August 2007
$4.97
Nick Calathes rises to new heights
ALSO INSIDE: Fred Taylor, Chandler Parsons, James Smith, Amanda Butler, Ricky Nattiel, Kerwin Bell, Brian Leclerc
GatorCountry.com
Contents
August 2007 — Vol. I, Issue II
Photo by Tim Casey
UF long snapper James Smith congratulates Jemalle Cornelius during the Gators' 21-14 win against the Florida State Seminoles on November 25, 2006 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee.
6. The Boy Wonder Prized recruit Nick Calathes’ skill on the basketball court exceeds his years.
15. Late Bloomer Lake Howell’s Chandler Parsons has emerged as one of the Gators’ top basketball recruits.
21. Orange and Blue to the Bone UF alumna Amanda Butler returns to UF to lead the women’s basketball program.
24. Pride of the Sunshine State Jaguars running back Fred Taylor closes in 10,000-yard milestone.
28. Little Guy, Big Heart After being told he was too small to play, James Smith steps up big for the Florida Gators.
32. Big League Dreams Former Gator Brian Leclerc’s amazing turnaround during his senior season yields an opportunity in pro baseball.
37. Celtic Pride Former Gator Ricky Nattiel takes the reins from Kerwin Bell at Trinity Catholic.
40. For Whom the Bell Tolls After an ultra-successful run as a high school coach, Kerwin Bell makes the move to college ball.
45. Hollywood Bob’s Five Prospects to Follow 46. Buddy Martin’s Column Visit GatorCountry.com for more than 300 original stories posted every month!
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
3
From the Editor The Magazine PUBLISHER
Raymond Hines III EDITOR
Mike Hodge CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Franz Beard Jeff Elliott Bob Redman PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR / Layout and Design
Tim Casey
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Order online at GATORCOUNTRY.COM or call: (800) 601-4623 CUSTOMER SERVICE: (800) 601-4623 TO ADVERTISE: Send email to: folks@gatorcountry.com or call 800-601-4623
Funny how things change. As you probably know, this is Gator Country’s second issue. The first choice for our cover? Anthony Grant, who, of course, we all expected to succeed Billy Donovan, who left, at least for a few days, for the Orlando Magic. Turns out, Donovan had a change of heart and told UF athletic director Jeremy Foley before he interviewed Grant. Donovan got his job back; the Magic hired Stan Van Gundy; and Grant stayed at Virginia Commonwealth to prepare for his second season since leaving as Florida’s top assistant a few years ago. Well, that left us with an open cover. After a bit of discussion, the choice was obvious. Issue number one had the 04s in their national championship glory. Now it’s time to look at the future of Florida basketball, which likely will involve Nick Calathes, the snazzy point guard from Lake Howell High featured on this month’s cover. Profiled by Franz Beard, Calathes is said to have old-school game, fundamentally sound with fabulous floor vision. Stories of his basketball IQ are reminiscent of another recent Gator star, Mike Miller, the former NBA rookie of the year. Also headed to Gainesville is Calathes’ teammate Chandler Parsons, who was not as highly recruited as Calathes. Florida State, in fact, snubbed the 6-9 forward. This rejection only served as motivation that propelled Parsons’ game to another level as a senior, when he helped lead Lake Howell to a state championship. UF fans are looking forward to seeing both later this fall. But first there is football season. You probably don’t know much about James Smith and quite frankly he prefers it that way. Long snappers usually are underappreciated, but Smith’s story of perseverance is sure to warm your heart. Another Gator who has chugged along quite well is Fred Taylor, who is approaching 10,000 career yards, all with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In an era of free agency, Taylor is refreshingly loyal. So is Ricky Nattiel, the former UF star receiver, who has taken over at Ocala Trinity Catholic High after serving as an assistant. Nattiel, a former Denver Broncos star, succeeds Gator teammate Kerwin Bell, who moved into college coaching and is now the head coach at Jacksonville University. Both are featured in GC this month. This month’s thank-yous: to photographer Tim Casey, who shot some great photos and assisted with our design; Ned Dishman, who came through with the great cover shot of Calathes; and GC publisher Ray Hines, who swept behind all of us and buffed the rough edges of the mag’s final proof. As always, enjoy. Mike Hodge - Editor GATOR COUNTRY MAGAZINE is printed 10 times a year by Gator Country Multimedia, Inc., 9200 NW 39th Ave, Suite 130, PMB#133, Gainesville, FL 32606. Subscriptions are $49.97 annually. The magazine is included with an online GatorCountry.com subscription which also includes ESPN Magazine and ESPN Insider. Single copy rate is $4.97. SUBSCRIBERS: If the postal service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. POSTMASTER: Please send all change of address forms to Gator Country Multimedia, Inc., 9200 NW 39th Ave, Suite 130, PMB#133, Gainesville, FL 32606. Please allow two to three weeks for a change of address. We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable companies. If you prefer to be excluded, please email or call us. ©2007 GATOR COUNTRY MULTIMEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.
GatorCountry.com
The
Boy Wonder By Franz Beard
Prized recruit Nick Calathes’ skill on the basketball court exceeds his years
A
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
t an age when most of the kids in his neighborhood were just learning to get around on a tricycle, Nick Calathes had tossed the training wheels on a real bike and was entering bicycle motocross competitions. He was only 2 1/2, barely out of diapers, the first time he entered a BMX race. He was the smallest kid out there, but the only fear he had was losing.
He’s always taken losing badly. “Of my five boys, I think Nicky has the toughest time handling losing,” says his dad, John Calathes. “He will do anything — literally anything — to win. We’ve seen that in him since he was a little kid. He’s got this need to compete, and once he starts competing, he’s tenacious. He’s got to win.” Competition and winning have been the driving forces behind Nick Calathes ever since he can remember. He is an athletic prodigy who has risen to the top in every sport he’s tried. He’s the
6
August 2007
ultimate basketball gym rat, which has a lot to do with why he’s the most celebrated University of Florida basketball recruit in years, but before basketball corralled his attention span, there was cross country and there was a fling with baseball. “If it wasn’t basketball, it would have been something else,” Calathes said. “About the sixth grade or sometime when I was in middle school, basketball kind of took over and that’s been my sport ever since, but if I didn’t play basketball I would be competing in something.”
Gator Country Magazine
He ditched BMX for cross country when he was 5. When he was 6, he was nationally-ranked in AAU cross country where he turned in a sub-20 minute time on a 3.2-mile course. Cross country races are where John Calathes first saw Nick’s toughness and the unbreakable will to win. In a race in the summer heat on the grounds of the Orlando Science Museum, John Calathes remembers standing at the finish line watching 5-year-old Nick closing in on a win. “It was summer, at least 90 and humid out there ... brutal conditions,” John Calathes recalled. “Here comes Nick. He’s running to the finish line and he’s crying at the same time. Just before he gets to the finish line he stops, bends over and pukes his guts out. Then he wipes his mouth and runs across the finish line acting like nothing has happened. He won and that’s all he
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
GatorCountry.com cared about.” He never gave football a shot. although his dad says he had the arm and the vision to be an outstanding quarterback. He had the hand-eye coordination to be an exceptional baseball player and he played the game until it started interfering too much with basketball. When he was 7, Nick mostly sat the bench while 10year-old teammates like Taurean Green, Darius Washington and older brother Pat Calathes led the Raptors to the national AAU championship. By the time Nick was 10, he was the best player on the Raptors, who had a habit of making the final four in every AAU national tournament. He was still playing baseball when he got to middle school and that’s when a decision had to be made. Either he needed to give more time to baseball, which would take away from basketball practice time, or ditch one of the two sports altogether. Basketball was the logical choice since he had started playing at age 3. What sealed the deal was Steve Kohn, the Lake Howell High School basketball coach. Pat Calathes was a tall, gangly freshman on the varsity team at Lake Howell and Kohn was all too willing to let little brother Nick practice with his freshman team. Pretty soon, Nick was also practicing with the junior varsity and doing warm-ups and drills with the varsity. “I was in middle school at Tuskawilla and I think that’s when I realized that I had a chance to be really good in basketball,” said Nick on a Saturday morning at his Casselberry home. “I love baseball. It’s a great sport, but I just thought I could be good in basketball and so I started spending all my time playing and practicing. When they let me practice over at Lake Howell, I think that’s when I really
8
August 2007
core courses — and found ways to accommodate his growing basketball habit. When he wasn’t in a gym somewhere, he was in the back yard. By then, the front yard goal had been replaced by the full court in the back yard where four older brothers discovered that their scrawny little brother wouldn’t back down. The games weren’t for the faint of heart. “Brawls,” laughs John Calathes, shaking his head in amazement. “They’re brothers and they love each other, but when they play forget brotherly love. There were fights … lots of fights. Sometimes every day. They didn’t go easy on Nicky, but he didn’t want them to and he never would back down. Not ever. He’s the youngest and wanted to show he could take it and dish it out just like everybody else.” There was this one fight with Pat that took place at the Tuskawilla Middle School gym after everyone else had gone home. It started with some elbows to Nick’s solar plexus and reached the boiling point when Nick fired a pass as hard as he could at Pat’s John Calathes head from point blank range. John Calathes knew that was the time to intervene. He told the “I get this call and the teacher is boys to apologize to each other, but really concerned about Nick,” John when neither one would say ‘I’m sorry’ he told them to have it at. Calathes remembered. “She says he sleeps in class, he’s always tired, The ensuing fight didn’t last very and he’s not finishing his work. His long. Pat was already well over six feet tall (he’s 6-11 now, entering grades are C and D and she wants to know if there’s something going his senior year at St. Joseph’s) and Nick was maybe 5-6. Pat threw on that she needs to know about.” There was something going on, Nick to the ground and pinned him there, but Nick still wouldn’t give only not at the home front. in. “I was spending six hours “He’s on one elbow and trying every afternoon at basketball to get loose,” John said. “He’s practice over at Lake Howell,” Nick said with a grin. “I kind of let screaming at Pat, ‘I’m gonna beat your butt! I’m gonna beat your everything else go, so I had to get butt!’ Pat just looked at me and back on track.” shook his head and laughed. Nick The grades got back on track would not give in. He couldn’t give — he graduated high school in. It’s not his nature. If there is a with a cumulative 3.3 GPA in his got serious about the game.” Getting serious about the game also involved a little parent-teacher conference that John Calathes will never forget. Nick was a sixth grader at Tuskawilla when the call came from a teacher asking John why Nick was always sleeping in class. She was disturbed that this ‘A’ student was slipping. Sleeping in class and C’s made her wonder if there was something wrong on the home front.
“
If there is a hill to climb or a goal to be met, he will do whatever he has to do to get it done. He just can’t stand to lose.
Gator Country Magazine
”
GatorCountry.com hill to climb or a goal to be met, he will do whatever he has to do to get it done. He just can’t stand to lose.” Nick Calathes is no longer the scrawny middle school kid. He’s over 6-6 now and approaching 200 pounds. He’s still growing taller and it will be another year or two before his body catches up. He averaged well over 20 points a game during his high school career, 27 a game as a senior. Whether in high school or on the AAU circuit, he’s gone head to head with some of the top players in the country for years and he’s torched them. Maybe he doesn’t jump all that high. Maybe he shoots a funny looking shot. None of that matters. He scores on whoever is guarding him. He is a two-time Mr. Basketball in Florida and a McDonald’s, Parade and Jordan All-America. After three years of Final Four frustration, he helped lead Lake Howell to the Class 5A state championship as a senior. In the Silver Hawks’ 85-42 win over St. Petersburg Lakewood in the state title game, Calathes and teammates Chandler Parsons and Joey Rodriguez tied for the MVP award. Parsons will join Calathes in Florida’s recruiting class while Rodriguez is off to Virginia Commonwealth, where he will be playing for ex-Florida assistant Anthony Grant. At Florida, Calathes will wear multiple hats. He has a point guard’s mentality and point guard skills, but he has old school versatility. He is a superb long distance shooter --- he finished second in the three-point shooting contest at the McDonald’s game and took first in New York at the Jordan game --- so he’s played every position and he really doesn’t care where.
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
“Just get me on the court,” he says. “Where? I don’t care as long as I’m out there playing.” Florida assistant Larry Shyatt, who has been following Calathes for three years, calls the Gator prodigy “old school” and says the kid from Casselberry would have fit in with any team in any era. “He’s an old-fashioned ball player,” said Shyatt. “He’s sort of
a dinosaur in terms of basketball intellect. He versatile. He’s capable of playing three positions right now and in high school; he probably played all five of them at some point. He doesn’t just play multiple positions. He knows where everyone is on the court at all times and he knows where they should be. He’s going to be fun to coach and hopefully the rest of
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
9
GatorCountry.com
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
Incoming Florida freshman Nick Calathes and legendary basketball coach John Wooden pose for a photo at the McDonald’s All-American game on March 28 in Louisville, Ky. “I’m already 6-6 and they say I but he can put the ball on the these freshmen are going to enjoy playing with him as well.” might end up 6-7 or 6-8, so I think deck and get to the basket. He’s in motion non-stop so he has a Calathes prefers to play the I’ll probably be taller than a lot of guys on the wing, so I can get my tendency to lose his man and get point, but he understands that he easy layups on backdoor cuts. has mismatch written all over him. shot over them. If I play the three (small forward) I think I can take Against Auburndale in the “I like having the ball in my hands,” he said. “I think I can most guys off the dribble. The regional semifinals as a junior, get the ball to people in a good game’s all about mismatches and if Calathes had one of the best games I can help coach Donovan by being of his career. He scored 44 points, position for them to score so naturally, that’s where I like it best. a mismatch guy, then I’m all for it.” grabbed 11 rebounds, handed out I think everybody likes having the Calathes has a scorer’s touch to seven assists and stole the ball five ball in their hands and making go with that point guard mentality. times. What makes the points so He is an excellent spot up shooter, remarkable is the way he got them. decisions.
