Andre Debose Rehabbing nicely for Gators

Debose underwent hamstring surgery that derailed his 2009 freshman season.
After we talked to a few folks close to Debose’s rehab, here’s an update.
Debose has sprinted full speed on a treadmill and began working at the track and field complex this week. So far, no setbacks.
Debose does not need a second surgery, which has been rumored. Perhaps anything’s possible if Debose’s hamstring rejects the rehab over time, but for now he has not experienced severe pain from the running. (Debose could only run in a pool, up until January). He must thoroughly stretch out his hamstring three times a day.
At this point, Debose isn’t expected to be a full participant in spring practices that begin March 17. He might run routes and conduct light drills, but no hitting or full contact.
He’s eyeing a successful return for the 2010 season.

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Florida interested in Clemson DB coach

Dabo Swinney told The Post and Courier on Wednesday that Tigers defensive backs coach Charlie Harbison has been contacted by Florida.
The Gators are interested in Harbison as a candidate for their vacant defensive coordinator position.
“They called me today,” Swinney said. “I don’t know if he’ll go down there to interview.”
“That’s the crazy part of this business. Everyone has to hire coaches, but hopefully we’ll be able to keep ours here.”
Florida is looking for a defensive coordinator to replace George Edwards, who was only with the Gators briefly, leaving for a position with the Buffalo Bills. Edwards replaced former Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, who became the head coach at Louisville.
Harbison is valuable recruiter and co-defensive coordinator at Clemson.
He was named as one of Rivals.com's top 25 recruiters for 2010 on Monday. Harbison signed three prospects from Georgia (Darius Robinson, Corey Crawford and David Beasley) and signed Desmond Brown, DJ Howard and Demont Buice in Alabama.
It’s the fourth time this offseason that Swinney has had to deal with a program trying to raid his staff, and the third attempt by an SEC program.

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New Kentucky WR coach fits Joker to a Tee...Tee Martin that is

Tee Martin has officially been announced as the newest member of Joker Phillips first coaching staff.Martin, the former title-winning quarterback during his time with the Tennessee Volunteers, has been hired to coach the Wildcats' wide receivers."Tee has a great ability to relate and communicate with young people," Phillips said in a statement. "I had a chance to watch him coach (current Wildcat) Matt Roark in high school and I was impressed with how he handled himself. I think he'll be a tremendous asset in recruiting. He is very well-known in Atlanta and other areas in the South."Martin comes to Lexington from New Mexico, where he coached the Lobos' quarterbacks. He will also be reunited with UK offensive coordinator Randy Sanders, who was his coordinator with the Vols."I'm excited about the future of Kentucky football under the leadership of Joker Phillips," Martin said in his own statement. "The respect Coach Phillips has in college football as an offensive mind, as well as being one of the best wide receivers' coaches, made me want to be here and learn from him."My chemistry with Coach Sanders dates back to our time together at Tennessee. He's been a mentor for me since I got into the coaching profession and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I'm looking forward to helping develop a very exciting young group of wide receivers."

Gator recruit: 'I know we'll have 2-3' titles

Through the last two months while Urban Meyer’s future reached its height of uncertainty, Miami Booker T. Washington DE Lynden Trail was known as an unofficial spokesman for the 2010 class. Trail and Venice QB Trey Burton called plenty of recruits to make sure they were on the same page after Meyer’s job flip-flop.
“I know we’ll bring at least 2-3 national championships,” Trail said.
Bold statement. What makes you so sure?
“I just feel like we have so much special talent at every position,” Trail added. “And we’re all going to make sure to work hard. This group is determined to make a difference.”
The 6-foot-7 Trail is the Sentinel’s 14th-ranked player in the state.
Trail also said the recruiting class isn’t too worried about the departure of George Edwards, the Gators’ defensive coordinator for 27 days before last week’s bolt for a lateral position with the Buffalo Bills.
Interim coach Steve Addazio is currently coordinating the hiring of a new coordinator while Urban Meyer, officially on a leave of absence, is providing input.
There is chatter about New England Patriots assistant Corwin Brown, formerly Notre Dame’s coordinator, but we are hearing that probably won’t happen.
Trail, who met Edwards once, said he’s talked to numerous recruits in recent days and nobody even mentioned the departure.
“He didn’t seem to fit the mold of a Gators coach,” Trail said. “I’m sure he’s a great guy, great family guy, but he didn’t have the intensity of every other Gators coach when he got here. It doesn’t change anything for me. We’re all ready to come play anyway.”

Gators chasing Clemson assistant?

