Notes on 2012 commitment Dante Phillips; the Ol' Ball coach has a plan, plus baseball

[travisduncan]

​

Today we'll look at the next recruit on the 2012 commitment list-Dante Phillips, otherwise known as Omari.

Phillips is the only person in the 2012 class that technically will still have ties to the Urban Meyer era. The 6-foot-6 defensive tackle with great speed (could go offense) from Venice, FL gave his verbal to the Gators on October 25th of last year.

He attends the same high school, Venice High School, that current Gators Trey and Clay Burton did.

He's anything but a solid verbal at this point, with offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida State and others he still plans on visiting others campuses-so we'll have to see.

Back when he committed, the Jacksonville native, had this to say "[UF was] my leader for a while, but the main reason I did it today is because when I moved to Venice me, Clay (Burton), and Trey (Burton), I lived with them for a while during the summer time and me and Clay always talked about how if we got the same offer, that we wanted to go to the same school. He committed today and I committed today too."

He's on facebook, but his video footage on YouTube is a little bit lacking.

-At the SEC meetings in Destin this week, Billy Donovan said the conference wants to move away from East and West divisions. If the proposal is passed we could be looking at an SEC tournament seeded by record or as the coach said, RPI. Seeding by RPI would allow some bubble teams to truly enhance their resume in second-round matchups or perhaps in the opening game, and would allow the big boys to pad their resume by an extra game in the semis-depending on how things shake up in a given year.

Ultimately the move is to help the teams in the West division, which Alabama won, but did not get an invite to the NCAA Tournament, thanks in part to a very poor road record and performance in the SEC Tourney.

-The talk at the SEC Meetings has been, in the wake of the Ohio State/Jim Tressel fall out, the concept of paying players. Former Gator coach Steve Spurrier put forth a proposal, apparently on a napkin-which would pay 70 players on a football roster $300 per game-and the coaches would pay it out of their own pockets.

He said, "A bunch of us coaches felt so strongly about it that we would be willing to pay it — 70 guys, 300 bucks a game. That's only $21,000 a game. I doubt it will get passed, but as coaches in the SEC, we make all the money — as do universities, television — and we need to get more to our players."

Coach Will Muschamp was among seven SEC head coaches who signed Spurrier's proposal.

-Alabama head coach Nick Saban paid Muschamp a compliment at this week's meetings, as reported by the Montgomery Advertiser.

Saban said "I just made a mistake," refering to 2006 when Saban was the coach of the Miami Dolphins and the Gator coach was an assistant. Saban decided not to promote the Gator coach to defensive coordinator and Muschamp left for the dc job at Auburn where he became "Coach Boom".

Saban added, "I didn't want to put guys that were college coaches in coordinator positions until they'd coached in the league and gotten some experience. I should have made him the coordinator (in 2006). I was trying to protect people that were important to me. I think Will understands that. We don't have any issues or problems."

-The Gators baseball team won the SEC Tournament for the first time in 20 years Sunday. The Gators are a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will play Manhattan on Friday at 4 p.m. ET.

 

[DRU2012]

Hope Dante Phillips does make good his commitment--but either way, the 2012 recruiting class is shaping up a winner.
Meanwhile, the more I consider things (and we ALL have too MUCH time to "consider things" right now, I grant you), the more I think maybe this 2011 team can accomplish some things this year--more than just start shaping up for NEXT year.
"Out there", among the media and fans not of Gator Nation, writing off the Gators is a popular pastime heading into the summer...I just read an ESPN piece that goes so far as to say that UF-football is no longer seen as among the elite programs. Now, even at my moments of most cautiously-lowered-expectations this seems a bit premature, to say the least.
Even without Jenkins, the "D" should be strong-and-getting-stronger as the season progresses, and even with its injuries and question marks, the worst you can say about the offense is "We just still don't have enough information". Sure, there are some big "ifs"--IF Patchan can get and stay healthy and live up to all that potential, IF Nixon is the solid leader he appears ready to become, and (most of all, of course) IF Brantley actually becomes the efficient QB Coaches Boom and Weis appear to truly believe he is ready to be (or at least can do a reasonable impression long enough while one of the talented new guys can learn and progress to the point HE can seize the role himself later on), this team could turn out to be sneaky-strong and do some damage in the SEC. In addition to the people we're getting back, we've got some great new additions coming in as well. It's a brutal schedule, true enough, but I like that we are probably being sold a bit short, for a change. Hopefully gives us an edge AND a chip on our shoulder, ya know?

 

[DRU2012]

Oh yeah--wanted to at least note Spurrier's proposal , and the general support it received from fellow SEC head-coaches (including our own): Sure, a lot of the specifics (what there are of them) are problematic, in terms of practicality, but like the other head coaches themselves, I totally support the overall framework and direction of his thinking, and even more the opening of serious, explicit discussion of such issues and ideas. Then the fact that central to his plan is the simple, straightforward manner in which the funds with which the players would be paid: by the coaches themselves putting up a portion of their (at this level) large salaries. This does more than "start the ball rolling", as some have noted. It is one version of a first step in what will inevitably be a separate organizational entity of top programs, comprised of the very institutions that can (in this and/or various other ways) afford to (in Spurrier's words) "share the wealth a bit" and both pay their players AND ultimately form their own championship playoff series, sell the various rights, advertising and broadcast fees--accomplishing not only greater solvency for such a system, but a much-needed and long-anticipated "True National Championship" among the traditional elite college football programs.