10
August 2007
Gator Country Magazine
GatorCountry.com He scored nine points at the foul line, nine points on spot-up three pointers on the fast break, 10 points on fast break layups and 10 points on back door cuts. He only took four shots (made three) when he had the ball in his hands as the primary ball handler and distributor. “He’s a true scorer,” says Reggie Kohn, the former South Florida and Lake Howell star, who coaches the Silver Hawks along with his dad, Steve. “He finds ways to score. He doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands and you don’t have to revolve the offense around him. He will get his points some way, somehow.” Scoring is just a part of his game. Calathes is perhaps the most creative passer to come along in the high school ranks in years. He has a habit of making everybody around him better, which is why he was voted by his peers in camp after camp and AAU tournament after AAU tournament as the one player they would want on their team. John Calathes says Nick was already understanding how to pass the ball well when he was just a little guy. “I’m watching him when he’s just a little guy and he’s already throwing lead passes,” said John Calathes. “He understood the concept of making a pass to a place on the floor instead of passing to a stationary receiver. When he first started doing that, a lot of kids just stood there flatfooted. At first we thought our kid was a terrible passer or something because he was throwing the ball several feet away from his teammate. Then we started to watch more closely and we understood that he was trying to move the ball and his teammate to a place on the floor that’s closer to the basket and in a place where there’s a shot. He was just a little guy, but he already had sense of how to pass and why.”
John Calathes coached Nick until he was 16. He’s watched his son develop in hundreds of games and thousands of practices. John says that Nick sees the game as if it’s slow motion and he sees his teammates like the pieces on a chess board. “Oh, I really believe the game slows down for him,” said John
“
Nick is committed to the team and winning…he really doesn’t care if he scores or not as long as what he’s doing helps the team win. He’s the guy you want on your team. UF assistant coach Larry Shyatt
”
Calathes. “I think he sees things before they happen on the court. It’s like a chess game for him. In chess you have to anticipate three or four moves in advance. Nick’s that way on the basketball court. He sees things before they happen. I think that’s why he’s developed as a great passer. I also think that’s why he could have been a great quarterback if he had been a football player.” Nick won’t say that the game slows down for him, but he admits
that he can see the whole court. “I see everybody — my teammates and the other team, too,” he said. “I don’t know what you call it, but I kind of know what to do and where everybody is going to be.” The skills — whether we’re talking about shooting, ball handling or passing — are evident. What isn’t always so evident is the burning desire to win. That’s what separates Nick Calathes from other players, according to Steve Kohn. “I’ve maybe coached five people in my 33 years of coaching that have that kind of will to win,” said Kohn, rewarded for his years of being a leader of kids in 2007 with his first state championship. “He will figure out a way to win a game. Somehow, someway, he’s going to do something to win and that’s whether it’s one-on-one, twoon-two or five-on-five. “He wants to win the game so badly. I know this sounds crazy, but sometimes you watch him and he almost wills his team to win. I think that rubs off on everybody. He makes everyone on the team better. He makes them play harder. He makes them want to win the way he does. If you’ve got a guy like Nick on your team and you see how hard he’s playing, how much he wants to win, you just don’t want to let him down.” Tenacious is the way Reggie Kohn describes Calathes. “He just keeps coming at you,” said Reggie. “He won’t give up. He will fight you until the final whistle. Tomorrow, he’ll be back in the gym ready to fight you again. He’s got that tenacity that you can’t teach. Whatever he needs to do to get better, he will do it. I’ve never seen a kid listen and absorb
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
11
the way Nick does. He’s a gym rat and he’s going to be in there every single day doing anything he can do to get better.” Shyatt just spent three years coaching the 0-Fours at Florida — Taurean Green, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah. They won three straight SEC Tournament championships and the last two NCAA titles. They were the foundation for what many are calling one of the greatest college basketball teams ever. Shyatt sees the same qualities that made the 0-Fours so successful in Calathes. “Nick is committed to the team and winning,” said Shyatt. “He’s a team first guy and he really doesn’t care if he scores or not as long as what he’s doing helps the team win. He’s the guy you want on your team.” Steve Kohn says Calathes is such a great teammate because he’s an includer, not an excluder. “You take our team, for example, and Nick has always included his teammates in everything that he does,” said Kohn. “He encourages them. If he’s doing something, he wants them there with him. On and off the court, he’s that way. You see him around school, and he’s the same way. Nobody ever says anything bad about Nick Calathes. That’s because he’s always including everyone in on the fun. He’s like a big 7-year-old because he’s always having fun doing something and he’s always making sure everybody around him is having fun, too.” On the weekend before he left home to go to the University of Florida, Nick Calathes reflected on his decision to be a Florida Gator. “I met coach Donovan when I was maybe 10 or 11 and playing
GatorCountry.com
“
People are expecting us to win championships. Well, so am I. That’s why I’m coming to Florida… expecting to win championships and I’m going to be very disappointed if we don’t win one or two.
”
Nick Calathes for the Raptors,” he said. “He took time to talk to me and I thought wow, this is great. Here was this important coach and he took time to talk to me and then he remembered my name.” At the Calathes home, there was hope that Pat would be a Gator, but Donovan declined to recruit him. Instead of brushing off Pat, Billy Donovan sent a hand-written letter to Pat Calathes and family explaining why he felt Pat might not be a good fit at the University of Florida. The entire Calathes family was impressed with Donovan’s sincerity and that only made the relationship with Nick grow stronger. “I’ve always felt comfortable around coach Donovan,” Nick said. “I think he’s a guy that will look you in the eye and tell you the truth. I think he’s the kind of coach that will push you to your limit to make you better as a player and a person.” So it was almost a no-brainer when Nick committed to the Gators after his sophomore year at Lake Howell. “Florida was where I wanted to be and coach Donovan’s who I wanted to play for,” he said. “I saw what Pat went through with recruiting and I didn’t want
to do that. Besides, Florida had everything I wanted. I committed to the Gators and I’ve never had any second guessing.” With two straight national championships, the bar of expectations has been raised and Calathes understands that things will never be the same again in Gainesville. “People are expecting us to win championships,” he said. “Well, so am I. That’s why I’m coming to Florida. I want to be somewhere that people expect you to win championships. I’m coming to Florida expecting to win championships and I’m going to be very disappointed if we don’t win one or two. “Coach Donovan, before I first committed to Florida, was telling me come to Florida and help us win our first national championship. Well, they’ve got two now but that’s OK. I’m coming to Florida to help keep the championships coming. I believe in our team. I believe in coach Donovan. I believe we’re going to win championships.”
Gator Country Magazine
GC August 2007
13
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
GatorCountry.com
LATE BLOOMER
Lake Howell’s Chandler Parsons has emerged as one of the Gators’ top basketball recruits
By Franz Beard
T
he call from Leonard Hamilton sapped all the life out of Chandler Parsons. It was one of those thanks, but no thanks kind of calls — thanks for committing to FSU two weeks ago, but now that we’ve thought things over, we really don’t think you’re good enough to play here. From future Seminole star to free agent, just like that. Parsons’ commitment to FSU was over faster than Drew Barrymore’s marriage to Jeremy Thomas, which lasted all of 19 days. Two weeks earlier, Parsons and his parents sat in Hamilton’s offices in Tallahassee and when a basketball scholarship to Florida State University was offered, he accepted on the spot. Parsons was a skinny 6-foot-7 at the time, more of a face-up shooter than anything else, but a rising star for Lake Howell High School. He still had the warm and fuzzies from the meeting with Hamilton when the call came to sever the commitment. Although the FSU coach didn’t exactly come right out and say “you’re not good enough,” he didn’t have to. Parsons got the message loud and clear. “He’s telling me well maybe they won’t have enough room or something like that,” recalled Parsons, who two years later is one of the jewels in a Florida recruiting class that has been ranked as high as number one nationally by some recruiting services. Parsons says Hamilton tried to let him down easy, but all the apologies in the world
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
couldn’t change the message of rejection. “I mean, I’m not even going to be there for two years and you’re telling me that?” remembers Parsons, a Jordan All-American from Lake Howell High School in 2007. “Two weeks ago, he’s happy when I commit and now what he’s really doing is telling me I’m not good enough to play there. What a way to start your junior year in high school.” That was the worst day of Chandler Parsons’ young life. The hurt cut deep and left him with the most empty, lonely feeling he had ever experienced. Two years later there is no bitterness in Parsons’ recollection of this ever-so-quick version of an athletic divorce. Maybe there is plenty of truth in that saying that time heals all wounds because
he certainly sees things from a different perspective these days. “Well, let’s start with the fact I’m a Gator now,” says Parsons, who is 6-9 and still growing. “Two years ago, maybe I didn’t think I’d ever be good enough to play for coach (Billy) Donovan. That was always a dream to play for Florida, but at the time I just didn’t know if I would be good enough. Now it’s two years later and I’m going to play for the best coach in the country, for the team that’s won the last two national championships and I’m going to be playing with my best friend in the world (Nick Calathes). A lot has changed. “If FSU had stuck with me, things would probably be a whole lot different now. Wow. A whole lot different. In the end things usually work out for the best, but when it
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
15
GatorCountry.com happened, it seemed like the worst thing ever in my life. I was really hurt and embarrassed, too.” In retrospect, he knows the decision to commit to Florida State in the first place was made much too hastily. He admits he was a little bit jealous that two Lake Howell teammates that just happen to be his two best friends committed to play college basketball and that gave him a false sense of urgency. “Nick (Florida commit) and Joey (Rodriguez; committed to U-Mass, signed with VCU) committed and so I kind of felt left out a little bit,” Parsons said. “It was kind of an ego thing. I was looking for some place to commit, too, and then Florida State offered. I wasn’t going to say no.” Reggie Kohn, who has coached Parsons the last four years at Lake Howell, believes the decision to commit to FSU was made far too quickly, but he also thinks that the sequence of events have served an excellent purpose. “He really wasn’t ready at the time,” said Kohn, who played for his dad, Steve, at Lake Howell before going on to stardom at South Florida. “I really don’t think he had thought it over, but when he saw his two best friends commit, I’m sure he didn’t want to feel like the one that’s left out, so I think he probably jumped the gun a little bit. When they called him back a couple of weeks later, I know it was one of the lowest times he’s ever had, but without that to motivate him, he might not be as good as he is now.”
When FSU rejected his commitment, Chandler Parsons had some serious soul searching to do. He loved basketball and he already had a great work ethic. But how much did he love it? How much harder was he willing to work to improve the weak points in his game? Did he love it so much that he would make whatever sacrifices
16
August 2007
necessary to improve? Did he really want it all that bad? He stood at a tough crossroads, similar to the one he faced the year before when he made the decision to give up baseball. A shortstop and pitcher with a big arm and a decent bat, Parsons played for a national championship AAU team.
“All love affairs end,” Al McGuire once said. “Eventually the girl is going to put curlers in her hair.” The curlers for Chandler Parsons were the philosophies of the Lake Howell baseball coach. The Silver Hawks had talent, but they weren’t a very good team. The coach apparently didn’t help matters with his overbearing personality that at times seemed abusive to Parsons, who even today shies away from talking about it. “I started thinking, do I really need this?” Parsons admitted. “Plus, I was starting to grow --- I was like 6-5 or so then --- and my best friends are playing basketball. I had a decision to make.” The baseball team wasn’t very good --- “We won something like two games,” Parsons recalls --- while the basketball team, led by Nick and his older brother Pat, made it to the state championship game in Class 5A. When he tried to project the future, baseball looked less and less like a viable option. “I guess I could have kept on in baseball and maybe we would have had a winning team by the time I was a senior, but maybe not,” Parsons said. “It didn’t look too Nick Calathes good. Lake Howell’s never been a very good baseball school. “Besides I was getting taller and “He really could throw,” said I knew I was still growing. There Calathes. “Everybody thought aren’t a lot of shortstops that are baseball would be his game, but he 6-8 or 6-10, but that’s pretty good kept on growing. He got too tall to for basketball so basketball started be a shortstop, but he probably could looking really good. I figured I might have been a good pitcher if he had make it to 6-8 and I might get taller stuck with it. Randy Johnson’s what? than that. Plus, they were playing 6-11? Tall pitchers like that are pretty for championships. I thought maybe intimidating.” I’d get a chance to play for a state Parsons was a starter on Lake championship, too. The more I Howell’s varsity baseball team as thought about it, the more I decided I a freshman. Even though he was wanted to play basketball.” outgrowing shortstop (6-foot-5 A year later, right after the call at the time) he had a better than from FSU, he made the next tough average fastball and he threw a nasty decision which was to do whatever breaking ball. Baseball was his first he had to do to transform his game. love, but like so many love affairs, He was determined to improve this one came to a tragic end. so much that nobody would ever
“
He really could throw. Everybody thought baseball would be his game, but he kept on growing. He got too tall to be a shortstop, but he probably could have been a good pitcher if he had stuck with it.
Gator Country Magazine
”
GatorCountry.com say “you can’t play for us” again. Parsons was all arms and legs at the time, a good prospect for sure, but was overshadowed by Nick Calathes. Calathes was the can’t-miss kid and a Florida Gator all the way down to his Billy Donovan looka-like hairdo. If Calathes was the superhero Batman, then Parsons was Robin, a really nice sidekick, but not exactly the guy that strikes fear into the hearts of bad guys everywhere. “He played baseball and basketball all the way through his freshman year in high school so he needed some time to really develop and add some strength and maturity,” Kohn said. “He got better in the summer after his sophomore year, but between his junior and senior years, he grew up a lot and that’s when his game took off.” Parsons averaged 18 points and nine rebounds a game as a junior as Lake Howell made it to the Final Four in Lakeland a third straight year only to come up empty. His game had improved enough that a number of high level Division I teams were starting to take notice, but then came the AAU circuit and a summer to remember.
In the summer of 2006, Chandler Parsons became a comet across the AAU circuit sky. He was still skinny but he was a legitimate 6-8 and an offensive nightmare for teams trying to figure out ways to stop him from scoring. If they left him alone outside, he drilled three-pointers for Nike Team Florida. If the big guys tried to cover him on the perimeter, he put the ball on the deck and took it to the basket where he suddenly found the ability to finish what he started. “I wasn’t a finisher before last summer,” he admits. “I was always a pretty good shooter, but I wasn’t that good finishing at the basket. Once I could finish, everything opened up for me.” Playing alongside Calathes, the
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
two good buddies and high school teammates became one of the most feared scoring duos on the AAU circuit. Only the two-man wrecking crew of Derrick Rose (Memphis signee) and Eric Gordon (Indiana signee) scored more points than Calathes and Parsons in the summer of 2007. Parsons served notice at the Nike camp in Indianapolis that he was a legitimate big-time player. At the Peach Jam in Augusta, where
Rose, Gordon, Kyle Singler (Duke signee) , Calathes, Patrick Patterson (Kentucky signee) and Calathes were supposed to be the marquee players, Parsons lit it up, averaging 27.5 points per game to lead the tournament in scoring. By the time Peach Jam was over, Parsons had scholarship offers from LSU, Indiana, Wake Forest, Arizona State, Alabama, Tennessee and a host of other schools. He also had the national champion Florida Gators shadowing
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
17
GatorCountry.com
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
The Lake Howell Silver Hawks celebrate after winning the state championship game during March in Lakeland. It would be the final high school game for UF freshmen Chandler Parsons and Nick Calathes. his every performance. The Gators were interested, but it took a follow-up lights out performance to seal the scholarship deal. With Billy Donovan, Larry Shyatt and Donnie Jones watching every game, Parsons tore it up at the AAU Nationals in Orlando. He followed up a 42point performance against a Buck Williams-coached team with a game to remember against Delvon Roe (Michigan State commit). With Donovan watching intently, Parsons and Calathes nailed seven straight three-pointers in the fourth quarter as Nike Team Florida erased a 13-point deficit to win and advance to the quarterfinals. When he wasn’t burning up the nylon offensively, Parsons went head to head with Roe on the defensive end in the fourth quarter and came up with three
18
August 2007
critical stops down the stretch. If the offensive game didn’t convince Donovan, the defensive effort probably put Parsons over the top. A couple of weeks after the AAU nationals, Parsons and his family came to Gainesville to visit Donovan at the University of Florida. Parsons had decided that he would probably commit to LSU if Donovan didn’t offer. “I really wanted to be a Gator all along,” said Parsons. “I loved LSU and coach (John) Brady, but I knew that if Florida offered, that’s where I would be. Florida was always my school. Even when FSU offered me back when I was a sophomore, Florida was my school, but back then I never really thought I would be good enough.” The Florida offer came on a
Gator Country Magazine
Saturday afternoon in August in Billy Donovan’s office at the Florida basketball complex. Donovan offered, Parsons said yes and this time there was no phone call two weeks later rescinding the scholarship offer. “Man, that day was like a dream,” Parsons said. “I’m sitting there with coach Donovan and my parents and next thing I’m saying yes, ‘I’m going to be a Gator,’ and everybody’s excited and happy.” If the day he got the call from Leonard Hamilton was his worst day ever, then the day he said yes to the Gators ranks right up there with the state championship that Lake Howell won in Lakeland back in March, ending a three-year Final Four drought for the Silver Hawks.
GatorCountry.com The Florida commitment was just the start of a rather charmed year for Parsons. He shot up everybody’s charts and by the end of Lake Howell’s dream season, he was considered one of the top 30 prospects in the country. He just missed making the McDonald’s All-America game but along with Calathes and another Florida signee, Houston point guard Jai Lucas, he was selected to the Michael Jordan All-America Game in New York, played at Madison Square Garden. He averaged 22 points and 11 rebounds a game for Lake Howell as a senior. Calathes, Rodriguez and Parsons tied for the MVP honor at the state tournament, the first time in state-tournament history that three teammates shared the award. Lake Howell finished the season nationally ranked. Their three losses were all to out of state teams that finished ranked in the national top 10. They beat every team they played from the state of Florida by at least 11 points. Steve Kohn, Reggie’s dad and a veteran of 33 years of high school coaching, won state coach of the year for guiding Lake Howell to the state championship. He always thought Parsons would be a good basketball player, but even he has been surprised by the improvement. “I would have never projected Chandler to be that good when he first came to us,” said Kohn. “I thought he would be a great baseball player. He was a great shortstop, but he got too tall and now he’s 6-9. “He’s a kid that earned everything he got. He worked so hard, especially these last two years. He really wanted to get better and you could see that every day at practice. I’ve never had a player get as good as he did in as short a period of time.” Parsons is still growing. From April to June he added a half inch and was staring down the prospect of hitting 6-10 by the time fall practice starts at Florida.
“My goal is 6-11,” he said with a smile. “I want to be 6-11 and strong enough to go outside with a good enough shot and good enough ball handling skills to take anybody outside, too.” Florida’s assistant, Larry Shyatt says that Parsons’ versatility makes him an intriguing prospect “Chandler is a guy who played two or three positions last year in high school and AAU,” said Shyatt. “When he was stuck in the post, he was adequate, but he’s more comfortable facing the basket. He’s going to make it a challenge for defenders the next four years. “He’s sort of a preying mantis right now. He’s all arms and legs and exciting to coach as a young player. Until mother nature takes over and he has a chance to grow into his body, you can’t really label him as a position player. One day he could be a two, three, four or even a five kind of player. He’s that versatile.” Whenever the Gators played at home and there was no conflict during the 2006-07 high school season, Calathes and Parsons were at the O’Connell Center watching Florida make a run to a second straight NCAA championship. The combination of the Gators’ winning and the taste of winning
Photo Courtesy of John Calathes
championships he’s gotten at Lake Howell, has made him hungry to continue the championship tradition at Florida. “Winning the state championship was a dream, I mean a really great day,” he said. “Winning a championship in high school makes me want to do whatever I can to help the Gators win another national championship. A championship? Why stop at one? Let’s win more than one. Let’s make Florida a real basketball dynasty.” When he considers his future as a Gator and then thinks back to that day when Leonard Hamilton called to rescind his scholarship offer, there is no bitterness. “Maybe I ought to thank him next time I see him,” Parsons said. “That was the worst day I ever had at the time, but it turns out, it was a good thing for me. I may not have improved as much if I didn’t have that motivation. I really did want to prove him wrong. I really did want to prove that I’m good enough. I don’t want to stop getting better. I want to keep on improving.”
Gator Country Magazine
GC August 2007
19
GatorCountry.com
ORANGE to the &BLUE BONE UF alumna Amanda Butler returns to UF to lead the women’s basketball program
A
manda Butler is on the move. The past few months the new University of Florida women’s basketball coach has been scouring gyms nationwide for schoolgirl talent. So far, she’s done pretty well this summer, landing two recruits — Lonnika Thompson, a point guard from Trinity Valley Community College; and Susan Yenser, a star shooting guard from Clemson University. Thompson is the passer, the distributor; Yenser is the scorer, the shooter. Butler did a little bit of both during her four years at UF, leading the Gators to two NCAA tournament appearances. Nearly 15 years later, the 35-year-old alumna is back, this time as a coach, where he she hopes to lead her alma mater to postseason success. Butler spent two years at UNCCharlotte, where she led the 49ers to an average of 20 wins a season. A similar showing would go over well in Gainesville. After a 9-22 record under former Carolyn Peck, the road to improvement begins now. Butler, in town between recruiting stops, took a few minutes to talk with Gator Country Editor Mike Hodge about her expectations. GC: What are your goals for the women’s basketball program — short term and long term?
in the right direction and continue on a daily and weekly basis to get better, then we’re going to end up where we want to be.” GC: Is there any way to evaluate a timetable for some of those things you talked about or any potential obstacles along the way?
“Short term is we progress in a positive direction. I think that we already have. We’ve added a few players to the program and we’ve at least had a chance to sit down with the current players and talk and build a relationship. That’s progress in the right direction. We just want to get better. I don’t know that I can specifically define our short-term goals any better than that. We want to get better. We want to compete on a national level. Certainly, when you compete in the top half of this conference, you know that you compete on a national level. We feel like that’s very realistic. “Long term, this is a nationalchampionship program. There’s no question about it. That’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. We know that, but at the same time, if we continue to progress
“I think that’s impossible to know, I truly do. I would love to lay it out there and say, ‘We’re going to do this in two years and by five years we’re going to do this’ so on and so forth. There are so many unforeseen factors, good and bad that can happen in athletics and college athletics, that’s truly impossible and I’d be silly to even venture a guess. I do think that with the amount of commitment we have from our university, from our athletic department and how fantastic of a place this is to be a part of, how special it is to be a Gator, I think we are going to attract the level of talent that, like I said, is going to make it happen for us sooner than later.” GC: Have you had a chance to evaluate your players on film? Strengths and weaknesses? “I’ve watched film on my current players. Incoming players it’s been a little bit harder to get tape on those guys and get to know them from an on-court perspective. You can look at the statistics and not look at a minute
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
21
GatorCountry.com dribble a lot. We’ve got to address that. Hopefully, the incoming players and the players we’ve been able to add in the late period, we’re correcting some of those weaknesses. So much of it is an inexact science. We won’t get a chance until we get out on that practice floor in August and do some individual workouts and progress into September when they’ll be playing pickup together. You have to get more involved with them on the court before you know if the thoughts and plans that you have will develop the way that you think that they’re going to.” Photo Courtesy of UF Sports Information Office GC: The issue of recruiting: Is your
Florida women’s basketball coach Amanda Butler speaks during a press conference on April 17 in which she was announced as the program’s ninth head coach. of film and tell that we’re returning our top three statistical leaders in Marshae Dotson and Sha Brooks and Depree Bowden, who will be our only senior this year. “They were very solid for us. Statistically, Ebonie Crawford and Aneika Henry add some size right off the bat. We hope that they’ll be able to contribute right off the bat and size that is something we’re sorely missing, and we were able to sign Lonnika Thompson, which takes a little pressure off of Sha, our primary ballhandler and let her be on the wing a little bit more and think about scoring points instead of running the offense. The roundabout way to your question: I have had a chance to evaluate them. We do have our core group returning, which is exciting and we do have some younger players anxious to buy in to the way we’re going to do things and see what their opportunities are going to be, but there’s no question that we’re going to have to continue to recruit and find players that complement what we already have. We have some obvious strengths. We also have some very obvious weaknesses that we need to correct as quickly as we can. We’ve done
22
August 2007
that as best as we can late in the recruiting period. In women’s basketball, it’s very hard to find quality players in the late period and we were able to do that. I’m very, very pleased with what we’ve been able to do here in the last month. It sets us up for the things we need to achieve in the 2008 class, which will be an impact (class). There will be freshmen who will have to come in and make noise for us right away.”
philosophy in state or out of state? Is it a balance? Different coaches look at it differently. What’s your philosophy? Regional? State? National?
“We’re fortunate to be in a fantastic area of the country. We’ve got great basketball players. Great athletes come out of this state. That, especially early on, is going to be our primary focus. For us, we want the best players in Florida to want to come to the University of Florida, and then extend on that to the best players in the Southeast and then go nationally. In a general sense, we want the best players to want to GC: You mentioned strengths and come here no matter what state they weaknesses? Could you elaborate hail from. If you’re in a situation more? where we are and you look at the Final Four from this past year, where “Size. You can see without me you have Erlana Larkins from North being the one evaluating them that Carolina (Palm Beach), and Sylvia Ebonie and Aneika give us some Fowles from LSU (Miami), that size. Adding Lonnika to that mix (will help). Sha Brooks is not a point shows you how talented this state guard. She’s a perimeter player; she’s is and how important it is for us to keep those talented athletes at home. a scorer. She’s a kid, who’s going to be a playmaker. We’re going to try to Certainly, we’re going to begin right and hopefully attract that level of put her in a position to make plays player who lives in our state to our and finish plays and not be the one program and work from there. If we who is the setup kid as much. That was a definite weakness we inherited need to stretch the boundary to the West Coast, then that’s where we’ll with the lack of a point guard. Overall, our shooting percentage has go. “I’m a bottom line type person. to improve. We’ve got be a little more We want the best to come here, but efficient as ballhandlers. We like to
Gator Country Magazine
GatorCountry.com sometimes what you want doesn’t always happen that way. We’ll start from there and go with what makes sense and where we can get results.” GC: Another recruiting issue: Junior College or high school kids, which do you prefer? Do you have a preference? “I think if you’re in a situation like we are where we feel like we’re building something, you always want to have a mix… What you can do with a player in four years versus two years is drastically different. So we’re going do certainly what makes sense. Most of our focus will be on high school kids and we’ll supplement with junior-college players, because it is nice to bring a kid in _ although you haven’t had the four years to develop them _ when you’re able to attract juniorcollege players from Trinity Valley like Lonnika is from and we have fantastic (junior-college) programs and players in our state who have two years of almost Division I experience, because of the level of talent that’s in the Florida junior college system compared to other areas of the country, I think you have to strive to mix that together, the experience with the opportunity to develop a young lady from high school all the way through her four years. We’re in a fortunate area, where the high school talent and the junior-college talent are tremendous. To revert back to my earlier statement, we’re going to go where the players are. But I think it’s very hard when you think long term to build a program on juniorcollege players, because of the earlier turnover. You only have them two years. High school athletes will be our backbone supplemented with junior-college players, when the mix makes sense.”
would be your style of play? “I think there’s one thing that defines me, if I had to choose one word to define my style in an ideal world when the players I’m going to have are be able to perform my style, the way I would like for it to be — aggressive. I like to do the most aggressive thing that makes sense every single time down the floor and I think when you make a statement like that, you think of things like being fast and scoring in transition and playing 94 feet of basketball and initiating pressure defense earlier than later. But certainly you have to have that balance and that mix. That’s why I say you have to do what’s most aggressive, but makes sense. You’ve got to be able to execute in the halfcourt and play the fundamental aspects of the game and not just rely on your athleticism from baseline to baseline. When you are the better conditioned team which we will strive to (be), we’ll play a fast, physical transition game using the entire floor. When you play hard and you play confidently and aggressively with that style, right out of the gate you have an advantage over probably half your opponents. That starts with a commitment — in the spring, offseason and summer — to get your body in shape and understanding how important the weight room is and how important it is to commit to your cardiovascular conditioning as well.” GC: Who was the biggest influence of your coaching career? Why did they have the influence they did? Did you have a mentor?
