Alabama.”) and how his career might come to an end (“When I leave, they’re not going to pay me $4 million because I had another five years on the deal and got fired. I ain’t going to be one of those guys.). But he also spoke about Florida and a conversation he had with head coach Will Muschamp upon him taking over the Gators in 2011.

“I told Will that he had one of the hardest jobs in America because of what’s happened down there prior to him coming. I don’t know that they have that much greater a team than most others in the SEC now. They’re pretty good. But it’s a tough job because of what Urban [Meyer] has done and prior history. Those fans are expecting 10 to 12 wins every year. Our fans are going to expect nine to 11, which is fair, and that’s good. I hope our players expect it, too.”

Click to expand and read two more BITS in this post.

Tags: Azania Stewart, DeLisha Milton-Jones, Denver Broncos, New York Jets, NFL, Nick Alajajian, Olympics, Ronald Powell, Steve Spurrier, Tammy Jackson, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp, women's basketball

An investigation by the Sporting News that was published on Monday depicts the Florida Gators football team under head coach Urban Meyer as one that was “broken” due to character issues (including drug use) and “preferential treatment” that led to a “sense of entitlement” and the inmates (players) running the asylum.

Spending three months investigating the claims of a handful of former players including safety Bryan Thomas (the only one who permitted his name be published), Sporting News’ Matt Hayes learned that Meyer allegedly stated that players missed games due to injury when the absences were actually due to fail drug tests, threatened to pull scholarships from less talented or injured players, and even let players slide with transgressions such as refusing to work out or putting their hands on a coach.

Continue Reading » An investigation into Urban Meyer’s time at Florida

Tags: Billy Gonzales, Bryan Thomas, Percy Harvin, Urban Meyer

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 » Former Florida Gators forward/center Vernon Macklin was recently set down to the NBA Development League for no other reason than that the Detroit Pistons wanted to see him get some in-game action rather than sit stationary on the end of the team’s bench during NBA games. According to M Live, Macklin has been playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and has been dominating. In his first five games with the team, Macklin is averaging 16.6 points and 17.2 rebounds (10.6 on the defensive glass) in more than 36 minutes a game. He will remain with the team through April 7 before returning to the Pistons. “He’s playing with a lot of energy and effort. He’s gotten better each and every game,” Detroit coach Lawrence Frank said. “It’s great for him to get that experience. We see continued development. We see progress in Vernon.”

2 » No. 4 Florida lacrosse (11-2) hit two major milestones on Wednesday, recording their first-ever shutout while registering the highest goal total in school history in a 29-0 beat down of the Fresno State Bulldogs (2-6) at Donald R. Dizney Stadium in Gainesville, FL. Freshman midfielder Nicole Graziano scored a game-high and career-high six goals on seven shots, and freshman attacker Nora Barry joined her in dominating on offense with five goals on six shots. The duo also combined for six ground balls and six draw controls in the contest. Junior As Ashley Bruns and Gabi Wiegand combined for six goals and three assists with Bruns becoming the first player in team history to eclipse 200 career goals. In addition to scoring the most goal sand allowing the fewest in team history, the Gators set or tied a number of other records. Florida had the most points (41), assists (12) and draw controls (24) in team history, tied their records for shots (44), first-half points (17) and second-half points (12) and also committed a record five fouls, the fewest in team history. The Gators accomplished all of this without Juniors A Kitty Cullen and M Brittany Dashiell, two of the team’s leading scorers.

Click to expand and read four more BITS in this post.

Tags: Ashley Bruns, Brittany Dashiell, Chris Leak, D1 Sports Training, Denver Broncos, Detroit Pistons, Dizney Stadium, Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Fresno State Bulldogs, Gabi Wiegand, Kitty Cullen, lacrosse, Lauren Haeger, Marcus Gilbert, Maurkice Pouncey, NBA, NBA D-League, NFL, Nicole Graziano, Nora Barry, Pittsburgh Steelers, Pressly Softball Stadium, SEC, softball, South Florida Bulls, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, Vernon Macklin

Head coach Will Muschamp has received a one-year extension from the Florida Gators and is now under contract with the school through 2016.

Sporting News’s Matt Hayes, who first reported the move Friday afternoon, said Muschamp’s one-year extension does not come with an increase in salary and that his original five-year, $13.75 million contract is now a six-year deal worth $16.5 million.

“Coach Muschamp’s original contract was for five years with an option year,” Florida spokesperson Steve McClain said in a statement after the report was released. “The [University Athletic Association] exercised that option year in January and he now has five years remaining on his current contract.”

In his first year at the helm of the Gators’ program, Muschamp led Florida to a 7-6 record, capping off a .500 regular season with a 24-17 victory over Ohio State in the 2012 Gator Bowl on Jan. 2.

He recently corralled the No. 3 recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals.com, and already has 10 high school football player committed to the Gators for 2013.

Muschamp’s first year with Florida was not without plenty of ups and downs. The Gators’ transition to a pro-style offense was a rocky one. However, UF’s defense was ranked No. 8 nationally at season’s end and showed plenty of promise heading into 2012.

He made a splash before the season began by hiring Charlie Weis to run Florida’s offense, but the unit did not produce as many expected and Weis ended up leaving to take the head coaching job at Kansas. Muschamp rebounded by hiring Boise State offensive coordinator Brent Pease, a highly-regarded coach who was also coveted by Alabama head coach Nick Saban, in January.

The Gators also lost director of strength and conditioning Mickey Marotti when former Florida head coach Urban Meyer took the Ohio State job, but Muschamp rebounded again and secured the services of Jeff Dillman, the (now former) head of physical conditioning for the IMG Performance Institute.

