FOUR BITS: Brown, Jernigan, boards, Addazio

1 » One of the biggest injury mysteries surrounding the Florida Gators last year was redshirt freshman cornerback Jeremy Brown, who was initially expeced to make a full recovery from a back injury two years ago. The Orlando Sentinel is now reporting that Brown has been cleared for full workouts and should be full-speed for spring practice.

2 » Though the Gators’ 2010 recruiting class is stellar from top-to-bottom, the most impressive area of the class is the incoming defensive line talent that head coach Urban Meyer was able to put together. Florida may have acquired three five-star and two four-star recruits on the defensive front, but local product and 2011 defensive line recruit Tim Jernigan (Lake City, FL) still holds the Gators as the early leader for his services. “When I first heard about all of those guys coming in, I was like, ‘Wow,” he told the Gainesville Sun. “But then I thought, ‘You can’t be selfish.’ It started hitting me that if I go there and you mix my name in there with Dominique [Easley], Sharrif [Floyd] and [Ronald] Powell … fireworks.”

Two more BITS on basketball’s rebounding and Steve Addazio…after the jump!

3 » Florida basketball fans may have found it difficult to suffer through the team’s shooting woes over the past few weeks, but the Gators are still winning and it is partially because of their dedication to hitting the glass. Fourth in the Southeastern Conference, Florida is outrebounding opponents by about three boards per game. “It’s just the will,” junior forward Chandler Parsons told Kevin Brockaway of the Sun. “It’s just the effort. Coach talks about doing the physical things and really you can be undersized and there’s always going to be a mismatch in the game. It’s really about who wants the ball more and position and working hard.”

4 » Though the Gators are in the process of hiring a new defensive coordinator, it is interim head coach and offensive coordinator Steve Addazio leading the charge, not Meyer. Gerry DiNardo, the former Indiana Hoosiers head coach and one of Addazio’s previous employers (2002-04), has all of the confidence in the world that he will succeed. “I think he’s prepared most of his professional life to be a head coach,” DiNardo said. “I think he’ll provide the leadership that the university needs and the team needs. It’s certainly an unusual situation. You have to put your ego away because it’s not your program. It’s Urban’s program. I think you need a strong individual to do that. I think Steve’s that kind of (coach). He’ll handle it fine. He works harder than most coaches do. He’s passionate about the performance of the group and his unit. He lives the job. Everything he does, you can’t tell if he’s at work or at play. It’s one of those deals, it’s not just a job for him. It’s more than him.” Learn more about Addazio’s coaching style and successes in the Panama City News Herald.