The Gators Men's Basketball team beat Aubun last night 78-69 in the first round of the SEC tournament. Some say this puts them in the dance; here is one Gatorsfirst author's take on the matter. Either way, last night was a great win for the gators with many players stepping up to the challenge. The Gators played like it was a &must win& game, which it was. The first &must win& game of the season, despite many saying the last five regular season games were &must win&.

The big story for Auburn was Tay Waller going 0-6 with 0 points and 4 fouls. Waller averaged over 20 points a game in the final games of the regular season for Auburn, but could not connect against the Gators.

As I started earlier this season, throughout the offseason I'm going to give a quick rundown of the week's storylines, in case your not as OCD about Gators as those that get their up-to-the-second Gators news here. But even if you do, I hope I'll entertain you somewhat, give you some different perspectives, and throw in some other odds and ends to keep you interested.

Illinois State comes to town for a 2 game series on Tuesday and Wednesday. ISU is projected to finish 4th in the Missouri Valley Conference, behind Wichita State, Missouri State, and Creighton. The Redbirds are coming off an 0-3 performance at the Music City Invitational hosted by Vanderbilt. ISU lost 6-4 to Indiana, 9-2 to Vanderbilt, and 7-2 to Kent State. Despite those performances, ISU is averaging 9.6 runs a game in 9 games and has a very dangerous man in the leadoff spot.

Also with Game 2 starters at the end.

In a game dominated by pitching, Florida used two big innings to defeat Miami 7-1 in the series opener. Florida starter Alex Panteliodis went 5.2 innings and struck out a career high 8, while holding the Canes to 2 hits and 1 run. The sophomore had a no hitter going until the 5th and kept UM off balance with a combination of perfectly placed fastballs and solid off speed pitches.

So the other day, I started thinking about what, exactly, could be the problem with our basketball team.

We lack depth.  I studied the early departures during Donovan's entire tenure at Florida last summer.

We lack certain skill sets.  Again, is Billy Donovan's recruiting to blame?  Is Dan Werner just a bum with no business being on anyone's team?

Then I really started thinking: which team would be better off in 2009-10, our present rotation (we run 8 deep) or a 9-man rotation consisting of guys that either left Florida early or aren't playing now for other reasons?

Oh, and I'll answer those other questions, too...

The Gators fell last night in a 60-64 loss to #13 ranked Vandy. Some were considering this a &must win& game for the Gators to make the NCAA tournament, but at least one GatorsFirst author still thinks the team has a chance whose article can been seen here. The game was the total opposite of last game against Vandy where Macklin fouled out with 2 points and 1 rebound, and the team shot almost 50 percent from the arc. This game Macklin had 21 points with 12 rebounds and the team went 2 for 13 from the arc. The Gators had many chances to win this game, but its hard to win when you go 37 percent from the field, 15 percent from 3 range, and 66 percent from the line.

Let's get something straight: Tim Tebow will be drafted. Earlier than you think. Or Todd McShay thinks, for that matter. As a quarterback. And all that stands in the way of success is how he develops the NFL-ish skills he is lacking. Which can be said of almost every prospect, ever. A huge factor, which will help his NFL career be as successful as possible, is his initial destination.

The franchise which chooses Tebow will impact his long-term career by the expectations placed on him for 2010, the patience of the franchise with a young QB, and the quality of coaching he will receive.

So where will he go? How could he best adapt to the NFL game? Which franchises are a good mix of 'likely to draft Tebow', and 'could develop Tebow into an NFL star'?

After all, the Tim Tebow experiment is inevitable...

Siena comes into town tonight as classic small northern school fodder for a big southern team to feast on.  La Salle this weekend will be the exact same.  Northern schools generally play around 40% of the games at home and 60% of their games on the road, including usually a lengthy road stand to start the season.  Siena plays 21 of their first 23 on the road, while La Salle plays 16 of their first 17 on the road.  

I was one of the few in attendance Wednesday as rain fell and the temperature plummeted at McKethan stadium to see Florida outlast Central Florida.  Florida built an early 7-0 lead before holding on to win 7-6 over the Golden Knights.  With drizzling rain that forced a 30 minute delay and fell well into the middle of the game, Florida was able to get just enough from the bullpen to hang on, as Kevin Chapman struck out Chris Duffy (LF) with one on in the 9^th to end it and earn his first career save.  Duffy was 3-4 at the time, and had hit a two run homer in the 8^th to cut the Gator lead to 7-5.

If we got to pick, choosing Tennessee to blow out was a great choice (75-62). Especially with NCAA selection committee member Jeff Hathaway in the crowd. The first half was close with Tennessee hitting 6 threes and the Gators having to score the last 7 points to enter the locker room tied. The second half was all about the Gators where they hit four 3 point shots in two and a half minutes to jump ahead 70-50 with 3 minutes left. Overall, a lot of good came out of this game and the Gators tacked on another top 25 win.

The Gators welcome the University of Central Florida Golden Knights to Gainesville (barring rain) tonight. This game kicks off a five games in five days run to end the season starting home stand for Florida. UCF tonight, Sienna tomorrow, and a three game series with La Salle this weekend should definitely test UF’s deep pitching staff. The Knights are the most dangerous of the three and have won four of the eight games here since 1994.

Tim Tebow and 9 other Florida Gators (including 5 juniors) will be appearing at the 2010 NFL Combine, starting tomorrow. I've got all the info on which jersey number each will wear (Tim's going to be QB 19), and what the schedule for each group will be (when they'll be arriving in Indianapolis, when they'll be working out, etc.). I have a spreadsheet for the entire combine (courtesy friend of G1 Trey), but I've sorted it below to only show the Gators who will be appearing

Florida sweeps the South Florida in dramatic fashion with a walk off hit in the bottom of the 10^th. Mike Zunino (PH/C) knocked a two out single into right field to score Tyler Thompson (PH/LF) from 2B and win 7-6. This was only the final act of a game that got dramatic late. After USF scored 5 runs in the top of the 8^th to take the lead, Florida scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9^th to force the extra frame.

Consistent scoring paced the Gators past the Bulls 9-1 Saturday, as UF scored in 5 of the 8 frames they batted in. The victory wins the series with USF, which hopefully by the end of the year will be a solid RPI opponent. The RPI counts series wins, so even if the Bulls win on Sunday, Florida will receive credit for winning the series. The offensive tide was barely kept in check at the start of the game, as Florida loaded the bases with the first three batters.

Josh Adams powered the Gators on Friday night, as they cruised to a 6-2 victory over the South Florida Bulls. Adams hit 2 monster home runs and a RBI double while going 3-3 with a walk and 4 RBI, while freshman Austin Maddox hit an opposite field 2 run homerun in his first collegiate at bat.

Holy crap, did you see that Dan Werner left hand slam?! I did, after checking twice to see if it was really Chandler. By my count, that was Dan's third slam of his career, but first over a defender. Considering all the recent debate over Dan I figured I would start with that, but as for the rest of the game:

The Gator Men's Basketball team beat Auburn last night 78-70 in a game that was closer than it should have been. A good win for the Gators no matter how you look at it, especially after last week. A lot of good came out of the game with the gators improving in areas that have been lacking recently.

Led by 2009 Big East Coach of the Year Lelo Prado, USF is coming off a season when they went 32-25 and finished second in the Big East Conference. USF is ranked 35^th in the Collegiate Baseball preseason top 40, and 33rd in the Perfect Game top 100 (which has the Gators ranked 6th). The Bulls are pegged to finish second in the Big East behind Louisville. USF has some dangerous pieces they bring to town including one of the best pitchers and one of the best hitters in the Big East.

This is a look at the Florida Gator baseball roster for 2010. I’ll do a quick synopsis then break down all the positions. The Gators return 20 players from a season ago. Ten pitchers with varying amounts of work and five field players who saw significant playing time last season will be available for head coach Kevin O’Sullivan (7).

They welcome in the number one ranked recruiting class in America (I know, it seems like a theme these days), Coach O’Sullivan’s second straight top five class. Ten players are from Florida, which is one of the best baseball recruiting states in the nation (hmm this also sounds familiar). The freshman breakdown was five pitchers, three infielders of which one was a JUCO, two catchers, and an outfielder. Several will see immediate playing time, broken down in the position by position analysis below. You can see the official roster here.

As I started last week, each week I'm going to give a quick rundown of the week's storylines, in case your not as OCD about Gators as those that get their up-to-the-second Gators news here. But even if you do, I hope I'll entertain you somewhat, give you some different perspectives, and throw in some other odds and ends to keep you interested.

If this season is to be 'saved', it will begin in Gainesville tomorrow night (ESPN, 7 ET) v. Auburn, followed closely by a 'nooner' with Ole Miss on Saturday (CBS, noon ET).

Last week was a disaster for these Gators- not just that we lost (you probably expect to lose that road game; and Xavier is higher than us in all the rankings + had a full week- i.e. mid-week bye- to rebound from an embarrassment v. Davidson), but how we lost.

Turnovers and awful free throw shooting were our downfall in Columbia.  Xavier dominated us inside, and we showed a lethargy starting with the opening tip that could not have been a good sign for Gator fans.

So, what's up with our basketball team?

Every year at Midnight Madness, my buddy Burnstein and I take a look at the new Freshmen and each pick one to be “our Boy.” Once the choice is made, you must claim allegiance to this player and defend him throughout his stay in Gainesville. While it’s easy to just snap up a McDonald’s All-American and call it a day, it’s far more rewarding to gamble on a lesser known player and then pound your chest a few years later when your boy is torching the SEC, as you shout out some prophetic nonsense along the lines of “I just knew,” or “there was something about him.” This decision can sometimes work out well (my boy Joakim Noah), and sometimes backfire (my boy Allan Chaney).

In October 2006, it backfired. Bigtime. I went out on a limb and picked a nimble looking young forward out of New Jersey with some solid high school credentials.

David Lee has been chosen to replace Allen Iverson in this weekend's NBA All Star-Game. David Lee is averaging 20 points per game, 11.4 boards per game, and .4 blocks per game for the Knicks. Iverson has missed the last 5 games for Philadelphia because one of his (5) children is ill. This will be Lee's first appearance in the all-star game after a stellar season.

Al Horford is also making his first all-star appearance after averaging 13.4 points per game, 9.4 rebounds per game and 1.2 blocks per game for the Hawks.

On an un-all-star related note:

Corey Brewer was featured on a segment on ESPN last night a &posterized dunk contest& for his nasty stretch out dunk over league veteran Derek Fisher. He was the 16 seed in the tournament (out of 16) and was beat in the first round by MJ, and its a pretty stupid premise for a show, but it's still great to see him in the mix. A video of the dunk can be seen here

The Gators face a good Xavier team this Saturday at home with a chance to tack on another resume building win outside the conference. The game is at 6pm and will be on ESPN.

All day today, reports went back and forth as to whether or not the Florida Gators have a deal in place with Arizona Cardinals DBs coach Teryl Austin to be their new defensive coordinator. Though a UF official says that no deal is in place and no press conference to announce a hiring is scheduled.

Supposedly, Austin impressed Urban Meyer (who came in for a special meeting with him during his ''leave of absence'') in an interview, Clemson co-DC Charlie Harbison never interviewed for the job, and Miami Hurricanes assisstant coach Michael Barrow was in an interview at UF while reports were coming out of Arizona that a deal was in place with Austin. Which is now where the word is coming from. Expect official word from UF in the morning.

Wasn't all this easier when we just waited for a newspaper? And then few fans had any idea who their coordinators were?

Anyway, thought you would enjoy this reaction to the Austin ''hiring''. Because it's going to happen, eventually.

V3BNRBWTFU7H

How do you shoot 56% from the floor, hold a team to 38% shooting, and out-rebound a team by 12 and still lose? Simple, just turn the ball over 20 times and shoot 10 of 23 from the free-throw stripe.

The Florida Gators travel to Columbia tonight to take on Devan Downey and the Gamecocks (if it sounds like I'm relegating his teammates to backup-singer status, that's because I am). The game is at 8 ET on the SEC Network (see how to watch it in your area here), as for myself and others not appearing on that list, we'll be watching on ESPN360.

South Carolina is favored, and should be, as it took a buzzer beater by Chandler Parsons to prevent them from winning in Gainesville.

Billy Donovan has joked that his plan to stop Downey is to &Go to church and pray&.  The tiny 'Cock has averaged 26.2 points/game against Florida in his career, and is averaging over 30/game for the SEC Schedule this season.  His effort has brought up the name Pete Maravich, and you can see here what Maravich did to UF.

Reports are that Downey injured his ankle earlier this week in practice- but make no mistake, he'll play tonight, and be a dangerous opponent.  Especially when in Carolina they are referring to this game as 'must win'.

Of course you can always visit Gators First for up-to-the-second Gator coverage right here.

But I'm going to use this space each week to recap some of the more important stories, and give my take.  I'd hate for the less internet-nerdy of our Gator fans to miss out on the entire week's stories because we covered something when it happened, and moved on to something new before you people with busy lives even heard the latest Gator news.