“In terms of my adult life — I don’t know when that exactly started — Carol Ross, having the opportunity to play for her for four years and then having the opportunity to work for her for two GC: I know this is hard to define, but more years and then leaving her if you could build a team the way as an assistant to go on and work that you wanted to build it, what at other places. Susie Gardiner
at Austin Peay. Teddy Meyer at Charlotte…. There’s no question that after leaving her as an assistant and being able to call her a friend, be able to pick up the phone and ask her for advice, she has shaped me and my personality as a coach in many, many ways.” GC: Coach Gardiner, looking at her bio, she’s done a lot. She’s been in a lot of places and done a lot, how valuable is it to have someone on your bench who’s done what she’s done? “It’s crucial, absolutely crucial to our success. She’s experienced and been successful, as a player, as an assistant, as a junior-college coach, as an assistant and as a head coach. Her SEC experience and knowledge, to me, is invaluable. She brings something to the staff and to me, in particular, as leader of the staff do not have. I think when you start to form a staff, you have to be very honest with yourself: What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Then you have to go out and hire people who complement your weaknesses. I have not coached but two years in the SEC and Susie definitely, with her tenure at Arkansas and her tenure at Georgia certainly brings that experience (off the bat). Besides that, she is a fantastic coach and has shown that at every stop. She’s great on the floor. She’s great in practice. She’s a very loyal, genuine person. You want to work with someone who has those characteristics, but you have to understand how it impacts your team and how easily the players trust an individual like that. We feel fortunate to have Susie here with us. I know her fingerprints and her work is going to be all over the success we have here in the future.”
Gator Country Magazine
GC August 2007
23
GatorCountry.com
PRIDE OF THE E T A T S E N I H S SUN By Jeff Elliott
Jaguars running back Fred Taylor closes in 10,000-yard milestone
Photo by Tim Casey
Jaguars running back Fred Taylor exits the field after a preseason game on August 26, 2006 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville.
24
August 2007
Gator Country Magazine
Fred Taylor is in a select class of football players. It’s rare for a player to play in the same state throughout a high school, college and professional career, especially a 10-year or longer stay in the National Football League. But when Taylor recently signed a contract extension with the Jacksonville Jaguars, it all but guaranteed that he would join the unique group of players that never left his home state while playing the sport at all three levels. Taylor was a high school standout at Glades Central High School in his native town of Belle Glade. He was named Florida Super Senior as well as all state and Class 3A Player of the Year while finishing second in the voting for Florida’s Mr. Football in 1993. That propelled him to the University of Florida where the honors kept coming. By his senior year he was a third team All-America selection. He was a consensus All-Southeastern Conference first-team choice and served as the Gators’ team captain his final year at Florida in 1997. Taylor still ranks No. 4 on the school’s all-time rushing list with 3,075 yards. But all that pales with what he has accomplished in Jacksonville the past nine seasons. Nearly 10,000 career rushing yards have propelled the 6-1, 226pounder into some elite lists among all-time NFL great running backs. Consider that he ranks: No. 4 among NFL active rushing leaders, trailing only Curtis Martin, Corey Dillon and Edgerrin James. No. 6 among the NFL’s all-time leaders in rushing yards per game, ranking behind five of the NFL’s best ever-Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, James, Eric Dickerson and Walter Payton. No. 7 on the list of top all-time leaders in yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving), trailing the same five players in the previous category along with Marshall Faulk All of the six players in front of Taylor in the latter category are either in pro football’s Hall of Fame or
GatorCountry.com in the case of Faulk and James, will be once they qualify for such. That prompts the question of whether Taylor feels he’ll be worthy of such consideration, five years after he retires when he would become eligible for inclusion. “Going into each season, the Hall of Fame is so far from the front of my mind, I don’t even think about it,” Taylor professed. “You hear about it, people talk about it and say ‘maybe we’ll see you in the Hall one day’. “That’s all irrelevant from what I’m doing now. When I look at it, a lot of guys don’t get voted in until sometimes 10, 20 years down the road, even longer. So right now that’s not even in my mind going into this season.” What Taylor would rather talk about is the five-figure yardage total that he’s approaching. With 9,513 career rushing yards to his credit, he needs another 487 yards to become the 20th player to amass 10,000 career rushing yards. Martin, Dillon and James are already members of the elite group. Taylor wants to join them and eventually surpass them. “As close as I am to the 10,000 yards, I want to get there as soon as I can,” Taylor said. “I was slapping myself last year because it should have happened then. I had a couple small hurdles, a couple minor injuries, but that’s behind me now. “So I’ll get 10,000 this year and then I want to push it up more and more. I mean, why stop at 10,000? I want to go to 13,000. The next number would be 15,000, but that’ll take some time.” Take away the season-ending groin injury that he suffered against Tennessee in the second game of the 2001 season, and Taylor would already be a member of the 10,000club. It was by far the worst injury of his career. While making a cut on a running play, he tore a portion of his groin away from the bone. Had he played in the 14 games that he missed and had he averaged
his career rushing mark of 85 yards a game, he would be closer to 11,000 career rushing yards than he is to the 10,000 mark. Take into account the six games he missed in 1999 because of a hamstring injury and the five lost contests in 2005 (ankle injury), and that’s another potential 1,000 yards lost.
half to have to sit out and watch the guys and not be able to do anything about it. Now I’m just trying to do everything I can to be in the best shape I can be.” It’s one of the reasons why Taylor has trained in South Florida the past two off-seasons. He was subjected to criticism a year ago for not joining his teammates at the Jaguars’ facility for the spring practice sessions, even though they were voluntary practices. All those doubts were cast aside however when Taylor reported in possibly the best shape he’s been in since joining the club in 1998. “Last year I felt the best I had felt in my entire nine years in the NFL,” he said. “That’s why I did the same thing this spring. The team felt I benefited from working out down there. And the bottom line is winning, not where you work out. “It’s how hard you work out and the condition you return in. I want to do what I did last year and plan to report in excellent shape when we report to camp in July.” That top shape a year ago enabled Taylor to rush for 1,146 yards, a figure even more impressive when considering teammate Maurice Jones-Drew contributed 941 yards on the ground. That left the Jaguars just 59 yards shy of becoming only the fifth team in NFL history to have two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season. Taylor’s effort marked the sixth Fred Taylor time in his nine seasons that he’s topped the 1,100-yard mark. It also The various injuries have been brought about a contract extension, Taylor’s weakness. It’s caused some something Taylor had longed for. to cast a “fragile Freddie” label on Underpaid for what he’s him, one that he despises and will accomplished in his career, Taylor challenge anyone who calls him soft. was mired in a contract that paid him “We play a physical sport and $2.55 million per year. But he was injuries happen, it’s part of the rewarded with a new agreement, one game,” he said. “I’ve heard that talk that will pay him $5 million this year of me being fragile. But that’s just not that includes an $800,000 base salary so. If I was fragile I would have quit and a $4.2 million roster clause. playing the game a long time ago. The next three years, he’ll make “I know when I tore my groin base salaries of $4 million, $5 million off the bone, it was tearing me in and $6 million with a $1 million
“
We play a physical sport and injuries happen, it’s part of the game. I’ve heard that talk of me being fragile. But that’s just not so. If I was fragile I would have quit playing the game a long time ago.
”
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
25
GatorCountry.com roster bonus each season. And nearly just as important as the money, the contract extension means that Taylor has a chance to finish his career as a Jaguar. That’s a special feeling to the running back. “It’s rare when you can play for one team your entire career,” he said. “I always wanted to finish my career in Jacksonville. Just being in Jacksonville where I am able to enjoy those fans, my Gator fans, all my friends in that community. “This new contract gives me an opportunity to go out and perform like I know how. That’s the easy part. 2010, set the date, I don’t think I’ll be asking for another contract. I want to play this one out and give them everything I’ve got. “Next year is my 10th year, but now I’m signed up for three more so I have an opportunity to play 13 years or even more. I think 13 is a good number to stop on. I want to play throughout my contract. I’ll be 34 and that’s enough. But as long as I stay focused and work out with my guys in South Florida, I should be able to fulfill the contract.” That’s assuming that Taylor stays healthy to play out the current four-year, $23 million pact. The Jaguars showed they aren’t afraid to let a popular veteran go when they released 10-year standout Donovin Darius who will turn 32 in August, has a high contract and has been limited the past two years with a torn ACL and a broken leg. Darius and Taylor were the lone holdovers from the Jaguars’ 1999 squad that posted a 14-2 mark in the regular season and advanced to the AFC championship game. With the emergence of JonesDrew and a healthy Greg Jones returning for 2007, Taylor will need to stay healthy the next couple of seasons to maximize his current deal. Although Taylor has his new contract in hand, he has a tough time in hiding his frustration from last year’s disappointing 8-8 mark by the Jaguars. That came on the heel of a
26
August 2007
12-4 season and a trip to the playoffs, the team’s lone such postseason appearance since 1999. What makes the .500 record so hard for Taylor to accept is that the team improved its record to 8-5 following a 44-17 pounding of eventual Super Bowl champion Indianapolis. But three consecutive losses by 7, 3 and 5 points cost the Jaguars a shot at getting into the playoffs. It left Taylor with a helpless feeling of looking in from the outside, again. “Some teams that go 8-8 would be content. They’ll say it’s something to build on,” Taylor said. “We are so disappointed in that season because the talent that we have and the expectations, especially coming off a 12-4 season the prior year. “Last year was really a letdown. This year we don’t want to go through that. I enjoy all of my teammates, just being with those young guys, high-energy guys. And of course it’s always good to have more Gators like Reggie (Nelson) join the team. “I have a lot of friends in Jacksonville, a lot of guys on the team that I respect. Guys I will go to war with any day of the week. More than the money, Jacksonville is home.” Knowing that he’ll likely turn in his Jaguars uniform in the next three to four years, Taylor has already looked into the future. He has an interest in broadcasting, either as a studio analyst but more preferably, as a commentator in the radio booth. This past winter, he jumped at the opportunity to be among a handful of current and retired NFL players who participated in a weekend of media and interactive fan interview sessions put on by ESPN at the Walt Disney World complex in Buena Vista. “After I’m done competing, I’ve thought about going into the radio booth as an analyst,” Taylor said. “I think I would probably be a good
Gator Country Magazine
broadcaster. I know the game and I like to talk about it. I think it would be fun.” But that career may take a back seat to a commitment Taylor made to his father to help with the development of some land in the Bahamas. “All of my ancestors are from the Bahamas and we have some land in Long Island in the Bahamas,” he said. “We want to try to develop some of the land and properties there, whether it’s converting them to time-share units, developing strip malls or whatever. “We’re going to take a qualified developer over there soon and see what visions they have. That’s the first thing on my plate at retirement.” Until then, Taylor just wants to enjoy life and get the most out of his final years in the NFL. He’s got his new contract, he’s had another good off-season training session in south Florida and optimism is high at the Jaguars facility for the upcoming 2007 season. And most importantly, Taylor has a chance to retire in the state where he’s played his entire career. “I can go anywhere in Jacksonville and interact with fans and just be everyday Freddy,” he said with a smile. “I don’t have to try and put up a front for these people. They treat me well out in the public. For them to know I will be here and retire here, I’m sure they are as excited as I am. That doesn’t happen to a lot of guys. “I am in the state of Florida. I grew up in Florida. The one thing I can always say is I started playing football in south Florida and I will retire playing football in north Florida. It’s just a good feeling.”
GC Jeff Elliott works for the Florida Times-Union. This is his first story for Gator Country.