According to a tweet from Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com, Florida has an interest in Clemson co-defensive coordinator Charlie Harbison for its coordinator vacancy.
Harbison is the latest name to be attached to the opening created last week when George Edwards left Gainesville for the Buffalo Bills. Edwards had been at the school for less than a month before bolting for the NFL.

Vols Lance Thompson helps Vols class stay Intact

Thompson and Jim Chaney were both instrumental in helping Tennessee keep its class mostly intact after Lane Kiffin left for USC. They both also played a huge role in Tennessee keeping all eight early enrolles. Thompson also recruited four-star prospects in running back Rajion Neal and offensive lineman Jawuan James. Athlete Marcques Dixon, defensive end Martaze Jackson, and linebacker John Propst are all three-star prospects who were recruited by Thompson.

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Big Year for Auburn with Recruiting

Taylor had a big year for the Tigers. He went to Mississippi and landed five-star offensive line prospect Shon Coleman. Taylor went to Louisiana to sign four-star athlete Trovon Reed. Taylor helped Auburn get a big one on Signing Day with four-star defensive end Corey Lemonier. Taylor also got three from Georgia: four-star wide receiver Antonio Goodwin, three-star defensive back Demetruce McNeal and athlete Shaun Kitchens. Four-star defensive end Joel Bonomolo is a junior college transfer from California. Taylor also landed a big in-state commitment in four-star wide receiver Jeremy Richardson. Seven of Taylor's eight prospects were from out of state.

Bama's Sal Sunseri Recruiting helps the Tide

Sunseri helped sign four prospects for the Crimson Tide. He landed the nation's No. 2 pro-style quarterback prospect in Phillip Sims from Virginia. He also went to Maryland to land four-star offensive lineman Arie Kouandjio and to North Carolina to get four-star defensive end Alfy Hill. Sunseri also landed three-star defensive end Wilson Love.

Auburn's Recruiting in the top 25

Luper landed two five-star prospects for the Tigers: junior college QB Cameron Newton and RB prospect Michael Dyer from Arkansas. He also helped the Tigers with Louisiana four-star athlete Trovon Reed. Three-star offensive tackle Ed Christian was also Luper's responsibility. Luper was also the primary mastermind behind "Tiger Prowl" and "Big Cat Weekend." Those two recruiting events helped create a great buzz for Auburn.

Bulldogs Recruiting among the best in Nation

Year in and year out, Garner is one of the most consistently successful recruiters. This season was no different. The Bulldogs didn't land their typical stellar class, but Gardner did his part to keep the Dawgs in the top 20. Garner pulled in Rivals100 recruits in defensive end T.J. Stripling and safety Alec Ogletree. Garner also signed four-star defensive tackle Mike Thornton and four-star running back Ken Malcome.

Gators Steve Addazio...Nations no.2 Recruiter

Florida offensive coordinator Steve Addazio had a big recruiting year for the Gators. Addazio had his hand in recruiting two five-star defensive tackles from the Northeast in Sharrif Floyd and Dominique Easley. Floyd and Easley are the nation's top two defensive tackles. That he signed them from Pennsylvania and New York, respectively, made his feat more impressive. Addazio also helped Florida sign three four-star players in offensive tackles Ian Silberman and Chaz Green and safety Jonathan Dowling. Floyd, Easley, Silberman and Green are all members of the Rivals100. In addition, Addazio also recruited two quarterback prospects in three-star Trey Burton and two-star Tyler Murphy.

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Kiffin's Paris Hilton Act Borders on Elementary ... School

• • Clay Travis
  • Clay Travis is a college football Writer for FanHouse: Lane Kiffin is the Paris Hilton of college football. He's famous for nothing, essentially, except being famous. While at Tennessee, fresh off a firing from the Oakland Raiders, Kiffin claimed all the negative media publicity that surrounded his 13-month tenure in Knoxville was a deft manipulation of the media. Right. In reality, Kiffin was out of his league when it came to understanding how a major SEC team was covered. Kiffin claimed that the spate of attention, 95 percent of which was negative, was needed to revive a program he characterized as moribund.A moribund program that was, you know, less than a year removed from playing in the SEC championship game when Kiffin was hired. But, no matter, college football's Paris Hilton had to make a scene. And he did, turning the Tennessee job into an extended version of the The Simple Life. When he bolted for USC, Kiffin claimed he no longer needed to capture media attention because the status of the program was so much better. Then, barely one month into the job, Lane Kiffin went all Paris Hilton on us once more: He offered and accepted the commitment of a 13-year-old quarterback David Sills. For the first time, Kiffin's erratic decision-making has truly crossed over into the mainstream of American culture. Prior to this moment your grandmother might not have known who Kiffin was. Plainly, that wouldn't do. Everyone in all of American life must know who Lane Kiffin is. Prediction, within two years, he's released a sex tape entitled, "In the Fast Lane."
    