I'll also throw in some other odds and ends that don't belong in other blogs.

Early this season, I predicted that the true test of Vernon Macklin would come against Miss St.'s Jarvis Varnado. Today in the O'Connell center, Macklin proved himself numerous times around the rim, scoring 20 points (career-high) and neutralizing the notorious shotblocker Varnado.

Last March in Starkville, the Gators fell to the Bulldogs during the infamous late season collapse. In that game, Varnado posted a double-double and Alex Tyus was dominated on the glass. However, in today's battle, Macklin stood strong, allowing Tyus and Parsons to help out and scoop rebounds.

National Signing Day is in full swing, and the Florida Gators have the consensus #1 class.

The day so far has lacked the sort of negative excitement that we all woke up this morning wary of, and the LOIs have all come in on schedule.  Gators First recruiting correspodent DK_Thompson predicted a day where we would not lose any of our commits, and we picked up Adrian Coxson (WR our of Baltimore) and Darrin Kitchens (LB from Homestead, FL).

The only expected addition is OL Chaz Green, and his announcement will not come until 3-3:30 pm ET.

With less than 30 seconds left in the game, and the Florida Gators down by 2, Chandler Parsons hit a three-pointer.  When Bruce Pearl called a timeout after the ensuing in-bounds pass, CBS was able to run the montage they'd prepared for just such an opportunity.  Parsons had previously hit a buzzer-beating 70-ish foot, game-winner at NC State, and a buzzer-beating, 20-foot game-winner at home against South Carolina.

As soon as the montage aired, I knew we were doomed.  I can't imagine any good coming out of a network comparing a shot that gave our team a 1-point lead- with time remaining and Bruce Pearl having timeouts, no less- to a couple of &real& game-winners.

Just what I feared happened, as Scotty Hopson hit a jumper to give the Vols the lead for good, and the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Florida Gators 61-60.

We Gator fans are different than Tennessee football fans.  There are no &moral victories&.  This loss sucked.

I have never and will never understand the NFL talking heads. They are so sure about their draft analysis, and yet you get guys like Tom Brady- not exactly an under-the-radar prospect, considering he came from Michigan.

Since Tim Tebow has left Florida, the anti-Tebow (as an NFL QB) sentiment has grown louder- and probably will continue to grow louder over the next several years.

Critics point to his mishandling of snaps during Senior Bowl practices, and his elongated delivery. Let's explore what we really learned from the Senior Bowl, and how it should effect Tim Tebow's NFL Draft Stock.

In the last day, Gatorsfirst recruiting correspondent DK_Thompson has learned of former Gator commit, expected FSU commit Demar Dorsey's legal troubles. The information was first reported on his twitter account here.

You can check them out from an indisputable source here.

Now, I have no idea the specifics of these cases, and am no legal expert. I don't know if they'll all go away, or what.

The reason I think it's noteworthy: I think it's a possible explanation for the way his recruiting went down. When his commitment wavered, he had some curious quotes about not speaking to the UF coaches, etc. It now seems as if the UF coaches backed off, possibly after hearing about this legal situation. Did his commitment waver in the first place because UF coaches had backed off with so many other defensive backs?

No matter how you look at it, it's a different situation than how the coaching staff handled the Matt Elam saga.

If you're like me, you're an out-of-state Florida Gators basketball fan. After all, The Gator Nation is Everywhere!

Anyway, this Sunday's game in Knoxville is a big one for both teams. If we can prolong their recent losing streak, it will help our standing in the SEC East and our NCAA resume. For the Vols, they just want to keep the wheels from falling off, as they are finally seeing negative effects from the Tyler Smith incident.

CBS is broadcasting the game at 1pm ET, but certain markets will be stuck with the crappy Big Eleven matchup of Ohio State and Thad Matta (aka Oldest Acne Patient Ever, or OAPE for short) vs. Minnesota and Tubby Smith (aka Better Than Billy Clyde Gillispie After All).

Check out the CBS coverage map below (provided courtesy of our friends at HD Sports Guide) to see if you can watch the Gators from the comfort of your couch, or if you'll have to resort to more extreme measures for your Gator fix.

We are less than a month away from the first pitch of the Gators 2010 baseball season so as the Gatorsfirst.com’s resident hardball analyst, I’ve ordered my season tickets and will be doing updates throughout the season with (hopefully) some interview material.