Photo by Tim Casey
GatorCountry.com
LITTLE GUY, BIG HEART
After being told he was too small to play, James Smith steps up big for the Florida Gators
By Mike Hodge
A
n assistant coach tapped the scrawny young boy on the shoulder and asked a simple question: “Would you like to help us shoot video if football doesn’t work out?” James Smith still remembers the words. Every day. Every game. Every play. “That made me so mad,” Smith said. “That made me want to prove everyone wrong in high school.” Almost eight years have passed since the less than flattering job description was proposed, and the young boy, who once stood 5-foot-2, 120 pounds, grew. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. The kid barely big enough to wear shoulder pads now starts for the Florida Gators. The story begins in the backyard with a father and a son. The boy had pretty fair speed and quickness, but just wasn’t gifted enough for football’s traditional positions. He was too small for a lineman; a tad slow for a receiver. One day in practice the coach asked if anyone could long snap. Smith raised his hand. Truth was, he really didn’t know, but he was determined to learn. So he watched games on TV and practiced every chance he got. “The biggest thing is consistency,” Smith said. “When
28
August 2007
people ask me if it’s hard, I tell them it’s not hard; it just takes practice.” Long snapping is a thankless task. You hunch over to thrust a football between your legs to a waiting pair of hands only to get bull rushed by a defensive lineman. “No one knows who you are till you mess up,” Smith said. “That’s the way I want to keep it. I don’t want anyone to know who I am.” Of course, he once dreamed of being a wide receiver, but mustered just one play from scrimmage on the freshman squad. He ran routes until his thighs burned, but there was always someone bigger, faster and better. As a sophomore, he played quarterback and led the JV team to an undefeated season, but faced stiff competition from upperclassmen with bigger bodies and better arms, so he bounced from position to position, grinding away at his competition. Smith often lifted weights before the school day started and then arranged his schedule with a first-period P.E. class to create a two-hour block of time to ensure a full workout could be completed before he settled into his academic curriculum. So determined was Smith that he started his offseason workouts with his high school teammates as an eighth grader the summer before he enrolled. “Not sure it was legal, but he
Gator Country Magazine
talked the coaches into it,” Smith’s father, James II, said. “He’s just always outworked everyone. That’s really been his secret.” The process of mastering long snapping followed similar learning curve. The more he studied others and the more mimicked the better he got. It was trial and error over and over and over. “I know nothing,” James II said. “I just caught the ball. He’s just very, very determined. He still is.” Smith grew proficient enough that he became Buchholz High’s starting long snapper. That bought him enough time to grow and eventually he played linebacker and led the team in tackles as a senior. “He came in and worked hard,” Buchholz coach Jay Godwin said. “We spend as much time as anyone on special teams. We’ve really been blessed with good kickers and good snappers. That puts a premium on someone who can snap. He was one of our top ones.” Even so, no one was willing to offer Smith a scholarship when he graduated. So he decided to walk on at Florida. His initial inquiry to coach Ron Zook went something like this: Zook: “What can you do?” Smith: “I can long snap.” Zook: “Glad to have you. C’mon.” Like most walk ons, Smith practiced more than he played. He redshirted his first season, served as the backup snapper in year two
GatorCountry.com and didn’t earn the starting job until coach Urban Meyer’s first year in 2005. Billy Latsko, a rugged fullback from Buchholz, provided guidance that helped Smith find his way up the depth chart, assistance that has not been forgotten. “Definitely, Billy Latsko’s a role model of mine,” Smith said. “Growing up in high school, he was a senior when I was a sophomore. He was all-everything. Great football player. “When I came in here, I didn’t know anybody. I wasn’t one of the big-name recruits. The only person on the team I knew was Billy. When I didn’t know what to do, I called Billy. When I didn’t know something, I asked Billy. Whatever I did I looked up to Billy. I saw what he would do and I would try to do it.” Like Latsko, Smith was did what he was asked; like Latkso, he did it well, not because he was physically gifted, but because he was dedicated to his craft. Whenever he watches a football game — college, high school, NFL — he studies the special teams. “I look at the formations,” Smith said. “Every year more and more teams go to the spread. I look at the long snapper and his size. Some schools go with a smaller long snapper. Some go big. Some like to have their guys cover. Some people have backup centers do it. I like to watch people who have similar ideas to what we do.” To fans special teams are a necessity, a transition during a change of possession. To those who play, it’s seamless precision. “The best snaps are ones you never see,” Smith said. “It’s like boom, right on the punter’s right hip, right in the holder’s hands. It’s so crisp. Perfect spiral. Nice and fast. A lot times the average fan’s not going to notice. I try to pick up how he’s holding the ball. Some guys hold it high; some go low.” Photo by Tim Casey The kicking game centers on James Smith tackles FSU punt returner Willie Reid during the Gators’ timing. Good college teams strive 34-7 win over the Seminoles on Nov. 26, 2005 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
29
GatorCountry.com to execute a snap and punt in less than two seconds, a window Smith referred to as “get-off” time. “Everything has to be crisp,” Smith said. “If they catch it up here (around the chest) and then have to bring it here (to the waist), then that’s wasted motion. I always say you can have a better punt if you have a better snap.” In Florida’s special teams, the punter stands 13.5 yards from the line of scrimmage. Every snap is timed. Smith has precisely seven tenths of a second to propel the ball to the punter. NFL snappers, who have to cover 15 yards, do it in six tenths.
“It starts with me,” Smith said. “I’ve got to do my job, so they can do their’s.” On kickoffs the distance from holder to snapper is half the distance of punts — approximately 7 yards — so the margin for error shrinks. The field goals and extra points are allotted 1.2 seconds. Smith’s target is the inside of the holder’s elbow. “On field goals it’s such a short distance with it, my ball will spin the same amount of times every time,” Smith said. “If I can rotate the ball the holder will catch it with the laces always forward. It helps out with the timing, because 1.2 seconds is really quick.”
Photo by Tim Casey
James Smith pummels Alabama punt returner Javier Arenas during the Gators' 28-13 win against the Crimson Tide on Sept. 30, 2006.
30
August 2007
Gator Country Magazine
Everyone has to be in sync. Their cue comes from Smith. “Everyone on the field goal team has to have confidence in the other person, because the kicker starts his steps on the snap,” he said. “The holder and snapper have to get their jobs done. He’s swinging his leg when (the holder’s) hand is still on the ball. The kicker has to have confidence in the holder, the holder has to have confidence in me that the ball’s going to be on the ground. It has to be on the spot, tilted with the laces out.” For the past few years, Florida’s special teams have relied on familiar faces — Eric Wilbur, a four-year starting punter; and Chris Hetland, the two-year starter at kicker. Both have graduated. Chas Henry, the nation’s premier prep punter at East Paulding (Ga.) High School, is the top candidate to replace Wilbur. “Real tall, long-legged guy,” Smith said. “He’s looking good. He can bomb it. He has a lot of potential.” Joey Iijas and Jonathan Phillips are competing to succeed Hetland. Neither claimed the job in the spring. “There’s a lot of leg strength there,” Smith said. “We’re working hard to get it between the uprights. We want to make sure this season goes well. That’s where I feel a lot of responsibility to the team. I used to be the guy carrying the bags. Now I’m the oldest.” Not to mention one of the most valuable components of the special teams. Not only can Smith snap, he’s a sure tackler, helping force key fumbles against LSU (2006) and Tennessee (2005). “Long snapping’s one thing,” said UF assistant Steve Addazio, “it’s another to cover on a punt. You’ve got to cover on the punt. He can do that because he’s athletic and he’s strong. It’s one thing to snap, it’s another to deal with the other half the issue. And he can do that.” Smith’s hustle — and Latsko’s
GatorCountry.com
James Smith warms up before the Gators’ first day of spring practice on March 21. graduation — have put him in the mix to play some fullback. A broken ankle sidelined him for the Orange and Blue game last April, but he is expected to contend for the job when fall practice starts in August. “He’s doing a great job making that transition to that fullback position,” Addazio said. “He’s an evaluative guy. He wants to make sure things are done right. He’s one of those guys who once he starts to pick up a scheme, then he gets it and once he gets it, he gets it.” Competition for carries is expected to come from Eric Rutledge, the former P.K. Yonge star, who has floated between linebacker and fullback for three seasons. Smith has less offensive experience than Rutledge, but compensates with effort.
“He’s a great kid. I love him,” Meyer said this spring. “He was on the kickoff team last year and we’re going to get him involved more. He’s one of our better players now. With Billy leaving, that spot is open. (James) is a tremendous player.” So one Buchholz alumnus may replace another. It’s a scenario Smith has mentioned to Meyer several times, not because there was an opportunity, but a need. “Definitely long snapping’s been my role the last two years,” Smith said. “But I want to help the team any way I can. I’m the one who went to coach Meyer said, ‘Billy’s gone. Can I play fullback?’ I asked him. I want to help the team how ever I can. If that’s being the captain of the special teams, then that’s what I’ll do. If they need me to play fullback,
Photo by Tim Casey
I’ll do that.” It’s one thing to be needed. It’s another to be noticed. Meyer recognized Smith’s worth early on and rewarded his persistence last spring during an early morning Saturday stroll through the weight room. “I remember like it was yesterday,” Smith said. “Coach Meyer was like, ‘Hey Smitty, you’re going to be on scholarship now.’ I jumped up and I was all sweaty. It was early and he was just getting into work. I gave him a hug. I’m close with the weight coaches. They were there, too. I called my dad. I called my brothers. It was great, one of the best moments of my life.” For a moment, words of one coach fade. Words of another resonate.
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
31
GatorCountry.com
W
BIG LEAGUE DREAMS
By Mike Hodge
hat to do on draft day? Brian Leclerc thought about hovering over his computer round by round, minute by minute, but decided to invest his time in others. After all, better to be happy than to brood. “I told myself this year that I was going to relax,” Leclerc said. “I was chilling out on vacation trying to get away from it all, so I decided to sit with (Matt) LaPorta and watch him get drafted on television. That was
Former Gator Brian Leclerc’s amazing turnaround during his senior season yields an opportunity in pro baseball
really nice. I was proud of him.” That day in Beverly Hills, Calif. the two former University of Florida teammates watched their futures unfold. LaPorta became an instant millionaire when the Milwaukee
Photo by Tim Casey
Brian Leclerc makes a sliding catch during the Gators’ 4-3 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks at the Southeastern Conference Tournament on May 23 at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala.
32
August 2007
Gator Country Magazine
Brewers picked the All-America first baseman seventh overall. Leclerc’s fate wasn’t decided until a day later when the Chicago Cubs selected him in the 31st round. “I just wanted a chance, an opportunity to play,” Leclerc said. “Everyone starts from zero once they get there. Just because you’re a first rounder doesn’t mean anything once you get to the minor leagues. You’ve got to start all over again. I was just privileged and happy to get an opportunity to play for the Cubs.” There was no agent, no negotiations. Leclerc signed on the dotted line and a few days later, he was on his way to Idaho to play for the Boise Hawks, a short-season Class A club, the bottom rung of the minor league bushes. “They love it when guys don’t dilly dally around about this much money and this and that,” Leclerc said. “They like the guys that get out there and want to play. You make your money in the big leagues. You don’t make your money in minorleague baseball.” Every inning, every penny is earned. “I didn’t realize this before I came here, but you have to actually make this team,” Leclerc said. “They just don’t take the guys who got drafted. They’re also guys they take up from rookie ball as well. They’re a lot of guys who got left at home. That’s why I feel really privileged.”
GatorCountry.com The gap between college and pro ball can be imposing. Physical skills are enough in college. Not so at the pro level. “The thing I like is the level of competition is really raised up another notch,” Leclerc said. “I think SEC baseball is great, but I think you really have to have an idea of what you’re doing when you play professionally. You really have to understand the ins and outs. You play a lot of games in a short amount of time. In college, you’re spread out. It’s only on weekends. You know what? I’m happy with all that. I knew that all through my career. Now I get a chance to show that here. “One of the first things they did with us here was to have a meeting. They asked us a question: ‘How many levels are there?’ Everyone was like, ‘What?’ Then they told us that, ‘Gentlemen, they’re only two levels, minor leagues and major leagues. Our goal is to get you to the next level.’ For me that was really inspiring.” If you follow Gator baseball, you probably know Leclerc’s story. So much promise. So much frustration. So many twists and turns. His senior season started on the bench and Brian Leclerc was not happy. A two-hour call from a friend eased his angst. Lastings Milledge played high school ball with Leclerc in Clearwater. Milledge now plays for the Mets’ organization. Like Leclerc, he’s extraordinarily gifted. Like Leclerc, he can be impatient. “He’s playing the same role I did,” Leclerc said. “He went through a lot of stuff. He was called up, called down. He was pinch hitting, stuff he was not used to. Basically, we had a two-hour discussion. He told me some stuff I didn’t want to hear, but I had to hear it. It helped me realize that no matter who’s on the mound, no matter who’s in the lineup, you can’t control what moves the coaches make. You have to make them put you in there. I had to control what I could control. I couldn’t try to
photo by
Tim Casey
Brian Leclerc hits a double to left field during the Gators' 5-4 win against the Kentucky Wildcats at McKethan Stadium on April 22. control what other people did.” So a troubled young man looked in the mirror and found solutions for a .135 hitter. “He said you can’t point the finger at other people, when you’re going through something, even though you might think they’re wrong,” Leclerc said. “That will get you nowhere. If you sit there and say, ‘It’s this person’s fault.’ What does that accomplish? Nothing. I had to take a second and let that sink in for a second. I could point the finger all I wanted, but it was not going to get me anywhere. I had to do something
to get noticed in the lineup.” Like when he was a sophomore and hit .366 and accounted for 17 postseason RBI, leading the Gators to the 2005 College World Series. Tommy Boss supplied superb pitching, Leclerc the hitting. “Two years ago against Florida State he was unconscious,” Gator baseball radio analyst Jeff Cardozo said. “Actually they were pitching around LaPorta. He was the guy they were going after. He was something like 10-for-13. He single-handedly got the Gators to the World Series. He was hitting everything.”