The quarterback in question, David Sills, is a seventh-grader. He is 5-foot-11 and, wait for it, 136 pounds. But, and this is key, doctors have projected that he will be 6-5 when he is fully grown.
I'm not making this up.
Middle school basketball players have previously committed to play for coaches with a screw loose. Such as Kentucky's Billy Gillispie. But offering a seventh-grader you've never seen play in person is a new low. Or, at least it would be if this was not the second time in eight months that Kiffin has been associated with offering and accepting the commitment of a 13-year-old boy. Back in the summer, before he even coached a game at Tennessee, Evan Berry, younger brother of Vols safety Eric Berry, purportedly committed to Kiffin and Tennessee before everyone backtracked.
What's more, the early backlash that arose over the idea that Kiffin would give a scholarship to a 13-year-old also eliminates any thought that Lane Kiffin didn't know how the public would react when he did the same thing with another kid. He knew exactly what the reaction would be. And he did it anyway. Let's just say that Lane Kiffin was so blown away a 13-year-old quarterback that he wanted to offer him a scholarship. Wouldn't it stand to reason that he should tell the boy and the boy's family to keep that commitment quiet?
Of course it would.
But poor Lane, he simply can't help himself. He needs the headlines even if those headlines are all negative.

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Surprise...Not someone from the SEC...Cal pitchman named Rivals' top recruiter

The numbers on Lupoi's resume from this recruiting season speak for themselves - two five-star players and four four-star players. While that matches what others on this list accomplished, what's more impressive about Lupoi's results is his haul came from five states. He landed five-star Keenan Allen and four-star Chris McCain from North Carolina, reeled in Nick Forbes from Maryland, five-star Chris Martin from Colorado, Gabe King from Oregon and Cecil Whiteside from California. He also managed a difficult situation with Allen after he de-committed from Alabama. Lupoi got several national prospects to take a long look at Cal, and many of them are moving across the country to Berkeley.

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Gators looking to Pats for new coordinator?

Corwin Brown could be a candidate to replace George Edwards, who replaced Charlie Strong back in early January after Strong left for the head coaching job at Louisville. Edwards subsequently left for the Buffalo Bills coordinator job after less than a month with the program.

Brown spent last season as the co-defensive coordinator at Notre Dame as part of Charlie Weis' coaching staff, but was not retained by new head coach Brian Kelly.

Brown, a former Michigan Wolverine, was recently hired by the New England Patriots as a defensive assistant.

Other names who have been mentioned as potential replacements for Edwards include a quartet of current coordinator's, Ole Miss' Tyrone Nix, North Carolina's Everett Withers, Utah's Kalani Sitake and Kentucky's Steve Brown.

In-house candidates could also be considered, with defensive backs coach Chuck Heater and defensive line coach Dan McCarney being the most popular names mentioned.

Early SEC look, looks the same

The juniors have declared their departure for the NFL draft, and recruiting is all done. It's an appropriate time for an early peek at the next SEC football season.
You won't have to look long to conclude that it won't look all that different from the last season. That's a testament to the staying power of Alabama and Florida.
National champion Alabama lost all but three starters from a defense that routinely overwhelmed its opposition. Florida lost five juniors to the NFL.
But both will be favored to meet for the third consecutive time in the SEC championship game.
That tells you something about the consistently top-flight recruiting of Alabama's Nick Saban and Florida's Urban Meyer. It also tells you something about the rest of the conference.
Georgia returns 10 offensive starters and has revamped its defensive coaching staff. It still looks more like a program on the wane than a championship contender.
South Carolina is inching its way upward under Steve Spurrier, but the offense still lags behind the defense.
LSU's Les Miles has come close to matching the recruiting of his predecessor, Saban, but - even after winning a national title just two years ago - his game-day management is drawing more comparisons to another former LSU coach, Curley Hallman.
Arkansas' Bobby Petrino might rank behind only Saban and Meyer among SEC coaches.However, for all the progress he has made in two years on the job, he doesn't have enough defense to win a championship.
Auburn gained ground under first-year head coach Gene Chizik, and Gus Malzahn worked wonders with its offense. But its depth of talent is still lacking.
Tennessee is rebuilding under a first-year coach. Sound familiar?
Ole Miss, which was a consensus top-10 pick last preseason, is headed south. Fast.
It's just hard to envision a championship contender among them, even though the favorites must negotiate more difficult schedules, highlighted by a mid-season Gators-Tide match-up in Tuscaloosa. Florida plays LSU the next week, followed by Mississippi State, a team that has traditionally given it trouble.
Alabama's SEC schedule is even tougher. Its game with Florida is sandwiched between trips to Arkansas and South Carolina.
But the rest of the SEC might tell you that stretch of schedule isn't as daunting as any Saturday against Alabama.

