44 days to Florida Gator football: #44 James Bates

[Escambia94]

44 days until Florida Gator football! #44 James Bates. James Bates played middle linebacker for Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators , where he captained the defense of in their 1996 Bowl Alliance National Champion season. James was named to the All SEC squad that year after making 125 tackles, 51 solo. James also declared himself to be Zack Piller's wrestling manager, and if he had the opportunity, he would have also co-starred with Eric Kresser in a Brian Bosworth movie.

Bonus trivia: his father, Jim Bates, was Steve Spurrier’s first defensive coordinator when Spurrier returned to Gainesville as head ball coach in 1990 before taking defensive coordinator and interim head coaching positions in the NFL.

 

[BullGator7]

Love James Bates

 

[DRU2012]

(Anyone else gettin' as "antsy" as me by now?--Guess it's right on time: Think it was about mid-July LAST year--every year???--that I started getting a bit weird about it, like that tight feeling in my gut that I love summer an' all but DAMN! it's time for Gator football, or SHOULD be! Oh well, keep up the great work, guys, 'specially you once more, E-, giving us SOMETHIN' to chew on to get us to the full-pads-August 2-a-days...)

 

[BullGator7]

Yea this time of year is the worst

 

[Leakfan12]

A video of him taking a shot of the Criminoles (probably not a good time since well of a certain TE lockup)

 

[Escambia94]

Hang in there, fellas. Summer practice starts in just over a week. Hopefully by then the number of arrests will dwindle. The coaches are not allowed to contact the players until August 1st, which leaves the kids free to be stupid.

 

[DRU2012]

Hang in there, fellas. Summer practice starts in just over a week. Hopefully by then the number of arrests will dwindle. The coaches are not allowed to contact the players until August 1st, which leaves the kids free to be stupid.

Exactly--and a whole other LEVEL of problem, what players (especially the natural-born-IDIOTS) can get into by now...Speaking of which, has Morrison got to be the current candidate for "Biggest Fool on the TEAM", or WHAT? Granted, this latest deal is amazingly weird in the strange depths AND new winkles being discovered by which you can screw yourself AND your standing with coach and team, but ANYTHING, let alone this (remember--the saying in the "news game" has always been, "Dog Bites Man" isn't "news", "Man Bites Dog" IS), was gonna fall into the "bone-headed" category after playing the "Do you know who I AM???!!!"-card to get IN the "Doghouse"...Chomp HATES that stuff, was already trying to cure this team of its selfish and stupid streak. I figured BEFORE this that if he kept his nose SQUEAKY clean thru' the rest of the summer he MIGHT get on the field by Miami, for SURE by Tennessee and the opening of SEC-play, but now? I believe he may barely be hanging onto a place on the team, sad to say. Need him, too, ESPECIALLY in the early going where we've probably already lost him for: We've got talent that'll likely eventually be "depth" in the defensive backfield, but Morrison was about the closest we had to experience and PROVEN talent there going INTO this campaign. It'll hurt, but our head coach (I happen to think rightly so) sees this as a "Big Picture"-consideration, hugely important in the long run to what he is building here and a severe "parting of the ways" with the guy before him.

 

[Escambia94]

Antonio Morrison was cleared of the latest charge, but he should remain suspended for two games due to lack of judgement. He should not be breaking curfew and hanging out in that part of town at 3 am. When practice starts, the coaches will be allowed to be more hands-on with the players. The funny thing is that the only way the players are allowed to meet with coaches between April and August is when they get in trouble. That tells me that something is wrong with the system. The only way colleges can mitigate players' stupidity is to hire more babysitter coaches, the kind that are allowed to be in contact with all 105 players in the off-season.

 

[Leakfan12]

and don't bark at police dogs HA HA HA.

 

[Escambia94]

(SARCASM) If Coach Muschamp keeps up this illusion that he can make 20-year old kids accountable for adult decisions, then North Alabama and Louisville are going to gain half our current roster! Why can't we be like Texas A&M and just let boys be boys? (/SARCASM)