Muschamp’s first 13 months have also been punctuated with 10 player arrests including eight for either underage drinking or marijuana possession, one for driving with a suspended license and restating arrest, and one for misdemeanor domestic assault. Three of the nine players arrested are no longer with the Gators’ football program.

Details of Muschamp’s contract as released on May 5, 2011.

Photo Credit: Erica Brough/Gainesville Sun

Tags: Brent Pease, Charlie Weis, Gator Bowl, Mickey Marotti, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp

For a young kid growing up in certain areas of Shelby, NC, dreams of playing college football – let alone someday in the NFL – can seem entirely impossible.

Throw in the fact that his brother was sentenced in 2003 to life in prison without parole on first-degree murder charges stemming from a drug deal gone wrong in 2001 and many expected Brandon Spikes to go down with the ship.

“There was a lot of negative people who said, you won’t do this, you won’t do that because he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,” Spikes told USA Today in 2008 about his neighborhood growing up. “You won’t ever get a scholarship, you won’t go to Florida and play as well as you did. My whole career has been about proving people wrong.”

He started on that path during his time in Gainesville, FL with the Florida Gators. Spikes went from five-star recruit and the No. 13 prospect in the nation to a player who looked like he might be underwhelming after the Gators’ defense struggled mightily in 2007.

Months after the season ended, Spikes sat down with then-Florida head coach Urban Meyer, shed some tears, and told him he had no choice but to succeed going forward.

“I let him know this is my life. Without this, I don’t know where I would be. Football has been everything. It was my way out; it was my way here,” he said. “I just told him this is what I do. I wake up in the morning and I breathe, and this is the first thing on my mind.”

Spikes became the defense’s leader that season, the parallel to quarterback Tim Tebow and what he did for the Gators’ offense.

His hit on running back Knowshaun Moreno at the start the 2008 Florida-Georgia game is one of the most famous tackles in school history, and it fueled a 49-10 victory that helped propel the Gators to another win in the 2008 SEC Championship over Alabama and eventually to the 2009 BCS Championship.

Spikes promised when leaving for college that he would make his mother proud. His second national title in three years undoubtedly put a smile on her face, but his decision to stay a fourth year and graduate rather than leave early for the NFL likely made that smile grow exponentially wider.

Continue Reading » Sunday a dream come true for Spikes and his mom

Tags: BCS, BCS Championship, Brandon Spikes, Draft, New England Patriots, NFL, SEC, SEC Championship, Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer

It has been a long ride through college for center/guard Dan Wenger, who spent five years with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish before receiving a waiver to spend his sixth year of college playing football for the Florida Gators.

His sights now set on the NFL, Wenger sat down with me for a pair of interviews before and after he participated in the Battle or Florida showcase in Boca Raton, FL. We discussed his time playing for Florida, his thoughts about the Gators program and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.

Check out Part One of my interview with Dan Wenger.

ADAM SILVERSTEIN: Going into the bowl game there appeared to be two main motivations for the team: finishing the season above .500 and sticking it to Urban Meyer. Some guys were a bit vocal about this to the media but for the most part it was kind of it in the background. Which motivation do you think fueled the team more – avoiding the losing season or showing Meyer that Florida was still the better team?
DAN WENGER: “For me that whole Urban Meyer thing wasn’t an issue. I know guys that were upset about the situation and wanted to kind of prove their point – whether it be that they didn’t want Urban to leave or they had something against him for leaving. Whatever the case may be that was never an issue for me. It was one of those things that’s talked about in the locker room but it was a conversation I didn’t get involved in. I had no experience playing under him. He recruited me but at the same time I didn’t spend five years at Florida before Coach Muschamp came in. That was not even a thought in my head. As far as the whole losing season, I’ve been 6-6 going into a bowl game at Notre Dame – once we went to a bowl game and won and the other time we didn’t go to a bowl game. There’s something about going into a bowl game and winning and coming out at that 7-6 and ending with a winning season. That sparks the fire again and the drive and the energy to be better and work harder going into the offseason. When we were 6-6 at Notre Dame in 2009, we didn’t go to a bowl game. Staying stagnant at 6-6, knowing that we couldn’t do anything else about it was terrible. We felt deflated. It was only the second time I had a full winter break. It was something I wasn’t used to and I didn’t know what to do with myself with that time. I was used to watching film and getting ready to prepare and fight that fight one more time. To me, it’s very important and I think that was mostly my motivation going into that game against Ohio State. To come out on top and more than anything I wanted to do whatever I could to help the other guys be ready and prepare them for the game.”

AS: Well I know it wasn’t a motivation for you, but Meyer taking the Ohio State job before that bowl game had to be on the mind of a lot of the other players. Was it something they just brought up here and there or was it a topic that you heard plenty about and thought was a real motivator for the other players?
DW: “You could say there was all of that going on. It was on everyone’s mind. Guys wanted to see if he was going to be there or on the sideline. It was very evident that it was going on in the locker room, all of that talk. A lot of those guys just had a point to prove. That’s fine. Everyone is motivated by different things. Whatever gets you going and gets you ready to give your best effort in a game, by all means use it. It might not be what motivates me, but hell, if it motivates you then let’s go into this game together both highly motivated and play to the best of our abilities.”

Read the rest of Part Two – for FREE – on InsideTheGators.com.

Photo Credit: Associated Press

Tags: Charlie Weis, Dan Wenger, Frank Verducci, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp