>From what I understand the bottom line for CJ was that his impression of
>Clemson was that the entire coaching staff was highly religious, and
>apparently that was #1 for him. I'm guessing he's regretted his decision
>since the rumor leaked out that he was interested in transferring to UF. I
>tend to believe it was true, but that's long past now anyway.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]on Behalf
Of [email protected]
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2009 11:24 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] [Post & Courier]: FYI -- C.J. Spiller
enters his senior season as the featured back with a Heisman campaign
Importance: Low
Mr Spiller might just think that college football is only something that you
have to do while you wait to be age eligible for the NFL.
Who knows what these kids are thinking.
Spiller was probably told - the spread does not use RBs like him, he will
have to sit at UF and wait versus start right away at Clemson, UF has a new
coach who won't make it like Zook, the spread won't work in the SEC, etc.
Hindsight is 20-20
It is getting to where - if you are a starter at UF - no matter what position
- you most likely will be drafted. You have already beaten out the best of the
best for that starting position, you have competed against the best talent in
all of college, and had the best coaching.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] [Post & Courier]: FYI -- C.J.
Spiller enters his senior season as the featured back with a Heisman
campaign
From: Shane Ford <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, August 24, 2009 11:10 am
To: [email protected]
I was curious to see if any one else read that sentiment into what he
said. He also seems kind of jealous of Tebow, in some small way. Don't you
think? Maybe I was reading too much into what he said, but then I'm still
"bitter" that he chose Clemson over UF.
--- On Mon, 8/24/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] [Post & Courier]: FYI -- C.J.
Spiller enters his senior season as the featured back with a Heisman campaign
To: "gatortalk googlegroups" <[email protected]>
Date: Monday, August 24, 2009, 7:41 AM
If Spiller had come to UF - perhaps he wouldn't have so many
regrets ...
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [gatornews] [Post & Courier]: FYI -- C.J. Spiller enters
his
senior season as the featured back with a Heisman campaign
From: Shane Ford <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, August 24, 2009 8:20 am
To: [email protected]
C.J. Spiller enters his senior season as the featured back with a
Heisman campaign
By Travis Sawchik
Sunday, August 23, 2009
C.J. Spiller
C.J. Spiller returned to an old routine this summer: early-morning
jogs around his hometown of Lake Butler, Fla., a practice he'd tossed aside
prior to his freshman season — his best season.
The last few summers the relaxed runs were shelved in favor more
explosive training exercises: short sprints, running up inclines. The return to
the tours of his sleepy hometown (population: 1,900) in north-central Florida,
its Main Street storefronts reminiscent much of Clemson, allowed him to think,
to reflect which a more energy-intensive workout precluded.
'I was just meditating about the season, envisioning things for the
team that we can accomplish,' Spiller said, 'being down in Tampa and winning an
ACC championship ... I want to get a chance to see what it feels like in the
locker room after winning a title.'
He says he thought little about passing up the NFL Draft, though he
said he had a first-round grade. He thought about the Spiller-for-Heisman
campaign the school was to launch. The naturally reserved Spiller thought about
the vocal, motivational role Dabo Swinney persuaded him to undertake. Something
Spiller had already entertained. He knew he had star talent, he thought about
how he could also become a galvanizing leader, how he could become legendary.
Spiller also thought about regrets.
Perhaps his decision to return was sealed in his subconscious after
the disaster that was last season's opener against Alabama.
He was upset over the following words written and said about his
former head coach Tommy Bowden. It was on the team he thought. How they, how
he, allowed the season to spiral out of control.
Crushed, 34-10, by Alabama on Aug. 30, the Tigers lost again, at
home, to Maryland on Sept. 27. On the same day Florida lost at home to
Mississippi.
Spiller watched his old friend Tim Tebow, the Florida quarterback,
deliver a post-game address replayed from coast to coast. Spiller knows Tebow's
speech well, like speechwriters know the Gettysburg Address:
'You have never seen any player in the entire country play as hard
as I will play the rest of this season and you'll never see someone push the
rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of this season, and
you'll never see a team play harder than we will the rest of this season.'
To Spiller, 'The Promise' speech contained moving, to-the-point
words from Tebow, who he watched at Ponte Vedra Beach, 50 miles east of Lake
Butler, during their high school days. The former Heisman winner was a player
Spiller always admired from a distance, a devout Christian like himself.
