FOUR BITS: March, UF in NFL, Harvey, ’07 recruits

By Adam Silverstein
February 16, 2010

1 » The month of February is half over and Florida Gators basketball fans are concerned about where their team will be playing in the end of March. Will it earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons or join some other traditional college basketball powerhouses in the NIT? While ESPN‘s Joe Lunardi has left the Gators out of his most recent bracketology, Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated believes Florida still has a legitimate shot. Davis lists the Gators as a 12-seed and predicts an upset over 5-seed Wake Forest. “Despite recent struggles, Florida looks like a team capable of making the tournament — and staging a first-round upset,” Davis writes.

2 » With the 2010 NFL Draft coming up and plenty of Florida players in contention for top picks, The Houston Chronicle’s Lance Zierlein looked at how former Gators have fared in the league since 2001. The results are less spectacular than Florida fans would hope, though the team has certainly had its share of impact players.

3 » One former Gators star on the verge of a bleak NFL career is Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Derrick Harvey. Though he has struggled thus far in Jacksonville and only compiled two sacks in 2009, Harvey is a favorite of new Jaguars assistant coach Joe Cullen. “Our pick was going to be Derrick Harvey if he was available,” Cullen recounted about the 2007 draft to The Florida Times-Union. “We did a lot of research on him, put him through a great one-on-one workout after Florida’s pro day. The qualities we saw in Derrick are still there. He’s explosive, strong. He’s going to be a powerful rusher. With more repetition and work, that can come out of him.”

4 » Looking back at college football recruiting classes from 2007, SI’s Andy Staples reaffirms that the Gators had the best class in the nation. “This class provided the raw materials for a championship,” Staples writes. “It’s interesting to note that this class could produce as many as four 2010 first-round draft picks.”

4 Comments

  1. UF_84 says:

    Harvey didn’t help himself by holding out for the entire 2007 training camp and pre-season. Hope he spends whatever extra money he made by doing that wisely, because he’s not likely to get another big payday. You could also throw Reggie Nelson into the “Former Gators star on the verge of a bleak NFL career” catagory. I thought the Jags made two excellent choices when they took them. I would have never believed it then but they have both turned out to be complete busts so far. Hopefully they can turn things around this year.

  2. Daniel M. says:

    On the verge of a “bleak” career? Reads funny. Tone of the article suggests he’s on the verge of a breakout year.
    anyway I slice it it’s peculiar because I wouldn’t use “on the verge” to describe a career. But then again I put onion potato chips on my roast beef submarine. So go figure.

  3. Thanks for the writing advice (sarcasm) :). He’s on the verge of a bleak career because he hasn’t been written off yet…but it’s getting close. The tone of the QUOTE (not the paragraph) suggests he can breakout. It sounds like it is on both sides because it is…what is happening now (what I wrote) and what this one coach believes he can do (the quote) are two totally different things at this juncture.

    Additionally, No. 3 relates to No. 2, which discusses Gators underperforming in the NFL.

  4. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    The draft article is very interesting and just goes to show you that as much as we want Gators to go on to great NFL careers the track record is not good….some of the busts that really surprise me are Grossman, Jacobs, Troupe, C-4 & Nelson…Moss and Harvey disapoint me but are not surprising and of course Alex Brown actually surprised me in the positive direction…I can still see him being interviewed after that UT game where he sacked Tee Martin like 50 times cause he knew the snap count….I am hoping Harvin, Murphy and the upcoming classes can reverse the trend!!!

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