One of Brent Pease's duties as Florida's new offensive coordinator was to recruit quarterbacks. With Skyler Mornhinweg, who committed to the Gators on Friday, according to ESPN's GatorNation's Derek Tyson, Pease has gotten his man.
Mornhinweg is a three-star prospect according to Rivals, but a four-star quarterback in ESPNU's eyes. He's got good size, at 6'3" and somewhere between 190 (ESPN) and 215 (Rivals) pounds, and he's got a decent football mind — at least, that's what I'd hope, given that Mornhinweg is the son of Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg, who only helped resurrect Michael Vick as an occasionally lethal passer.
Hit the jump for highlights of Mornhinweg's junior season and a bit more analysis.
It's a new season, but the same beginning for the Gators baseball team. Three major polls have Florida on top as preseason number one. Collegiate Baseball's Fabulous 40 released their rankings earlier, and the two major polls, Baseball America and the ESPN/USA Today polls were released this week. The lofty preseason ranking marks the second time in school history UF's baseball team has been ranked preseason number one and second consecutive season. Quite a feat for Kevin O'Sullivan going into his fifth year with the University of Florida.
Coming off a season which Florida made it to the College World Series Finals only to lose to SEC East rival South Carolina, Florida returns their entire weekend rotation, as well as the bulk of their lineup. Six Gators earned Perfect Game's Preseason All-American nods Friday. Two pitchers, Karsten Whitson and Hudson Randall, as well as two "hybrid players," pitcher/first baseman Brian Johnson and pitcher/infielder Austin Maddox, join shortstop Nolan Fontana and catcher Mike Zunino on the list. Zunino, last season's SEC Player of the Year and an All-American, is Perfect Game's preseason player of the year.
Florida will be tested early and often. The Gators kick off the season February 17th, hosting 16th-ranked collegiate baseball powerhouse Cal State Fullerton Titans at McKethan Stadium for a three game series.
(Via Florida Lacrosse on Facebook.)
You have to assume England's national women's lacrosse team, currently ranked fourth in the world, was tired Thursday. Following their long flight to the states, it narrowly defeated Jacksonville University Wednesday night in a hard-fought match before heading to Gainesville to face the No. 5 Gators at Donald R. Dizney Stadium on Thursday. Still, Coach Amanda O'Leary has to be excited with her squad's 17-2 win, especially with the performance of the newest Gators team members. The No. 3-rated recruiting class from a year ago scored 12 of the Gators' 17 goals in the victory, led by Gabi Wiegand, a junior transfer from University of Richmond, who scored five goals and added two assists for Florida. Freshman Nicole Graziano contributed four goals for the orange and blue and All-American Kitty Cullen added three goals.
Junior goalkeeping duo Mikey Meagher and Cara Canington split time in goal, with each holding England to a single goal in 30 minutes of play. The Gators outshot England 32-13 for the match.
Previous Season Review editions of Theater of Operations: Quarterbacks (parts one, two, three), running backs (parts one, two, three), tight ends (one part), wide receivers (parts one, two) and offensive line (part one).
In the grand scheme of things, when looking at sacks allowed, the Gators were in the middle of the road. They only gave up twenty-three sacks on the season, which was tied for 57th nationally. In terms of tackles for loss allowed, the Gators were one of the worst in the country. They had ninety-six plays in 2011 that went for negative yardage, which was good for 114th nationally. Though I'm sure some of that is due to the fact that the Gators don't have a running back on the roster that could break a tackle to save their life.
Oh, wait, they do, but he never plays.
The offensive line by and large, was one of those groups of Gators that played to the competition. If the opposing teams' defensive line was above-average or better, they couldn't play great. If the opposing teams' defensive line was sub-par, they played great.
I guess that's what happens when your team finishes the year at 7-6.
It looked bad for Florida at the Tad Pad The Gators were down 20-4 minutes into their visit to Mississippi, 38-28 at the half, 52-50 with just under six minutes to go. Things kept going right for Mississippi, with Nick Williams and the rest of the Rebels draining threes in the first half and Reginald Buckner finishing a wild second-half sequence with a thunderous follow dunk.
