TWO BITS: QBs praise Roper, Parsons good deed

1 » Two very important Florida Gators players have already conveyed their excitement about the team hiring Kurt Roper as its new offensive coordinator. Junior quarterback Jeff Driskel on Thursday congratulated Roper via his Twitter account and said he is “excited to get to work with him.” Incoming freshman QB Will Grier expressed a similar sentiment. “Coach Roper is a great fit,” he wrote on Twitter. “I will learn a lot from him and Chris Leak. It is an amazing opportunity to play for such a great staff.”

Grier (Davidson, NC) has actually met and practiced under Roper before. According to The Gainesville Sun, Grier met him one-on-one during a visit to Duke in the spring, has attended two Duke summer camps (as a freshman and sophomore in high school) and even worked out for Roper during one of his Davidson Day High School football practices. “Coach Roper has a great reputation for developing quarterbacks,” said Grier’s father Chad Grier. “Will’s got a very high opinion of Coach Roper, his track record and what he’s done at Duke and everywhere else. We’re excited to have him in place at Florida, and Will is ready to go to work.”

2 » Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons has been having an outstanding third NBA season, averaging 17.3 points, 5.3 boards and 3.8 assists per game – all career-highs. But Parsons’s life has also been more exciting off the court as he has been getting a lot of attention for his looks both from female fans and now brands (he is the new face for Buffalo Jeans, see below).
Even as his career is taking off, Parsons has found a way to remain humble and proved that to be the case recently while visiting 10-year-old Patrick Hobbs-DeClaire, a cancer patient he has befriended. Hobbs-DeClaire, whose specific form of cancer attacks the autonomous nervous system and keeps him in significant pain, told Parsons that the pain does not bother him as much as the fact that he is no longer resembling his twin brother. So Parsons, much to Hobbs-DeClaire’s surprise and delight, decided to shave off his signature fauxhawk as a gesture so his friend would have someone else to resemble. He also makes personal gestures to him during games and gave Hobbs-DeClaire his personal number in case he ever wishes to talk. Top-notch stuff all the way.