Tebow's words were immortalized on a plaque outside the new Florida
football headquarters this spring after the Gators went on to win the national
title.
While Tebow rallied his team, at Clemson, Spiller was quiet.
Clemson lost its next two games at Wake Forest and home against
Georgia Tech, after which Bowden was out.
'I should have said something after the Alabama game,' Spiller
said, 'I could have got (a quote) memorialized. It just showed (Tebow) is not
afraid to speak out and stick up for teammates. Not only did he speak up, he
went out there and backed it up.
'I think about that speech every time we face adversity. How he
just grasped his teammates by making that statement and his teammates
followed.'
Spiller made his own promise — a promise to speak up, to be a
leader in all ways.
He was not concerned about his new on-the-field requirements,
entering his senior season in a feature-back role for the first time.
He's been healthy, playing in 38 of 39 games the last three
seasons. The staff is unconcerned with his 5-11, 195-pound body holding up
since he is so elusive and able to avoid contact. He's taken on some of
Marshall Faulk's unusual demanding workouts and studies tape of the versatile
former NFL star, whom he considers similar to himself. He's even studied
footage of past NFL legends like Jim Brown and Walter Payton.
He expects to produce career-best numbers in what he thinks will be
an explosive offense. He needs only 921 all-purpose yards to break Leon
Johnson's (North Carolina, 1995) ACC mark.
If all goes according to plan, he should easily eclipse his
career-best marks of 938 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns set as a freshman,
when he rushed for 7.3 yards a carry, the best average in the ACC since Warrick
Dunn averaged 7.5 yards per carry in 1995 at Florida State.
Spiller admires Dunn for his off-the-field work, and someone he
used to pretend to be in youth football.
While such quantifiable, physical skills are well documented,
Swinney and offensive coordinator Billy Napier kept on Spiller to become more
vocal, more assertive. Leadership is especially necessary for a Tigers' offense
featuring a rookie quarterback and inexperience at receiver.
'That demeanor, that part of his personality is coming into a
effect lately,' Napier said. 'You've got to constantly remind him ‘Hey, guess
what C.J. guys are watching you to see how you respond in certain situations.
If you can have a great attitude and really be a vocal guy then you have a
chance to be a great leader.'
'I think (Ohio State) coach (Jim) Tressel said the best football
teams he's been around are when the best players are the hardest workers and I
think that is the case with C.J. Spiller.'
Swinney sees growth.
'Little things, like I'll see him during stretch go encourage all
his teammates,' Swinney said. 'I've seen him meet with the offensive line. I'll
see him be a little more assertive at times. I'll see his body language improve
when he is getting his butt chewed out for something or he made a mistake.'
Spiller said he's sat in on offensive line meetings to better
understand their calls, which he thinks will make him more effective. On off
days, sophomore Jamie Harper said Spiller calls the backs in for extra film
work and drills.
'I'm laid back, quiet, not that outspoken. I let my action speak,'
Spiller said. 'This year coach Swinney told me if I'm vocal they'll listen to
what I have to say. So that's something I'm trying to adjust to ... I see what
Tim does to get the most out of his team. I try to follow him as much as I
can.'
Worth ethic has never been an issue with Spiller, who has earned
Swinney's highest praise as a player who 'has it and gives it.'
Spiller watched his mother work grueling shifts as a nurse, his
devout grandmother work as a high school janitor. His father drives dump trucks
in Miami. Spiller was even all-in while stocking shelves at Goody's during high
school. His maturation accelerated with the arrival of his daughter Shania, now
3, as a freshman.
'Life is not all about me,' Spiller said. 'I have other people I
have to look out for. I have to make decisions that are not only going to
affect me, but everyone that surrounds me. (Shania) is the reason I work so
hard at what I do. You have to grow up pretty fast.'
Distance from his daughter and disappointment with the way his
freshman season ended, five carries in a loss to Kentucky in the Music City
Bowl, nearly prompted him to transfer to Florida.
He thinks about that from time to time. He says it was a moment of
emotional weakness, 'freshman jitters.' He's glad he stayed. He's glad he
didn't try to reestablish himself in Tebow's town. Like Tebow has done, he'd
love to bring a Heisman and a BCS trophy to his own backyard.
'I swing for the fence,' Spiller said. 'If you don't hit it over
the fence you can always hit it against the wall.
'I have a deep faith. I believe everything that was supposed to
happen last year, it can happen again this year.'
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