FOUR BITS: Scouts, Lawrence, Johnson, Tebow

By Adam Silverstein
August 11, 2010

1 » When Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban decided to close off his team’s practices to NFL scouts, there was some outrage that he may have gone too far. The Tuscaloosa News qualified the action by stating that Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer had mandated the same thing. The only problem? He didn’t. Florida associate athletics director for communications Steve McClain pointed out Wednesday that the Gators have not changed their policy and scouts will still be allowed to attend during designated periods (usually during the regular season and select two-a-days). However, as noted before, Meyer has indeed closed practice to the media and fans in an effort to keep out questionable characters or “scumbags” as he so eloquently put it.

2 » On Aug. 5, Meyer announced that redshirt sophomore wide receiver T.J. Lawrence had requested and received a release from his University of Florida scholarship. Wednesday, Lawrence told The Lakeland Ledger that he has decided to transfer to the Florida A&M Rattlers. “It’s a big shocker because a lot of people wouldn’t expect Florida A&M University, but I’m going there to be a two-sport athlete,” Lawrence said. His main motivation for leaving UF was a lack of playing time.

3 » Interesting video from The Gainesville Sun of redshirt senior guard Carl Johnson interviewing freshman running back Mack Brown at Florida Media Day.

4 » Focus on the Family, the anti-abortion group that purchased a Super Bowl ad featuring former Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam Tebow, has decided to purchase statewide television advertisements during every Denver Broncos game for the upcoming season. Though the new ads will not feature or mention Tebow, the fact that the company is based in Colorado and already has the recognition of having previously worked with Tebow certainly served as a motivating factor in this decision.

6 Comments

  1. gatorsfan12 says:

    I know this is not the topic to post this on, but I had a question for Adam and the rest of gator nation. Does Teryl Austin have a lot of control over this defense, sorta like Charlie Strong would have? I was excited when we hired Teryl because of his NFL experience and 2 superbowl appearances. It sounds to me that things will be run the same as last year. Not to much wrong with that, we had a great defense, but I would rather see Teryl Austin put all of his schemes in place. I love Chuck Heater to death, but again I was hoping for a little more of an NFL defensive scheme in place to really shut out offenses, and not take a hit like 07. Just wondering if anyone knows how much control Teryl has and will he be calling all defensive plays this year.

  2. Regarding your 2nd bit….whatever!!!! Two-sport athlete? Hey may have left for a lack of playing time but there was a reason for that. With a plethora of WR to beat out I wouldn’t be surprised if Lawrence wasn’t good enough. Umm, who was the last Rattler WR to make an NFL roster?

  3. gatorsfan12 – Just an FYI – all comments have to be approved, so that is why you didn’t see yours right away in the other thread. Because you posted it twice, I just deleted the other one – hope you don’t mind.

    Now to your question…

    Austin is the defensive coordinator so he certainly has a lot of control over the defense. To the level of Charlie Strong? Yes by definition but perhaps not based on experience (at least from the get-go). Don’t forget, Strong was here for quite some time and both Heater and McCarney are veteran defensive coaches who have been working within this defense for quite some time. But Austin is being paid a good amount of money to come in and run this defense.

    That being said, when it comes to the offense, playcalling is by committee – at least that’s what Meyer and Addazio claim. When Strong was here, it was my impression that he had almost full control over defensive playcalling. I happen to think that defensive playcalling will now be more by committee with Heater especially having some influence. He is co-defensive coordinator by title.

    Truth is that it will be easier to answer your question once a few games have gone by. Half of the staff is brand new and there are plenty of adjustments that will be made throughout the season. Hope this helps a little.

  4. gatorsfan12 says:

    thanks for the answer and sorry for posting twice. The only reason I posted on both topics was I was the last person to comment on the other one, so I assumed everyone was finished reading that article and wouldnt repsond.

  5. Drew 4 Orange & Blue says:

    Since all posts are reviewed someone should start cleaning up all my grammatical errors!!!! I can’t see this being ’07…we lost a lot and didn’t have the depth to replace all the losses….this year we are just loaded in the front 7 especially the D-Line….we had a solid line coming back and then you add to that 6 frosh with 3 being 5 stars and I think most expect Floyd and Powell to make major contributions this year….I think the question is will we be really good on D or great

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