Charlie Strong was the guest speaker last night at the Brevard County Gator Club's annual Gator Gathering. Here are some of the highlights (at least the ones that I can remember):
First he addressed the expectations for the upcoming season. He noted that the Gators would likely be ranked #1 in a lot of polls, and that the challenge was to not let the players get too full of themselves. The best thing we have to combat that is the team leadership. After mentioning leadership he talked at pretty good length about Tebow. Even though he coaches on the other side of the ball, it was very obvious just how special of a person and a player Charlie thinks Tim is. He offered that Brandon Spikes was the leader of the defense the way Tebow is the offense. He related the story of Spikes' apology to his fellow defenders after the Arkansas game, and how it sort of mirrored the famous Tebow "promise" speech. He had them play a video that showed scenes from before, during, and after the BCS title game, the team's reception at the White House, and some other behind the scenes footage from last season that demonstrated the quality of leadership. Next he addressed how this team compared to last year's. He mentioned that it would be hard to note a weakness on the "D" since the top 22 returned intact. He said that Lawrence Marsh stepping up last year was huge, and that the staff was dismayed when Munroe blew out his knee, and didn't know who they'd be able to plug in at safety - until Ahmad Black had a season that in Coach Strong's opinion, made him the team MVP on that side of the ball. Mentioned the trust his teammates have in Ryan Stamper - said that Spikes even wants Stamper to call the defensive signals when he's in the game. He talked about the maturity of the defense, and to illustrate that point he told a story from the BCS game: Oklahoma had turned a second and long into a third and short, but got to the line too quickly to allow UF to make the substitutions they wanted to - to bring in the big bodies and go to a four man front. He had to call a play (a run blitz) with who he had, and Stamper made the play, and the next play was the blocked field goal attempt. He said one of the defenders came off and said "Coach, you know that we had a three man front? - you can't call that play with a three man front!" He said that the year before they would likely have not even noticed that the play was being called with an inappropriate package on the field. Moving to offense, he said that the QB position was, of course, in great hands, that we have good RBs, are strong across the OL (even hinted at Robey possibly being the starting center) and feels that David Nelson and Deonte Thompson will be more than capable (along with AH - who is special) of ensuring that TT has no shortage of targets to go to. Kicking game is solid with Henry, Phillips, and Sturgis, but they will miss "Smitty". Before he ended his talk he took questions from the floor. In response to some of those he had the following to say: Jon Bostic has really impressed as a true freshman (and he pointed out that Jon's uncle was in the room). Omar Hunter "needs to get stronger and then learn how to play". He said that Omar will be fine, and that the expectations for him last year were way overblown. The maturity of the team means that for the big games at least, the staff has to do next to nothing on game day to get them ready to play. The best team leaders he's been around are Wuerffel, Tebow, Siler, Spikes, and "L-Dog" (Lawrence Wright). He's not really for an early signing period, because, especially in light of the new restrictions, it doesn't give the coaches enough time to really get to know the players. Some of the recruits that want to come to UF are encouraged to not commit publicly to lessen other schools' efforts to try to get them to change their mind. One of the defense's goals is to limit all other teams to no more than 14 points. We have a really good coaching staff. If the coaches go about their business professionally and don't get caught up in the hype of this team, that attitude will filter down to the players. And the coaches WILL NOT get caught up! There were more that I can't recall right now I'm sure. All in all it was a great event as usual. Be sure to make every effort to support your local Gator club when they hold these things, even if a head coach isn't on the docket. The payoff for all of this was realized when seven local students were presented with scholarships to start at UF with this coming fall, as well as a sizable amount that was donated to the Florida Opportunity Scholars program. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