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
33
GatorCountry.com Streaks disappear, so do slumps. Progress followed opportunity this spring. The more Leclerc played, the more he produced. After five hits the first five weeks of the season, Leclerc rallied with a 12-for-17 run against Mississippi State and Stetson. He was 10-for-19 with seven RBIs against the Bulldogs in the SEC opener. The frustration of being shuffled in and out of the lineup finally passed. Hitting is about timing. Timing stems from comfort. Comfort comes from confidence, an attribute that had been missing for much of the spring. “Stuff like that will get anyone’s head. I don’t care if it’s Matt LaPorta. I don’t care who it is,” Leclerc said. “I had to get out of it at a certain point. It was a matter of getting at-bats and seeing consistent pitching. That’s what got me over the hump.” After coaching college baseball for nearly 30 seasons, Florida’s Pat McMahon has seen more than his share of inexplicable slumps. Baseball can be a humbling game full of life lessons. Some learn; some don’t. “Brian had put together an outstanding offensive and defensive fall,” said McMahon, who was fired in June after consecutive sub par seasons. “He started struggling just when we got back (second semester) and wasn’t seeing it as good. I think he was trying to do a little bit more than he was capable of doing. We’ve got some young players and obviously our goal is to push from within. When opportunities present themselves, young players deserve an opportunity to play. Then he found himself on the bench. “There two ways it can go when you’re a senior. It can be a negative. But Brian’s not that type of player. He worked harder. He took extra batting practice. He watched tape. When he wasn’t playing, he continued to help his teammates. And finally some things happened and he was able to get back in the
34
August 2007
“
I could be doing something else, some other job. But I’m getting paid to play baseball. There’s no other way I’d want that. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Brian Leclerc
”
lineup and he took advantage of that to its fullest. I’m very proud of that with Brian Leclerc. Too often you hear about that with older players that it goes the other way. Brian didn’t let that happen.” Leclerc has played through a slump and he’s played through pain. Back spasms plagued him down the stretch of his senior year. “To me, I’m so proud of Brian and his growth in every way,” McMahon said. “… You talk about opportunities and all of us want things to go well, everything in life. But what happens when you hit a bump in the road? How do you deal with that adversity? Do you work through it? Do you just talk about it?” Leclerc’s fortunes mirrored his team’s. Florida beat Miami and FSU, but lost to North Florida and Jacksonville, losses that ultimately led to a summer without the NCAA tournament and McMahon’s departure. “It’s just inconsistency,” Leclerc said. “You can’t dwell on stuff like that. You just don’t beat LSU, 19-3
Gator Country Magazine
and lose to North Florida. It just doesn’t work like that.” Florida’s tailspin can be, in part, attributed to inexperience. At one point, the Gators had seven underclassmen in its starting nine. The problem with freshmen: Rarely are they consistent. “I think for some people being in and out of the lineup was hard just like it was for me,” Leclerc said. “It’s hard when you’re not playing every day and you’re not in a rhythm. Still, you have to get past it. You can’t let that beat you. When you get your chance, you have to come through and if you do that, you’re probably going to come through. That’s kind of the way it works.” Last year, Leclerc pressed. This year, he played with a smile. An attitude changed. “The fun that I had and am having, I felt like that in Omaha,” Leclerc said. “I know I can play. I know what I need to do.” The low point of 2007 came when the Gators lost to North Florida. A band of UF fans heckled their own during their loss to the former Division II school. “The coaches came to us and said, ‘Those are your fans. What are you going to do about it?’ To me, you don’t do that. They should look around at fans around the country and understand that it’s baseball. It’s up and down. It’s not like you’re going to win every game like in football or basketball. You stick with your team. A lot of fans need to take a look in the mirror, I can tell you that. They don’t know baseball if they think that’s the way it goes.” No one ever said baseball was fair — or forgiving. As a junior, Leclerc expected to be drafted. Six other Gators were picked in the spring of 2006. He was left behind. Big League teams don’t want outfielders who hit .262. “Going into this year, I had to put professional scouts’ stuff behind me,” Leclerc said. “I couldn’t get play with a chip on my shoulder
GatorCountry.com
Photo by Tim Casey
Brian Leclerc smiles while looking the box score after the Gators' 3-2 win against the Alabama Crimson Tide at the SEC Tournament on May 24 at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. all year, because that’s no fun. And not getting drafted, I looked at it and really I shouldn’t have gotten drafted. They made the right choice. You have to earn something. It’s not given to you. I feel like I earned it this year. It was something that I had to get over. I feel like I have.” First you adapt. Then you thrive. “Actually I really think not getting drafted (as a junior) was somewhat of a savior,” Cardozo said. “He had a good sophomore year. He came back his junior year expecting to have the same year. You could see that he was a little lackadaisical. Coming back this year, he realized what it took to play pro ball. He was struggling at first, but he figured out
how to play the game. That’s what led to the turnaround.” Leclerc was one of two UF players to make All-SEC this spring, joining first baseman Matt LaPorta on the prestigious squad. After a sluggish start, the right-fielder surged against league competition, hitting .366 and accounting for 28 of his 31 RBI. College ball ended just a few months ago. Four years of memories have been tucked away, but not forgotten. “I told my dad when I left University of Florida that I had been faced with just about every situation,” Leclerc said. “I think I’m pretty experienced in just about
every which way. It wasn’t much fun sitting the bench when I know I could help the team. Obviously, it showed up late. I don’t hold a grudge at all. I’m happy I went through it. Had I not gone through it, I wouldn’t be in the situation I am right now. Whatever role I’ve given, I’m going to make the most of it. “It’s funny when I was at the University Florida by myself in the locker room recently and my name plate had been taken off, it hit me. It’s really over. You know, I could be doing something else, some other job. But I’m getting paid to play baseball. There’s no other way I’d want that. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
35
, e l b a C r a De
e v a h e l p o e 16 million p . V T C E R I D o t d e h c t i w s ! o o t g n i h c t i I’m sw ORDER TODAY AND GET:
4 MONTHS FREE
SAVE OVER $520
OF DIRECTV’S BEST TV PACKAGE
250+ Channels plus over 30 Premium Channels
7 CHANNELS
12 CHANNELS
9 CHANNELS
3 CHANNELS
Get our PREMIER PACKAGE FREE for 4 MONTHS when you sign up for NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ for $69.99/mo. for 4 months! If Your Team Plays On Sundays, ™ Your Team Plays On NFL SUNDAY TICKET Offers end 10/31/07 and are based on approved credit; credit card required. New customers only (lease required). Lease fee $4.99/mo.for second and each additional receiver. Just activate the PREMIER package when you purchase NFL SUNDAY TICKET.™
OTHER PACKAGES START AT
29
$
99 month
FAMILY PACKAGE
Call now! 1-866-266-8521 Promo Code: Gator Country
˜ Ask about DIRECTV en Espanol!
Now available: DIRECTV for Business
www.expertsatellite.com Credit card not required in MA & PA. †Eligibility based on service address. PROGRAMMING OFFER: 2007 NFL SUNDAY TICKET billed in four monthly installments of $69.99 each. In the fifth month, PREMIER package will continue at the regular charge ($99.99/mo.) and DVR service will continue at ($5.99/mo.). NFL SUNDAY TICKET automatically continues at a special rate, unless customer calls to cancel prior to start of season. Blackout restrictions and other conditions may apply. DIRECTV System has a feature which restricts access to channels. In certain markets, programming/pricing may vary. INSTALLATION: Standard professional installation only. Custom installation extra. INSTANT REBATE: Advanced equipment instant rebate requires activation of the CHOICE XTRA package ($54.99/mo.) or above; FAMILIAR ULTRA or above; Jadeworld; or any qualifying international service bundle, which shall include either the DIRECTV BASIC programming package (valued at $9.99 per mo.) or the DIRECTV PREFERRED CHOICE programming package (valued at $29.99/mo.). DVR service commitment ($5.99/mo.) required for DVR and HD DVR lease; HD Access fee ($9.99/mo.) required for HD and HD DVR lease. SYSTEM LEASE: Purchase of 12 consecutive months (24 months for advanced receivers) of any DIRECTV base programming package ($29.99/mo. or above) or qualifying international services bundle required. FAILURE TO ACTIVATE ALL DIRECTV SYSTEM EQUIPMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EQUIPMENT LEASE ADDENDUM MAY RESULT IN A CHARGE OF $150 PER RECEIVER NOT ACTIVATED. IF YOU FAIL TO MAINTAIN YOUR PROGRAMMING COMMITMENT, DIRECTV MAY CHARGE A PRORATED FEE OF UP TO $300. RECEIVERS ARE AT ALL TIMES PROPERTY OF DIRECTV AND MUST BE RETURNED UPON CANCELLATION OF SERVICE OR ADDITIONAL FEES MAY APPLY. Programming, pricing, terms and conditions subject to change at any time. Pricing residential. Taxes not included. Receipt of DIRECTV programming subject to DIRECTV Customer Agreement; copy provided at directv.com/legal and in first bill. NFL, the NFL Shield design and the NFL SUNDAY TICKET name and logo are registered trademarks of the NFL and its affiliates. NFL team names and uniform designs are registered trademarks of the teams indicated. ©2007 DIRECTV, Inc. DIRECTV and the Cyclone Design logo are registered trademarks of DIRECTV, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.
GatorCountry.com
Celtic Pride By Mike Hodge
H
Former Gator Ricky Nattiel takes the reins from Kerwin Bell at Trinity Catholic
e could quit; or he could stay. As Ricky Nattiel pondered his options, memories flooded forth. So many young faces. So much promise. So many futures at stake. Well, he decided to take the job. Nattiel is the new football coach at Trinity Catholic High. His first official season as head coach started this spring with the arrival of offseason workouts. Let the bonding begin. “I’m the type of person there are certain kids that you get attached to and you want to see them do well,” Nattiel said. “For the rest of the kids that would have been … I’ve been with these kids since they were freshmen and for (the coaches) to leave all at the same time, I wouldn’t say it would have been quitting on them, (but) in a way it would have. It would have been the same thing next year, but these kids, I’ve been with them since they were freshmen, Byron (Harvey), some of the others, it wouldn’t be fair, so I decided to give it a shot and see what I could do.” Pause. “Loyalty. I’m big on that type of thing.” A Trinity assistant for six years, Nattiel succeeds Kerwin Bell, who took the head coaching job at Division I-AA Jacksonville University. One Gator great will replace another. Bell set a high standard. The former All-Southeastern Conference quarterback led the Ocala school to a state championship and 27 consecutive victories, one shy of the 2006 Florida High School Athletic
Association Class 2B state title. Trinity won the 2005 state title, the first school in Marion County to do so in nearly 25 years. Before, Celtic fans hoped for postseason success. Now they expect it. “That adds to the challenge as well,” Nattiel said. “Obviously, I’d like to do well. I could have bailed out last year if that were the case, when we had it going. Obviously, I had my stamp on it before, but this is a little different. I’m the head coach. Everything will fall on me now. It’s a challenge. That’s the word that comes to mind. We’re going to be young. We’re going to play a very difficult schedule. I just want to see how the guys handle going into some very tough environments. We’re going to see what type of character they have, what type people they are.” And a familiar face will lead them. Nattiel coached the Celtics’ wide receivers under Bell and even shepherded the program for a season while Bell finished up his pro football career in Canada. That performance was good enough to get the job over 50 other candidates. “The first year he was here,” said TC athletic director Gary Belger, “he coached the JV team and was real successful. The kids really responded. He has a lot of patience and a good understanding of the game.” His staff is almost entirely new. Gone are both coordinators, including former Gator John Brantley Sr., who handled many of the day-today administrative responsibilities, but plans to take the year off to
Photo Courtesy of Marilyn Peek
follow his son’s career at Florida. Bell relied on big names and glossy pedigrees to fill his staff. Nattiel took a similar approach, hiring ex Gators John L. Williams and Jarvis Williams. The latter coached at Trinity during Bell’s first season, but stepped aside to focus on job responsibilities, but agreed to return to this spring. John L. Williams, meanwhile, is in his first TC season. Both make the commute from Palatka each day, an hour-long drive that takes them through the back roads of the Ocala National Forest. On the field, each has specific responsibilities. Jarvis Williams, a former defensive back for the Dolphins, coaches the linebackers and secondary; John L. Williams, a former fullback for the Seahawks, supervises the running backs. After a few hours in the afternoon heat, they have to complete the second leg of their two-hour, 70-mile trip.
