travisduncan
Gator Fan
Last week, the Gators go the verbal from the No. 3 rated tight end in the nation, Colin Thompson out of Archbishop Wood high in Westminster, PA.
6-foot-5 and 225-lbs, a big target even by SEC standards and he can run.
At a press conference Thompson said (via the Philly Inquirer), "I know they're thin at tight end, so maybe I'll have a chance to come in and play early in my career."
"They didn't say anything about me redshirting my first year. Of course, that's up to the coaches."
Charges Reduced
Erik Murphy and Cody Larson haven't been dismissed from the men's basketball team, and the Florida State Attorney's office has decided to drop third-degree burglary charges against the pair and instead charge them with second-degree misdemeanor criminal trespassing. That's good news for them, and good news for the Gators depending on how you look at it.
A Florida official has said the two remain suspended.
Parsons impressing
What's not to like about 6-foot-10, Chandler Parsons caught the eye of ESPN's Chad Ford during a pre-draft workout. Parson's could sneak his way into the first-round according to Ford.
Writes Ford, "Parsons really surprised me. I knew he was skilled and athletic for a 6-foot-10 player. But he showed an aggressiveness that I just hadn't seen at Florida. He went head-to-head with George for an hour. George is better, but Parsons held his own. He showed the ability to take him off the dribble to the rim, rise up and hit jumpers over George's freakishly long arms and most importantly, make a number of spell-binding passes to Thomas. Parsons' decision making in the sets were fantastic. So was his shooting. He was hitting just about every shot he took and showed range out to the NBA 3-point line.
Scouts have always been high on Parsons' tools. It's been his lack of results at Florida that have caused his draft stock to slide. I think Parsons will have a great shot at the first round if he plays like he did on Wednesday. It was really a wow performance against one of the better young defenders in the league."
The interesting thing about Ford's comments are the aggressiveness he did not see at Florida. Perhaps too much deferring to Kenny Boyton and Erving Walker?
-Even with the loss of Vernon Macklin, Parsons and Alex Tyus, the experts are predicting yet another strong year from Florida. ESPN's Andy Katz has the Gators at No. 12 in his early, early preseason Top 25 poll, mostly on the strength of super-freshman Bradley Beal.
Muschamp's Millions
We interrupt the Will Muschamp World Tour Summer '11 to remind you how much the revered Gators coach is paid for his trouble.
Florida Today reports fans paid $35 or more to hear Muschamp talk about the Gators last week in Lakeland, a team he has yet to coach for a single game and only a handful of scrimmages.
That's chump change compared to how much Muschamp will take in in the next five seasons. Like all major college football coaches, his salary will be several million per year.
For the next five years he'll make $13.752 million. His base salary is just $250,00 but he makes $1.7 million per year for TV, radio and web site appearances. He'll get $290,000 for equipment and then another $200,000 per year from Nike and an annual expense account of $61,000.
His buyout number is $500,000, but he would still receive $2 million for each year on his contract if he were fired.
Other incentives include $100,000 for each BCS bowl appearance. $150,000 for a national title game appearance and $250,000 is they win the thing.
-Finally Urban Meyer appeared on a Florida Gators roundtable on ESPN's College Football Live recently.
It's interesting to note that despite the obvious fact that no one on the panel knows more about the team than the former coach, he doesn't really say much, perhaps by design.
He did say that Brantley will have more stability at the skill positions this year than last season when the Gators lost every skill player on offense with the exception of Rainey and Demps.
He also said that unreasonable expectations took an emotional toll on the Gators last season.
Jesse Palmer did say one interesting thing: Muschamp has hired sports psychologists to be around the team.
