NaffGutts
Gator Fan
Name them ............go
Matt Elam
Matt Elam
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So ......Veterans Returning next year.
- Thread starter NaffGutts
- Start date
http://www.gatorcountry.com/football/article/sources_easley_elam_to_return_next_season/15828
Elam and Easley stated they want to come back. Ronald Powell has to come back.
Jelani Jenkins and Jordan Reed could jump for the NFL, but both could use another year to improve draft stock.
Shariff Floyd is pretty much guaranteed to jump, but could be coerced to stay. I doubt it.
Elam and Easley stated they want to come back. Ronald Powell has to come back.
Jelani Jenkins and Jordan Reed could jump for the NFL, but both could use another year to improve draft stock.
Shariff Floyd is pretty much guaranteed to jump, but could be coerced to stay. I doubt it.
It is said that Jenkins will go "high 1st round NOW"--that's hard to advise against, you know? Barkley only bucked it 'cause his family is already upper-middle-class and they TOLD him, "Follow your heart!...Tebow did it because, well, 'cause he's TEBOW...How could you tell Jelani Jennkins to risk being not being able to take care of his family NOW?
As for the rest--well, along with our recruiting class, the underclassmen who aren't going ANYWHERE, and that former FSU-recruit JUCO-DL we just flipped from Ol' Miss, we are looking like a "better version of OURSELVES" for next season--and if the offense can significantly improve (and let's face it, that's what Pease is here to DO, damnit!), we'll be a lot more than THAT!
As for the rest--well, along with our recruiting class, the underclassmen who aren't going ANYWHERE, and that former FSU-recruit JUCO-DL we just flipped from Ol' Miss, we are looking like a "better version of OURSELVES" for next season--and if the offense can significantly improve (and let's face it, that's what Pease is here to DO, damnit!), we'll be a lot more than THAT!
We do have 20 recruits unofficially for the incoming class, including a few early enrollees. On top of that, without any All-SEC players other than maybe our kicker and punter, none of them are "guaranteed" 1st round draft stock. I do not see Jenkins going high 1st round--there are a lot of better defensive linemen that are much faster and who have better highlight reels. The key to this team is that few of them really stick out--they complement one another as a team, not a collection of superstars. They need another year together in order to gain the accolades they need individually to "guarantee" big bucks in the NFL. Someone like Shariff Floyd who never had money growing up will be okay with just landing a 4th round draft position, or being a UFA. We can only hope that Floyd sticks with his buddies and improves that draft stock.
I'm just repeating "what I heard": Jenkins has been given "back-channel" advanced-word from NFL sources that he "would go 1st round", possibly even mid-to-upper round...As for Floyd, there's 2 sides to the advice HE is getting, it all depending on whether he is "OK to stay"/"fully-protected" by that adoption loophole (and his "family" of boosters, while supporting him either way, would LIKE to see him STAY a Gator thru' his senior year, but understand this better than MOST), or may need to "get out NOW before the NCAA decides to try and screw with" his eligibility ANYWAY. If there's general agreement that the NCAA'll "let it pass this time, just don't make a HABIT of it", he will probably stay and try to see about higher placement a year from now--otherwise (any snags or static from outside at ALL) your reasoning is likely to trigger the more immediately "practical decision" you speak of.
As for all the rest, I admit I am "surprised and encouraged" by how many might stay, and who they include--I can only surmise that, should it work out this way, it would be at least in part because injury/health difficulties, though damaging to our depth and consistency during THIS season, in the end may turn out to "profit" NEXT year's team. Of course, the lure of better draft placement and significantly better first-contracts , a reality of the latest NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, no doubt plays the largest part in these decisions--though of course I'm sure loyalty, comradeship and anticipation of what could now more-than-ever be a follow-on drive-to-Gator-Glory might be, at the very least, "Icing On the Cake"?
awebbf5
VIP Member
Im pretty sure Floyd will go. Elam and Jenkins both would suprise me if they come back.