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
37
GatorCountry.com “I enjoy it,” Jarvis Williams said. “I enjoy being around the kids. A lot of times you might do things and wonder why you do them, but then you realize you love it. That’s the main thing.” Still undecided is who will coach the defense. Former Belleview High coaches Eddie Anderson and Brent Hall shared the task last year, but decided not to return. And the other top candidate — defensive line coach Terry Fillyaw — left with Bell for Jacksonville U. Nattiel said he has a coaching candidate with NFL and majorcollege playing experience, but is waiting on a teaching position to open up before he makes the hire. None of TC’s current coaches teach at the school. Nattiel, in fact, is a realtor and commutes from Gainesville and often is in scramble mode after lunch every afternoon. Having an oncampus coach no doubt would make the program run smoother. “It’s of major importance communication wise,” Belger said. “One thing it’s someone who can keep track of the kids during the day, someone who can keep track of their grades. You can do it by phone. But it’s better if you have someone who’s visible and can communicate with the faculty.” Communication was Bell’s strength. Nattiel? He’s more reserved. Bell was more like Spurrier, brash, bold and confident. His successor is just as sure, but is quieter and more calculating. “I think it’s too early to tell,” Nattiel said. “One thing’s for sure: You won’t see me yelling at the refs as much. I just want to see where it’s a smooth running machine and get kids where they need to be, real disciplined. Last year, there were some kids with some attitudes. I hope to be a lot more disciplined with a (better) attitude.” Sounds like Charley Pell, the Gators’ former chain-smoking coach, who had his players endure
38
August 2007
“This senior class has a long way to go,” Belger said. “They’ve been carried by and depended on (last year’s) senior class that just finished. Hopefully, they’ll wake up and pick their end of the stick. They went through the spring, and they’re going to have to fight through the fall. Now, some of them are going to have to decide if they want to play. It’s not the coaches; it’s the players.” Trinity lost 26 seniors that served as the backbone to consecutive runs toward a state championship. Only eight starters return and the rest of the positions will be filled from a talented junior varsity squad that Photo Courtesy of UF Sports Information Office went undefeated last year, defeating scalded dog drills, maneuvers where Gainesville Buchholz and Lake City Columbia along the way. players scuttle along the ground on The Celtics’ youth will be two hands and one leg for various challenged. On the 2007 schedule transgressions. Lack of toughness is are big schools Daytona Mainland not expected to pose an issue. “From the moment coach Nattiel and Tallahassee Rickards along with starting coaching us, he definitely got Class 3A playoff participants Tampa Catholic and Williston. us in good shape,” former TC wide “They’re in for a rude receiver and current UF walk-on Joey awakening,” Nattiel said. “That’s Sorrentino said. “He made us run one of the things that I’m trying to until we puked. It took a while, but coach Bell realized we needed that.” get across now. Last year, we had the Tiger Woods’ effect: We were two, Nothing replaces sheer talent. three touchdowns ahead, because Bell relied on John Brantley III to throw for more than 2,000 yards each people knew they were playing us. We had that effect. It’s not going to of the last two seasons. Brantley, be that way anymore. We graduated the National Gatorade Player of the a lot of people. They know that, Year, signed with Florida, but not before throwing for a state record 99 so I tell them, ‘Hey, we’ve got win touchdowns, a mark previously held with defense now.’ We’re not going by Tim Tebow, UF’s expected starter. to score 40 points a game. Not gonna happen. That’s why I made Nattiel has three capable the defense a priority this spring, quarterbacks, but none have whereas if Kerwin were here, it meaningful varsity experience. wouldn’t happen.” Patience will be paramount. The past three years Trinity lost “We’ll run first,” Nattiel said. four games by a total of 23 points. “With as many offensive linemen Outcomes were often decided by that we lost, we’ve got to go back halftime. Thirteen of the 14 games to the basics. We’ll always have the last season used a running clock in option to throw it, but it will be run the second half, a format designed to first. We’ll look for the one-on-one control bulging scores. However, the matchups.” Numbers could be an issue. Only days of blow-by quarters are over. “Every game we’re going to have 35 or so players came out for spring to fight to win due to the number ball, a clear signal that the program seniors leaving and we have a much, is in transition. A winning tradition much better schedule this year,” hinges on their development.
Gator Country Magazine
GatorCountry.com Belger said. “If think if we would have had this schedule last year, we would have been more prepared to play every play and do the little things every game and every play.” So far so good. Trinity defeated Lake Weir, a 4A school, 14-6, in a two-quarter spring scrimmage. The JV played the first half and won 35-0, setting the tone for the varsity’s run after halftime. The Celtics outgained their hosts by a 2-1 margin in total yards. Lake Weir, which generated just 58 yards total, scored on a kickoff return. “We’ll be competitive,” Nattiel said. “We’ll be competitive in our district and at our level. I hope to win (our district). Newberry’s going to be good. P.K.(Yonge) is always tough. Shoot, I wouldn’t be out here if I didn’t think we were going to be competitive. I don’t care if they are freshmen, they’re going to compete. Now last year, I could guarantee wins. We could just show up and win. The only team that scared me last year was Pahokee and we lost to them. I wasn’t worried about anyone else.” Lake Weir is the first Marion County school to play Trinity in three seasons. West Port is set for a twogame series starting this fall. Forest, Vanguard, Dunnellon and North Marion have declined the Celtics’ overtures since the school started varsity football six years ago. Belleview scheduled Trinity in 2003 and 2004, but refused to renew for 2005 and 2006, when Brantley forged consecutive undefeated regular seasons. Of course, now games are easier to find. “They’re cowards,” Nattiel said. “(Teams) should have been playing us all along. If you want to get me, don’t try to get me now. They’re cowards. Nothing against (Lake Weir) Coach H (Hinterthan), that’s why he wants to play us now. Everyone wants to make their name now, but if you wanted to impress me, you would have tried to make your name two years ago. Anybody
Photo Courtesy of Denver Broncos
can jump on a guy when he’s down, but that’s fine. That motivates me. It’ll be fun.” His approach to winning was shaped by those he played for Galen Hall at Florida and Mike Shanahan, coach of the Denver Broncos. Both have been successful — albeit for different reasons. “(Mike’s) a real detail-oriented, heads-up guy,” Nattiel said. “Galen, I loved playing for him because he was a player’s coach. That’s the kind of guy I like. Shanahan was sharp, on top of things. He was prepared for every situation. I like Hall because he’s not so pushy.” Nattiel is not one to gab. He chooses his words with precision like
a well-run pass route. He played in a Super Bowl and caught spirals from John Elway, but rarely mentions his past. “That’s the way I played,” Nattiel said. “I’m just the type of guy that I like to let my actions speak for themselves. I’ve always been that way. I was never the credit-seeker type. If I did my job and I did it well, it would show for itself. I don’t mind talking about it if someone brings it up. I’ve just always been that way. Even out here, I want these guys to be in the limelight. It’s not about me. It’s about them. I’ll be behind the scenes. I’ll take the blame, the good or the bad, but it will be about them.”
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
39
GatorCountry.com
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS After an ultra-successful run as a high school coach, Kerwin Bell makes the move to college ball
T
By Mike Hodge
wenty five years ago, a farmer’s son emerged from the grit of the North Florida tobacco fields with a dream to play college football. The reality was no one wanted a quarterback from a small school and a small town. He threw for thousands of yards and won a slew of titles as a two-sport athlete at tiny Lafayette High School, but hardly anyone noticed. Only one college made their way to Mayo to take a look, but Valdosta State, after initial overtures, pulled its scholarship offer. So May of his senior year arrived and Kerwin Bell had two options. Walk on at Florida. Walk on at Florida State. He chose Florida and the rest of the story has been told thousands of times. Bell climbed from the bottom rungs of the Gators’ depth chart to become Southeastern Conference player of the year during the glory years of the mid 1980s under Charley Pell and Galen Hall. The legend of the throwin’ Mayoan was born. It was destiny. “Valdosta State came to watch me,” Bell recalled. “They told me, they said if the big schools don’t offer, we want you.” The big schools never called. Neither did Valdosta State. They signed a junior-college prospect instead.
40
August 2007
are just one of two non-Division I football programs in the talent-rich Sunshine State. The other is Webber International, an NAIA school in Babson Park. “This is a goldmine waiting to happen,” Bell said. “Players don’t know about I-AA or junior colleges. They’re just not around. They’ve grown up around Division I. Florida is dominated by Florida, Florida State and Miami. (Division) I-AA is mainly in the Northeast. People there grow up with it. Here, they don’t. I didn’t. The only place to go to was Florida, Florida State. Players are starting to recognize … There are so many players that don’t go Division Photo Courtesy of JU Sports Information Office I that want to play college football and want to stay in state. I really “Jim Goodman, their coach, believe that the way our program is ended up being recruiting going to take off, that this will give coordinator at Florida,” Bell said. “I them the opportunity to do continue told him, ‘You saved my life. If you their career, play good football and all had offered (at the end), I would continue their college careers.” have taken it.’ We laugh about it This is Bell’s second stint in now. No one ever offered me.” collegiate coaching. His first came It’s a story Bell will spin quite under Steve Spurrier as a graduate often these days. As the new coach at assistant in the early 1990s between Jacksonville University, he’s in search gigs as a quarterback in the National of players overlooked by Florida, Football League. He then went on to Florida State, Miami, UCF and South flourish in the Canada and the World Florida. League. The sales pitch: Not everyone can All told his pro football career live a rags-to-riches college football lasted 13 years. Retirement came six career. But there are plenty of good years ago, so, at age 36, he decided players who need a place to play. to take a position at Trinity Catholic, Why not JU? The Dolphins a new school in Ocala. His job
Gator Country Magazine
GatorCountry.com description: Head football coach and chief fund-raiser. After starting from scratch, Trinity dominated small-school ball, surging to three consecutive playoff appearances and a 35-4 record. His last two squads won 27 consecutive games before falling to Pahokee, the Class 2006 2B state champions. Trinity won the 2005 2B championship, earning Marion County’s first football state title in nearly 25 years. Once that celebration was done, Bell felt restless. “I am a very competitive person,” he said. “It’s about the ability to see what you can do at the next level. If an opportunity presented itself, I was going to take a look at it. When (JU) called, I decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I wanted to see what I could do at the next level. High School football was a challenge. It was a lot of fun, but it didn’t fulfill me as a coach. I had seen so much after being around so much football — the NFL and the CFL and the World League — and those five years at Trinity, it was pretty vanilla, pretty simple. I wasn’t able to use the experience that I had. This is an opportunity to expand my coaching ability at the next level.” Bell’s staff has several UF and local ties, a trend he started at Trinity Catholic. Among his assistants are former Gators Kerry Webb, Ernie Mills and possibly Shane Matthews, who is considering a position on Bell’s staff. All won at Florida. All expect to win again. “Kerwin’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around,” Matthews said. “I spent a few days with him in the spring. He’s coaching no different now than he did in high school. All the Xs and Os are the same. It’s Spurrier’s offense. He’s got two decent quarterbacks and some good kids at the skill positions. I’m excited. I think he’ll do well.” Personable and passionate, Bell’s marshaled a lot of support, particularly among Gator faithful,
who probably never knew that Jacksonville U even played football before Bell arrived this winter. “He’s in Jacksonville, which is in a big Gator town,” John Brantley II said. “Let’s face it. Gators help Gators. I think the Gators in the Jacksonville community will help provide stuff that will attract players. It don’t matter how great a coach you are. It’s about players. If they can attract the best players in about a 200, 150-mile radius, then they’re going to be successful.” His goal is to win a conference championship, ambitious since the Dolphins have never won more than six games since starting their football program in 1997. “They’ve never been close,” Bell said. “That’s a shame with all the talent they have here in the state of Florida. We’re changing that expectation level in the state of Florida. We don’t want to be an average program. We want to be a championship program.” Bell leads; others follow. It’s been that way since he was in junior high trying to take over P.E. class. He didn’t just play pickup games; he organized them. “He was always trying to take over,” former Lafayette coach Taylor McGrew said. “You saw that quality in middle school and especially in high school. We gave him so many responsibilities with audibles. He started in 10th grade see that. You could see didn’t know what that would turn into, but you could see that he was a leader.” He once played quarterback, now he coaches them, molds them and grooms them. The past three years, he coached former Trinity star John Brantley III, a consensus prep AllAmerica, who signed with Florida. “There’s only a handful of people I would have handed Johnny off to and it was a no-brainer,” said John Brantley II, a former two sport athlete at UF in the 1970s. “My wife’s a Catholic. But I was a bigger proponent of going to Trinity…
Photo Courtesy of UF Sports Information Office
Where we are today has a lot to do with Kerwin. It’s a successful offense. It’s a system where you’re going to throw the ball. That’s what Johnny does well and we were able to mix and match and come up with the right combination. I’m not sure there’s a better person that could have taken Johnny and made him what he is today.” All indications are Bell will be able throw the ball and score in bunches. During JU’s spring game, the Green thumped the White, 42-0. At Trinity, his 70-point outbursts left opposing coaches so upset that they refused to shake his hand during post game pleasantries. His philosophy: Play those who play the hardest no matter who gets in the way, even his alma mater, which suffered a 48-point setback to Trinity three years ago. “We were talking about that one day, about how many points before you let people play,” McGrew said. “His comment was he didn’t care if you were up 50 points, you earn playing time.” Sound familiar? “Your players follow your head coach,” Matthews said. “The way he acts is the way the players are going to act. That’s how coach Spurrier was. He coached with a swagger. His players played with a swagger. His confidence rubbed off on his players.
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
41
GatorCountry.com Kerwin had to fight his whole career. (Kerwin) was not a high college prospect. A lot of his coaching philosophy comes from coach Spurrier.” Spurrier throws visors; Bell tosses headsets. The focus of his frustration are those in black and white stripes. Bell expects perfection — from quarterbacks and referees. “The more he did it, the more aggressive he got,” said former Gator teammate and Trinity assistant Ricky Nattiel. “When he played, he was competitive, but you didn’t see him yelling and screaming. It was almost the reverse (in coaching). (Playing) actually calmed him down.” Nearly four months from kickoff, Bell already is already thinking touchdowns, not first downs. “We should compete for a conference championship,” Bell said. “The winner of our conference plays in a bowl game. That’s our immediate goal right now “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done off the football field. To
be a good program, we’ve got have to better facilities. We want to build a new stadium. To do that, we have to have money. Once we do that, I really think we can be one of the best I-AA programs in the country. If you combine that with Jacksonville, which is a beautiful city with resources, and the talent level in the state of Florida, why shouldn’t we be one of the top programs in I-AA? Once we have the facilities, this program can take off and do some good things.” His biggest obstacle to date is the administrative tasks involved in running a college sports program. At Trinity, Bell focused on football and left the day-to-day details to assorted volunteers. Not anymore. “I’ve learned so much,” Bell said. “There’s so much paperwork. In high school, you run the whole program, really. When you look at NCAA rules, you can meet with your players only a certain amount of hours a week during the offseason.
1/4 Page VirtualStJohns. com Ad 3.375”x 4.75”
42
August 2007
Gator Country Magazine
You have to sign off that you’ve only met with them so many hours in the spring and fall. “You have to learn about recruiting and being the best you can be in that area. Then there’s building a coaching staff and handling a coaching staff. I’ve learned more off the field than anything. Football’s football. It was so refreshing the last couple weeks to get to spring practice and get on the field. Like I say, you expand yourself.” Division I-AA operates much like Division III. There are no scholarships. Financial aid is needbased. Unlike Division I, there are minimum academic guidelines for freshman eligibility. Each school sets its own admission standards. Some focus on academics and make few — if any — concessions to athletes. Others are more forgiving. Public schools, because of low tuition, generally thrive. Private schools can win, but face an uphill climb.