Alabama misses out on Cullman OL Spencer Region, who commits to Auburn

Three days after finalizing its 2010 recruiting class, Alabama had all but added a third commitment to its 2011 haul.
But instead, Cullman offensive lineman Spencer Region made a shock switch today, announcing a commitment to Auburn.
At a reported 6-foot-6, 330 pounds, Region sets up to be one of the state's higher-rated prospects in the coming year. This decision is surprising because Region had made it clear all along that an offer from Alabama would carry the most weight for him, and recruiting analysts and other reporters had been told to prepare for Region to commit today to Alabama.
He and his family celebrated at Dreamland after receiving an offer during a recent Junior Day on UA's campus, saying "This is the offer I have wanted," per this Scout.com story from little more than a week ago.
"I grew up an Alabama fan. I love Alabama," Region told Scout.com in October. "I have always hoped one day I will get to wear the crimson and white. It will hurt if I don't get to do that. Alabama is my overall favorite. I feel at home there. I love it down there. I have been going down there for so many years that I just feel comfortable."
Region told reporters at the scene that he initially committed to Alabama and chose to switch this morning, roughly 90 minutes before a noon announcement.
Both of UA's two 2011 committments are thus far from in-state: Vigor wide receiver Marvin Shinn, who committed during a visit to last year's A-Day Game, and Russellville wide receiver/linebacker Brent Calloway.

Former Gator Cris Collinsworth Recognized

Former Florida Gator Great and current NFL sportscaster Cris Collinsworth was honored with the prestigious Pat Summerall Award on Thursday, Feb. 4, at the annual Legends for Charity Dinner. Each year, the award honors an individual who has made a significant contribution to the sports field. Past recipients include James Brown, Greg Gumbel, Jim Nantz and Chris Berman. The event will take place at the NFL Headquarters Hotel at the Westin Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

During his time at UF from 1977-80, Collinsworth was a three-time All-SEC and two-time All-American performer at wide receiver. As a Gator, he caught 120 passes for 1,937 yards and 14 touchdowns, ran for two other touchdowns and returned a kickoff for another score. He was inducted into the Verizon Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 2001.

Collinsworth played eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and the 1981 Rookie of the Year was also selected to play in three Pro Bowls. Following his NFL career, he became a sportscaster and has since won nine Emmy’s for his work as a sports personality and football analyst. In 2008, Collinsworth covered the Olympic Games for NBC and currently joins Al Michaels as the host of NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

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Georgia Gets Solid Recruiter, Stellar Coach, In Warren Belin

Georgia filled the last opening on its football coaching staff on Friday with the hiring of Vanderbilt assistant Warren Belin as a linebackers coach.
Belin coached that position with the Commodores for the past eight seasons and was recruiting coordinator the past two.
His addition to the overhauled Bulldogs defensive staff was announced two days after national signing day for recruits and more than two months after coach Mark Richt fired three defensive assistants on Dec. 2.
"I'm looking forward to the next step in my career with coach Richt and the opportunity to compete for SEC and national championships," Belin said in a statement released late Friday afternoon.
Belin will coach either inside or outside linebackers in the Bulldogs' new 3-4 scheme, but Georgia didn't specify which one it will be on Friday. New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham will also coach linebackers.
Belin coached Vanderbilt sophomore Chris Marve, whose 121 regular-season tackles trailed only the 122 of Georgia's Rennie Curran. He also coached fifth-round draft picks Jonathan Goff (now with the New York Giants) and Hunter Hillenmeyer (Chicago Bears). Another of his former players, Marcus Buggs, played five games with the Buffalo Bills last season.
"Warren has had some of the best linebackers and tacklers in the league for years," Richt said in a statement. "I've always admired his work at Vandy and people have been talking to me about him for quite a while. When Todd and I interviewed him, we were very impressed with his knowledge of the game, schemes, and fundamentals. He's going to be a perfect mentor for our players as well."
Before coaching at Vanderbilt, Belin coached at SMU, William & Mary, Cornell and East Tennessse State during his 20-year career.

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