The UAA has currently crimped my access slightly by refusing my request for a press pass, but I’m thinking someone as resourceful as yours truly will find a way to get a quote or two. This is apparently a school wide policy on providing media passes only to websites affiliated with a traditional outlet such as a newspaper or television station.

Leading off is a look at the schedule. Part two about the players will be out in a few days.

Beating a team handily feels good…really good. The worst thing that happened this game was when I forgot to wear my “dawgs lick balls” t-shirt (and meeting an annoying Syracuse fan before the game). After watching Georgia beat Tennessee, the Gator nation had to think twice about Georgia, who is probably better than their record shows (worst conference loss before us was 8 points to Kentucky, at Kentucky). It was good to have a night off of buzzer beaters or waiting to see who can hit the most free-throws at the end of the game.

I’ll spare you from running down the box score that can be seen at gatorzone.com and focus on what I took from this game.

Michael McFarland is no longer ''gray shirting'' because the Gators have dropped Demar Dorsey and now have the extra room available to include McFarland. As I wrote here, the Gators asked Michael McFarland to gray shirt because the class was filling up quickly and McFarland has a significant amount of work to do and weight to add.

Tampa Blake High School TE Michael McFarland (6'6, 230 lbs) has agreed to a gray shirt. McFarland is ranked 24th best TE in the country and the 84th best player in the state of Florida, according to Rivals.com.

One year ago, Chandler Parsons (and buddy Nick Calathes) missed free throws down the stretch, allowing South Carolina the opportunity to hit a buzzer-beating dunk as time expired in Columbia.

In Gainesville last night, Chandler Parsons hit his second buzzer-beater of the month.  Though this one was somewhere around 50 feet closer to the basket than the one against NC State.

The Florida Gators edged Devan Downey and the South Carolina Gamecocks 58-56.  Check out video of the buzzer beater, below.

Connecticut QB Tyler Murphy is the Gators newest commitment. Tyler Murphy, who was previously committed to Temple, committed to the Gators over the weekend after an official visit.

 What will be the mindset of the Florida Gators as the host the South Carolina Gamecocks this evening?  Are they going to be focused coming off a big road win at Arkansas?

Will their limited depth be an issue in the second half?  How is their conditioning?

The 2009 season had its ups and downs, but one thing that stayed pretty fluid, sans the SEC Championship, was the dominance of the Florida Gators defense. The defense had a litany of playmakers in all three sections of the defense. Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham dominated the defensive line, Brandon Spikes and Ryan Stamper played great at linebacker and Joe Haden and Major Wright held down the passing attack as premier defensive backs. Unfortunately for Gator fans, all six of these players graduated.

Furthermore, Defensive Coordinator Charlie Strong left to become the Head Coach of Louisville and Cornerbacks Coach Vance Bedford joined Strong at Louisville to become the Defensive Coordinator. The Gators replaced these two losses by hiring former Miami Dolphins LB Coach, George Edwards as Defensive Coordinator, and hired Stanford Linebackers Coach D.J. Durkin to the same position for the Gators and Safeties Coach Chuck Heater had his role expanded to include all defensive backs.

Needless to say, this year will be a significantly different defensively. However, the Gators have great depth and have recruited the consensus number 1 defensive class in the country, so expect the Gators to be just as dominate.

The Florida Gators travel to Fayetteville tonight for an SEC basketball showdown with the Arkansas Razorbacks. Like you, I'll be watching on ESPN at 9 pm ET (playing the 2010 Florida Basketball Drinking Game)... though I made the trip for basketball two years ago, and in 2008 for football, and recommend it.

Arkansas comes into the game struggling (record-wise), but at least they won their first exhibition game of the year, against Ft. Lauderdale's technology magnet high school. Or there could be two Dillards. Arkansas also has to go to Rupp Arena (to play a Kentucky team looking for a #1 ranking) less than 48 hours after this game, so maybe they'll look ahead. Regardless, this is a big-time road game against an always physical opponent in a tough road environment (their arena is among the bigger venues in the conference).

Let's move on to some tips on visiting Fayetteville, and some more points about today's game...

While most of the recent Florida Gators news surrounds the football and basketball team (check out the first in a series of 3 recruiting pieces here), there have been many stories that I didn't feel necessary to cover in their own blog, but you might find interesting nonetheless.

You can always get Florida Gators news from all over the internet, up-to-the-minute right here.  There's no reason to waste valuable time during your lunch break loading a bunch of pages, when bookmarking that link will allow you to browse all the news at once.

On to what's been happening this week...