1/4 Page FSBO.com Ad 3.375”x 4.75”
“The biggest thing is the whole financial aid game,” said former Florida quarterback G.A. Mangus, who coached at Division III Delaware Valley before being named offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State this winter. “He needs to know the people in the financial aid office and the amount of time he will spend in there and also admissions. You spend so much time with those people that you have to have a relationship with them. You must. At Middle Tennessee and Florida, you don’t necessarily have relationships with all those people and have to deal with them on a day to day basis.” Often small-college ball is perceived as a low-pressure, a 9-to-5 job. Actually, it’s just the opposite. “The recruiting season, it’s longer,” said Mangus. “Right now they’re still recruiting seniors. There’s some differences. I’ve played the Division III game for nine, 10 years. He’ll do a great job. It’s definitely a different game. Every school’s different. Get to know admissions. Get to know financial aid. Every place is different, then once you figure that out, you can target the kind of student-athlete to win at your place. The quicker you do that, the quicker you can win at your place.” Matthews, for one, believes Jacksonville made a smart hire. “(Kerwin) knows football,” he said. “He’s been coached by guys who know the game well and he played a long time. I’m a big believer that the guy calling the plays needs to have played the position. “You can’t be sitting watching film trying to tell a quarterback what to do when you’ve never done it yourself. It doesn’t make sense. It would be like hiring me to coach wide receivers or running backs. I wouldn’t expect those guys to believe me. I’ve never run the lead draw.” His only drawback may be his age. Most aspiring coaches start their
GatorCountry.com
“
Kerwin’s one of the best coaches I’ve been around. I spent a few days with him in the spring. He’s coaching no different now than he did in high school. All the Xs and Os are the same. It’s Spurrier’s offense. He’s got two decent quarterbacks and some good kids at the skill positions. I’m excited. I think he’ll do well. Shane Matthews college careers in their 20s, which means Bell could have some catching up to do, which begs the question: Is he too old? “I don’t think so,” Matthews said. “He had one of the top high school jobs in Florida at Trinity. He’s very involved with his family. He wants to be involved with his kids’ athletic events. You can’t do that if you’re moving around from job to job. That’s tough on your family, tough on your kids. This is still a steppingstone. I see him at JU two, three years. I see him as a coordinator or maybe a head coach at East Carolina, a school of that nature. “Like I said, he’s as good a football coach as I’ve been around. He’s got a bright future. It’s all how quick he wants to get it done.” As a quarterback, few were better under pressure than Bell, who led Florida to consecutive first-place Southeastern Conference finishes. However, because of NCAA violations UF was never recognized as the league champion. The 9-1-1 team of ’84 is considered one of the most talented ever in UF history. Nine players
”
made all-conference that season. “I think the ’84 team could probably match the ’96 team or last year’s national championship team,” Bell said. “If you look at the talent level and who went to play in the NFL, the talent sometimes was three deep. “We lost to Miami and tied LSU and the difference was at the quarterback position. The ’96 and 2007 teams had a senior quarterback. In ’84, we had a redshirt freshman. Once I got my feet on the ground and got some experience, that team was as good everywhere else as you can ask for in college football. So, I’d have to say it was right up there with the rest of them once we got going.” His most memorable moment may have been as a senior when he hobbled into the end zone on a bum knee late in the fourth quarter to topple fifth-ranked Auburn, 18-17. “He always had it in him. I told him: ‘Don’t sell yourself short. Everyone puts their pants on just like you do,” McGrew said. “If you have a dream, go after it.” Turns out, not much has changed in 20 years.
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
43
GatorCountry.com
Hollywood Bob’s Five Prospects to Follow For 2008 By Bob Redman
Rickey Barnum
Gator Country Magazine will feature five prospects for die-hard recruitniks to follow throughout the recruiting process. Here is our first sampling for the Class of 2008.
Ricky Barnum, (6-2, 260), offensive guard, Lakeland Lake Gibson High: Barnum is a road grader in the true sense of the word. He is such a force playing on the interior line that college coaches have tossed aside his lack of prototypical size for an offensive lineman at the next level. Barnum lists many offers from bigtime programs such as Miami and most recently Florida. Quotable: “Coach Addazio tells me that he likes my quick feet, long arms, and my quickness…I don’t have a top three or five right now, but if I did have one, Florida would be up there.”
Dee Finley (6-3, 210), safety, Auburn (Ala.) Auburn High: (Gator Commitment): Finley is pure athlete and could do many things on the football field if asked. He plays free safety at Auburn High and is a terror for opposing offenses. He has excellent speed, toughness and an awareness that allows him to take over the games, even from the secondary. Quotable: “The overall program and feeling is what did it for me. I liked the tradition, the academics, and everything. Just me and a friend went on the trip. I was ready to evaluate all three schools, but after visiting all three, Florida just blew me away.”
Jamie Harper
Dee Finley
Jamie Harper (5-11, 215), running back, Jacksonville Trinity Christian: Harper is a blazer and has really shot up the charts in the recruiting world. He runs a sub 4.4 in the 40-yard dash and at 215 pounds has the power to punish a defender or run right by him. There might not be a better back for the Florida offense in the 2008 class. Quotable: “The coaching staff at Florida is tremendous, the way they bond together, the way the coaches and family just bond with the players. The players are just so comfortable around them, and it isn’t all about football. They got to know me on a personal level and coach Meyer took me aside and really got to know me one on one and I really liked that. I got introduced to a lot of the big-time names up there.”
A.J. Jenkins (6-1, 180) wide receiver, Jacksonville Terry Parker High: Smooth is the key word for this big-time receiver. Jenkins is fast (low 4.3 40), and he has outstanding hands. He plays in a run-first offense at Parker, but he makes defenses pay the few times he touches the ball. He looks to get the ball more often as a senior. Jenkins has more than 25 offers now. Quotable: “I have a great relationship with the coaches like (wide receiver coach Billy Gonzales). He always talks to me about stuff other than football. They want to know about my girlfriend and stuff.” A.J. Jenkins
Chris Tolliver
Chris Tolliver (6-1, 185), wide receiver, Rayville (La.) Rayville High: The thing you notice about Tolliver besides his speed and big-time quickness is the toughness. He has a knack for trying to split defenders and run through tackles. His strength and toughness often surprises and allows him to be successful doing just that. Quotable: “I watched the national championship game and was going for Florida,” he said. “I like how they run the offense and how they spread the field. I like how they bring the receivers in motion and run them out of the backfield. That is the kind of stuff I do at my high school…I talked to (coach Gonzales), he was telling me how I would make a great receiver in the style of offense they run. He said I could change the offense completely and they would try and get me the ball a lot.”
Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
45
GatorCountry.com
Step right up, sucker, and pick your poll By Buddy Martin
S
o I was exercising the summer rites of football fandom, thumbing through some of those pre-season magazines the other day, when I found myself suckered in, once again, by these counterfeit shot-in-the dark rankings. Athlon or Lindy’s or Sporting News or—I forget, one of those mags—offered up this poll scenario: Southern Cal No. 1, LSU No. 2, Michigan No. 3. Skip down—Tennessee No. 7, Oklahoma No. 10, Florida No. 11. Polls. Everybody’s got a poll. Put the names of 50 college teams in a hat, draw them out, and see who makes your Top 10. Free country, but why is it we always fall prey to such folderol? I’m ashamed to say that I can’t wait for these publications to hit the stands every year and usually devour them like a 12year-old feasting on Harry Potter. I fall for it every spring. There is no science to this, because it’s pure theory. There is no real way quantify it mathematically. These are, pure and simple, predictions in the abstract. So I Googled “quantify” and found this under “abstract”: Many situations in complex systems require quantitative estimates of the lack of information in one probability distribution relative to another. In short term climate and weather prediction, examples of these issues might involve the lack of information in the historical climate record compared with an ensemble prediction… Huh? (I think what this says is that Florida has so many new starters on defense for 2007—nine of them!—that no SEC team will have enough tape to measure the talent of Greg Mattison, Charley Strong, Chuck Heater, Doc Holliday, etc.) The real clue in all that academic gibberish about “abstract” is that smart people pick a theory and then come up with ways to try and support it. The rest of us just guess. There
46
August 2007
is the evidence that these polls are semifraudulent. We can’t even forecast hurricane season correctly, so how are we going to predict the outcome of football games? Right now, the proverbial cone of uncertainty covers about 119 campuses. However, we football fans pretend our insight is gifted. Like inveterate horse players, we think we know something, see something, feel something that nobody else does. In particular, we possess this special knowledge about our home team—in this case, the Florida Gators. So forgive us for our arrogance and our stupidity; it’s covered under the “loyalty” clause. There is really no such thing as a “defending champion” of college football, because the competition is different this season. But feel free to call these Florida Gators “reigning champions.” The rest is mythical. I’ve got no problem with Southern Cal on top for now, which seems to be almost an early summer consensus. LSU seems a little high at No. 2, especially after the loss of quarterback JaMarcus Russell and safety LaRon Landry. Florida might be about right at No. 11 (Lindy’s) and too high at No. 5 (Sporting News) and No. 6 (Athlon), but on the other hand, the Gators were barely on the radar screen in the summer of ’06. All of this just proves polls are good for yet another tool: The punching bag. We love to have our team prove those so-called experts wrong. Which brings us to Kirk Herbstreit, the human lightning rod. Herbie Boy doesn’t actually have his own poll, but he votes in the one published by the Associated Press and he seems to self-publish his own weekly rankings as if they were chiseled in stone tablets at Mt. Sinai. I actually have a high regard for Herbstreit’s football mind, but somewhere along the way in the fall of 2006, his brain got disengaged. I suspect Herbie Boy was hung
Gator Country Magazine
in effigy and flogged like a piñata around the Sunshine State when he launched his campaign of ABF (Anybody But Florida). In Herbstreit’s Sweetheart Team of the Week caper, he offered up Louisville, then West Virginia, then Rutgers, then Ohio State after the “Game of the Century”—but, wait, wait, no rematch!—OK, rematch! Then, we need not tell you what team he picked in the BCS Championship. Herbstreit’s lapse in judgment became an important tool in the psychological toolbox of Florida’s coach, who demonized ESPN’s Game Day co-host and game color analyst and kept him swinging like a piñata for 37 days prior to the Jan. 8, 2007 date in Phoenix. Urban Meyer loved every minute of it. With a little poetic license, Meyer and his co-conspirator doctored up bulletin board material. “Half of it was real and half of it was made up,” Meyer said. “And the half that was made up I signed ‘Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN.’” Actually Meyer and Herbstreit are friends, but the Florida coach enjoys making sport of the matter and keeps promising to send Herbie Boy “a bottle of wine and a ball cap.” So in the end, the detractors of your favorite home team can make the victories even sweeter. And while polls may, indeed, be only useless forecasts in the “abstract,” they serve an important purpose: We all know football needs to be a year-round sport and since there are no games in the summer, how else are we going to keep score?
(Buddy Martin’s revised edition of The Boys From Old Florida: Inside Gator Nation can be pre-ordered by sending your request to buddyshow@aol.com. The books will be available in bookstores in late summer.)
GatorCountry.com
The Insider Authority on Gator Sports The Insider Authority on Gator Sports is now on live every Friday!
is now on the air every Friday!
Broadcasting every Friday on the Internet from 10am to noon and on demand.
Broadcasting every FridayTune on the frominside 10amscoop! to 12pm Noon and on demand. in Internet for the real Listen to our famous Gator Country Insiders and other special guests
Tune in ffor or the rreal eal insideforscoop! Listen oftooutstanding our famous Gator Insiders in Mark McLeod, Hollywood two hours Gator Country sports coverage. Bob, Franz Beard, Tim Casey, and assorted special guests for two hours of outstanding Gator sports coverage If you’ve missed the Gator Country Radio Show
If you’ve missed the Gator Country Radio show over the past few weeks, you’ve missed interviews with.. during the past few months you’ve missed interviews with… •Urban Meyer Meyer Davis • Rhonda•Torrey Faehn • Urban • Todd Johnson • Matt LaPorta •Kevin O’Sullivan •Stan Drayton • Pat McMahon • Kevin • Steve Wilks O’Sullivan •Chuck Heater • Andre Caldwell • Stan Drayton •Chris• Rainey •Greg Mattison • Ron Polk Steve Wilks •Sean• Callahan •Dan Mullen • Brandon Siler Chuck Heater •John• Moronto •Brandon James • Billy Donovan Chris Rainey • Tim Tebow • Greg •Scott Klees Mattison •Cam Newton • Corey Brewer Sean Callahan •Nigel• Bradham •Michael Pouncey • Joakim Noah • Dan Mullen •CJ Holton • Reggie •Maurkice Nelson Pouncey • John Morento •Marcus Forston James • Jarvis •Carlos Moss Dunlap • Brandon • Scott • Lee Humphrey •Rhonda Faehn Klees •Todd Johnson • Chris Leak Cam Newton •Pat •McMahon •Andre Caldwell • Al Horford • Nigel Bradham •Ron•Polk •Brandon Siler • Reggie Lewis Michael Pouncey •Billy•Donovan •Tim Tebow • Taurean Green CJ Holton •Corey Brewer • Maurkice Pouncey • Torrey•Joakim Davis Noah • Marcus …and many more! •Reggie Nelson Forston •Jarvis Moss • Carlos Dunlap •Lee Humphrey •Chris Leak Tune in •Alanytime Horford at http://www.gatorcountry.com/radioshow •Reggie Lewis •Taurean Green soon to a radio station •andnear manyyou…) more... (also coming Gator Country Magazine
August 2007
47