You have any "back channel" reasons for some of these, a5?--'cause Floyd being hurt has REALLY knocked him down "on-the-board"--maybe no draft # at ALL, so HE has told teammates that he's coming back "no matter WHAT"...and Elam and Easley have just recently announced publicly that they'd be coming back next year themselves...There IS the emotional comradery of a toughly fought, mainly successful season just coming to its big climax that may be influencing their enthusiasm for "staying with The TEAM"--but again, the latest CBA between the NFL owners and players has made the strictly layered pay-grades for new guys-coming-in pre-determined and non-renegotiable for the first few years of their careers and, except for bonuses for the "cream of the crop" at certain positions, "locked in" at lower levels than has been the case in the past--so more-than-ever you want to maximize your place in the draft in order to be paid as much as possible (and maybe be able to negotiate a bonus, the one part of the entry-level contract still negotiable on the first contract) on your incoming contract. Both Elam AND Easley look to be strong candidates for high-round draft-picks, but with the answer to the Q "HOW high?" now having SO much immediate significance, in both of their cases they are being advised (I am told) that they will, if they stay, fill out, get more experience both as leaders with their highly successful squad, and both go VERY high, significantly higher than now, they are told (though the official "advisories" for juniors have yet to be communicated),--but that always assumes continued decent health, of course.
As I told E- elsewhere, Jenkins has been told off-record that he is likely to go "quite high" this next draft as a junior, if he comes out, and if that turns out to be a "likely 1st round" as was the impression given, he WOULD "jump", so we'll see.
We all have heard the Floyd-story--but (again) as I have discussed elsewhere (above), there are so many ins-and-outs, twists-and-turns to THAT one that though I more or less "boiled it down" to an "either/or", I'm not at all sure of where that leaves him or us...So I guess I'll go with the "safest to just go and start earning his OWN money"-theory--and be happy if we DID get to have him for another year after all.
That's what I have "been told", all of it by now information that is more-or-less "available" in SOME form in the public record as well, though maybe not as definitive, and requiring some digging and pulling together.
I REALLY hope we do keep Elam AND Easley--they're both great players who are smart, DAMN talented, and have motors running ALL-THE-TIME--both leaders on defense, which we'll need more than EVER next season, when we'll have at LEAST as much talent , even more depth, but NOT a lot of experience going INTO the season with so many seniors moving on. We might have ended up even worse off regarding juniors threatening to leave--as I've noted, it is a strange piece of bad luck for this year, but maybe GOOD fortune for 2013, that injuries to some talented juniors this past summer and fall has insured that some who'd ALSO likely have been in this discussion will now definitely still be here for their senior years.
awebbf5
VIP Member
No back channel, but when the season is over these kids will reevaluate everything and money talks. Not trying to be negative but just trying to be realistic about it.
InkedAdrenaline
VIP Member
I think capping off the season with a dominating performance against Fsu, they will think about uga loss and return for vengeance and a title. We will be fine....
Well, first of all, we DO have good ones, REALLY good ones already coming up and IN at these positions--For eg. last night, when Jelani Jenkins went out for the game, the freshman Morrison stepped in--and proceeded to make THE Big Defensive Play of the Game: He CLOCKED EJ Manuel, Knocking him from the ball for our "turning point" possession down-deep-and-IN, and knocking him from the GAME for the next two crucial series (he DID come back, but though tough and determined, an already bad game got WORSE)...But we've also seen how DEPTH can carry us through the seeming inevitable clusters of injuries, and even BETTER, allow us to keep a whole DEFENSE "fresh" into the 4th quarter: "Get the lead and we win"" will soon be our quiet "Attitude for the 4th Quarter", if we can just keep SOME of these kids for another year while we continue to recruit bring along the steady talent this staff has already got and is lining up MORE of. (And Btw, I recognize that though I DO have SOME "back channel", when it comes to these still young guys with MONEY on-the-line, you're RIGHT: It can EASILY go the "other" way, no matter what "they" (the player OR the "back channel") say now. I figure we'll come close to "splitting" on these--no special reason, but with so many swirling forces at work, it just feels like "tossing a coin" comes closest to an accurate analysis.
NaffGutts
Gator Fan
i saw that too and i could only think about how many more of these guys are waiting in the shadows to step up and prove themselves. It's so ironic to look at the Texas Longhorns and see how much they are missing on Defense, when they were THE Defensive team of the Nation, then to look at Florida, and see a Defense that we are still being impressed by. Coach Boom has put in some hours and what he has created is going to be a nightmare for teams for years to come.
i saw that too and i could only think about how many more of these guys are waiting in the shadows to step up and prove themselves. It's so ironic to look at the Texas Longhorns and see how much they are missing on Defense, when they were THE Defensive team of the Nation, then to look at Florida, and see a Defense that we are still being impressed by. Coach Boom has put in some hours and what he has created is going to be a nightmare for teams for years to come.[/quote]
"Nightmare" is dead-RIGHT...and it's only gonna get better, can you imagine?!! We all could SEE what an offense even HALF as efficient as that "D" could do to make us powerful...and Saturday that's just about what we got: an offense at times operating at an "above-average" level, compared to the unsurpassed-level-of-superiority of our "D" (even those ESPN "GameDay" guys were finally admitting that "Yes, that Florida defense is probably the best in college football right now..." on the BCS-Show last night). Now the focus HAS to be on getting Pease and Driskel (who Pease clearly sees as his "onfield avatar") what THEY need on offense --WRs and O-linemen, obviously--ASAP, which I think WILL be/is being addressed: There are 3 real good WRs already committed for 2013 (to go with Pittman, promising in preseason and practice as a true freshman, plus experienced guys coming back like Dunbar (the closest JD had to a "go-to guy" downfield by the end of THIS year) and speedsters-w/moves Hammond and Patton, both hurt and coming back. That leaves the O-line, where though we DO have some good ones, experienced and not-so-much, coming back, even with 2 or 3 prospective recruits and a juco or two, we'll need at LEAST another couple of "big uglies", potential "studs" somehow found and/or flipped from SOMEWHERE, to give us the kind of strength and depth up front that we THOUGHT we would have THIS season but never really materialized.
Here's the thing, of course: We all can see that if ONLY we can develop the power-pro offense that Muschamp/Pease have in mind, with Joyer and either Taylor and/or Matt Jones in the backfield (Taylor will need some transition/get-up-to-speed+learn-the-playbook time, and Jones has clearly started to "get it" the last few games, a real straight-ahead bulldozer-type, so that eventually we'll be able to put combinations of 1, 2, and/or all 3 in there and just drive the field, "assert our WILL" on some people, especially late in games with-the-lead), forming a formidable running threat with Driskel himself, all the more dangerous when flushed from the pocket--but given time by the O-line (time he hardly EVER had this season) and more comfortable with a stable of receivers who maneuver and/or come back to help him when they ARE covered or he IS having to run around back there (help that he didn't often get this season)--not to mention at least TWO coming in, tall, shifty and fleet-of-foot who are more likely to get behind defenders and go up and get the long ball thrown high--and what we have is a recipe for great success on BOTH sides of the ball.
"If only we had an offense to match this defense--even HALF as good!" was something we heard and/or all THOUGHT as this season wore on. For THIS amazing team, it almost wasn't necessary in order to "get us to the promised land", that "undefeated season" that would have assured us that "Plus One"-spot...But that isn't even the reason we didn't beat UGA, after all: We lost that game because we came out and "laid and EGG", as they say. We turned the ball over SIX TIMES. End of story...Oh, it might have made the difference had we had more scoring offense, overcome all those one-after-another-mistakes, even given us a lead that would have made THEM have to drive-to-tie at the end rather than us--but that wasn't what happened.
By the end of OUR regular season, Friday night, I didn't care WHAT Notre Dame did, I knew, in my heart-of-hearts, that WE were and ARE "The Best College Football Team in America"...I could say that with confidence and certainty for the first time--and it was because of how clearly we were now coming into our own on offense. It actually happened IN THE COURSE OF that game, as I saw it. Pease had a multi-leveled plan for that offense and it worked--masterfully, in the 1st half, but they had trouble in the redzone (again!) and "left points on the field"--a problem for us all season. It came back to haunt us, of course, too...looked like it would BEAT us, be one of the reasons anyway, but then came that stirring response, and we pulled it ALL TOGETHER.
The last 20 clock-minutes or so of that game, AFTER they'd suddenly swept back to take the lead for the first time, our offense just took everything it had learned, practiced and tried, and was now finally able to run it with calm and dazzling precision. Everything we only HALF-accomplished before we were able to start FINISHING properly in that last quarter-and-a-third of our season, and you could see the result: Practically unstoppable.
The day is soon coming when they will grudgingly have to describe our whole football program: "Unstoppable", in every phase of the game--offense, defense, special teams and off-the-field in recruiting, etc. As we all could see THIS year, with a healthy and properly staffed and run Pease/Driskel offense, this Gator team is ready to dominate all of college football. Here we come.
You're damn right--"We WILL be fine..."
As I expand on above, we're gonna be BETTER than "fine": We are about to be GREAT.