But the Gators just kept playing, and just kept chipping away at an Ole Miss lead that seemed like a preface to another disappointing road loss. And, instead, they got a 64-60 comeback win, the first one of the year that makes me think these Gators might be able to survive and advance in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
My headlines are getting worse.
All of your broadcast information is below; your thoughts go in the comments. As usual, I'll be tweeting up a storm about the game at @AlligatorArmy.
7:00 p.m. Eastern
The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2. You can also watch it streaming online through Watch ESPN. The radio broadcast will also be available on the Gator Radio Network.
Patric Young won't be starting for the third straight game. Can the Gators get their second true road victory this year despite their big man being banged up?
Try to remember that, despite how emotional watching a Gators game can be, there's no reason to be abusive. Rant, curse, or exult if you must, but keep the personal attacks to a minimum.
Furthermore, and I will stress this until I am blue in the face or until FlaGators admits that I'm right, comments with both a subject line and text are much easier to read when scrolling through a thread. Try to keep that in mind.
Previous Season Review editions of Theater of Operations: Quarterbacks (parts one, two, three), running backs (parts one, two, three), tight ends (one part) and wide receivers (parts one, two).
Remember when we had confidence in the offensive line heading into the season? Yeah, I do as well. Xavier Nixon was listed on Phi Steele's preseason All-SEC (4th team) team and center Dan Wenger transferred to Florida to be closer to Charlie Weis. Wenger's transfer allowed the Gators to have some extra experience not only in just playing time, but also a familiarity with Weis' system. His transfer also provided the Gators an ability to mix and match various combinations on the offensive line if needed. Well, that all sounded good on paper, but then the injury bug hit.
Wenger missed some games, Nixon played hurt all year and as a result, the offensive line never really gelled together in a way that is needed for a football team to be successful. Quarterbacks John Brantley, Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel spent more time running for their lives than they did standing in the pocket and picking defenses apart.
Probably the best attribute this group of linemen had, was blocking down the field. Time after time, when Brantley would dump a pass off to one of the running backs, a lineman could be seen getting a key block 10-yards down the field. Same thing happened on running plays. Which was another strength (believe it or not) for the offensive line. Every time a big play happened within the running game, there was an offensive linemen getting a block on the edge. Granted it was usually after a mistake or a missed block, but hey, it could have been worse.
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Will Muschamp went to church with Josh Harvey-Clemons: Or: This Is Why I Love And Hate Recruiting. (Michael Carvell, College Recruiting/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
More on JHC: It looks like it's down to Florida, Georgia, and Florida State. (Bud Elliott, SB Nation)
Alabama, Florida, lead SEC on recruiting trail: But Florida's got more prospects hanging fire. (Bryan Fischer, Eye On Recruiting/CBS Sports)
Gators have momentum, too: I don't know how much that matters. (Mike Quinoy, Saturday Down South)
#rowdytalk is Twitter hit: Go read the transcript. (Via @RowdyTownMayor and @GZStudentTix)
Bradley Beal's slump is over: According to Beal, anyway. (Michael DiRocco, GatorNation/ESPN)
Hyper Elite Platinum uniforms panned: I would have bet a lot of money on Lukas panning them, though. (Paul Lukas, Uni Watch)
Tracking baseball players' popularity in a novel way: I won't spoil it, but you'll enjoy it. (Ben Lindbergh, Baseball Prospectus)
What is Colin Cowherd really like? He sure seems like an abrasive, proudly ignorant jerk to me. (Jason McIntyre, The Big Lead)
Point-shaving at San Diego: A harrowing tale of how athletes pressed by the economic hardship of college athletics look for more mon ... no, wait, this is about people doing criminal things. (Michael McKnight, SI.com)
Indy's Super Bowl receipes: You will laugh very hard. (Jon Bois, SB Nation)
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