Since Urban Meyer became the coach of the Gators in 2005, the Gators have had one of the most prolific offenses in the country. A large portion of his success his due to the staff's ability to recruit and develop playmakers at all positions. Whether, it has been Tim Tebow at QB, Percy Harvin at WR, Jeff Demps at RB, Aaron Hernandez at TE or the Pouncey twins on the Offensive Line, the Gators have had some of the biggest, fastest and strongest players in the country.

However, during Urban Meyers tenure there have been some questions at WR and RB, whether it was lack of a power running back that is a downhill runner or the lack of a true deep-threat wide receiver.

Moreover, the Gators are losing Riley Cooper and David Nelson as Wide Receivers, Aaron Hernandez at TE and the biggest loss, Tim Tebow at QB.

The 2010 recruiting class, which is ranked number 1 in the country, will try to help fill some of these voids.

Beating LSU doesn't mean we are tourney bound or anything dramatic.

However, the way we came out after starting 0-2 in the conference says a lot about this team.

The Florida Gators basketball team defeated the LSU Tigers 72-58 on Saturday night. And the win said some important things about our team for the rest of the season...

Dan Werner is one of the most polarizing athletes, among Gator fans, that I can think of. Especially when you restrict it to the basketball team.

Anthony Roberson had his share of detractors, but no one would say he sucked.

Even the Gainesville Sun's Kevin Brockway has been asking if Chandler Parsons should be starting over him. Chandler F'ing Parsons!

I'm here to tell you to lay off Dan Werner...

Storylines?  What storylines?  All ESPN just gave you for hours was how Kentucky is going to make a run at an undefeated season.

Which probably has nothing at all to do with the fact that in order to buy the broadcast rights to the SEC football (aka NFL Lite) games, they were forced to buy more of the basketball broadcast rights, and launch something called the SEC Academic Network.

If it weren't for UT's miraculous upset of Kansas (that Vols fans subsequently forgot thanks to Lane Kiffin), you'd really see a lot of suits at ESPN panicking over the money they just spent on this league.  Now, I believe the SEC will be tougher- some good young coaches in the West, South Carolina is dangerous, Vanderbilt and AJ Ogilvy could do some damage, and recent / traditional powers UT, UK, and UF could make varying degrees of noise in March- but it was evident during this entire telecast that ESPN's SEC promotional plan was &We bought Kentucky and the 11 dwarves! Play up the undefeated angle!&

But what of the game?

The Florida Gators lost to Kentucky 89-77.  The game probably shoudn't be described as &close&, but the margin was never as big as the final score indicated.  It was generally aroud 5-10 points, but UK had control the whole time.

Former walk-on quarterback and current New York Jet offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer might be interviewing for the open Buffalo Bills position later this week. The Jets are currently in the playoffs and play the Chargers this Sunday. Schottenheimer has previous ties with current Bills GM Buddy Nix, from their time together in San Diego.

Gator fans remember how Schottenheimer, son of former NFL head coach Marty, walked onto the Gator football team to study under former coach Steve Spurrier. Brian has previously been an assistant for five NFL teams and two college football teams.

With the NFL Playoffs in full effect...
The Gatorsfirst.com team wanted to give you an update about Super Bowl odds and former Gators trying to win championships outside of college!

Last week, only three Gators played in playoff games, and only one will be moving on. Former RB great Fred Taylor only rushed two times for one yard in New England's 33-14 loss at home to Baltimore. The Cincinnati/New York game matched up WR Andre Caldwell and CB Lito Sheppard. Sheppard got the best of Caldwell in the Jets' 24-14 win in Cincy. Sheppard finished with six tackles, and held Caldwell to only two catches for 25 yards.

Next week's games feature these former Gators:

Out-physical-ed, out-rebound-ed, out-height-ed, out-adequate bench full of big men-ed. That was the story in today's 95-87 loss as the UF Men's Basketball team opened up its conference schedule in the notoriously wacky Vanderbilt University Memorial Gym. The Gators rolled into Nashville looking to advance the momentum avalanche derived from Chandler Parsons' miracle heave last weekend to win at NC State. However, this loss will send the Gators back to Gainesville in search of frontcourt answers.

 I thought I'd go ahead and update you guys on some things for the football team, now that teams are even more prone to be hiring assistants away, and that recruiting is really blowing up.

Check out this list, it's the 9 early enrollees... 5 of which are already on campus, 4 must not have class until after today's start of classes.