What continues to P*SS ME OFF is how so many of the media-face-guys continue to sell us short...you wander if they even saw the game on Saturday...What is more likely, though, is that since they keep trying to focus on the "troubles Florida had had on offense", ignoring that we WON those games--just like the way the teams THEY are so happy with (and choosing as superior to ours in their voting arguments as to who-should-be-ranked-where) won THEIR games, ALL against mediocre-and-WORSE competition--they instead have a private axe-to-grind: They aim to see us PUNISHED by "the human Polls" for "playing down to our competition" and JUST WINNING. This is part of a concerted effort on the part of a certain portion of (mainly West Coast plus Ohio) voters to try and limit the SEC in general and Florida in particular in its National BCS presence. This group were already cranking up the campaign to keep us out of the "Plus One" Championship if Notre Dame had lost, and even NOW hope to see us bumped out of our At Large entry into the Sugar Bowl...at MINIMUM, they want all discussion of our "Toughest Schedule", "Beaten the Best", "Best Defense, Special Teams AND Now Healthy and Solidifying Offense" arguments putting us at the top of a list of at least FOUR (six if LSU and USC(est) are counted, as many will) SEC programs that many (in polls anonymously) now admit "would beat Notre Dame"--and (depending on affiliation) want to see Oregon placed at #3 (with a "claim" for #2 after the SEC Championship Game--they are THINKING about NEXT season's politicking as much as this one's) and/or Ohio State with a claim of #1 in the AP Poll (a claim that is becoming more and more shaky in its grounding with the strangely stubborn ignoring of SEC dominance--clinging to this fiction of OSU superiority as the "other undefeated team"--with a barely-bowl-eligible Michigan team as their "best win"? Notre Dame's claim is "thin"; "The F*ckeyes" claim is a complete fiction).
The biggest "F*ck You All" of everything involves the question of Conference Championship games: Even the media sites are referring to the SEC-Championship in Atlanta as a "semifinal game" for the National Championship...Ohio State is barred from the Big & Slow Ten's (Prohibited from participating...'Cause They CHEATED: Remember, AP???)...Meanwhile, "Independent" Notre Dame PLAYS no "Final"...their "Big Game", much like O-State's, was against a USC team having a bit of an "off" year already, their soon-to-be-1st round-pro QB on-the-sidelines, and Coach Lane Kiffy-Kins showed once again why he is the most over-rated Coach in College Football, this time displaying his typical failure to either prepare a feasible game-plan, or even adapt-to and exploit Notre Dame's weaknesses, or the obvious things they had chosen to concentrate on.
These are the same folks, btw, who picked FSU to "expose Florida"--In a "blind majority" who thought the Moles would beat us "in a close all-defensive struggle", these were part of that small minority who said we'd get beat "handily by an angry, tough and high-flying FSU team"--they merely choose to forget and ignore that now. Interestingly enough, you find them on their own separate channels from the rest, on the "Pac 12" and "Big Ten" ones...What can you say about "experts who are just biased "homers" after all--and what can we DO about it?
The Gators have built up a lot of momentum for next year. Let's not "pull an FSU" and fall flat next year. The Gators beat FSU at the right time--one day before open season on recruiting. This gives the veterans time to reflect on this year and whether or not they want to chase something next year or try the NFL. Right now we have 21 verbals, plus a dozen targets. The one veteran I do not want to lose just yet is Matt Elam. He has done well, but he may go 2nd to 3rd round at best. With another year, he can boost that to 1st or 2nd round. Jelani Jenkins has to compete against several All-SEC and All American players for 1st round status. I honestly do not see him going in the 1st round. Shariff Floyd and Dominique Easley are debatable. With a healthy year behind them, they would definitely go in the 1st or 2nd round.
Update: Jelani Jenkins' injury will keep him out of action until spring training, according to Coach Muschamp.
http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=8677497
This leads me to believe Jenkins must come back next year.
http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=8677497
This leads me to believe Jenkins must come back next year.
He's the one I thought was "most 'gone' for SURE..." See? There's just no way to really know...even now, I'm having trouble squaring this latest news with what I was told just a couple of weeks ago about his plans to be waiting on the expected confirmation from the official post-season NFL "Prospective Draft-position for Juniors"-list of potential high placement...I'm not even clear on how this would FIT with all that now--Does it render it moot, 'cause he may be "damaged goods" and must come back and SHOW that he's all that they were "starting to think he was"?
Frankly, I'd already gotten to the point where I am ready sometimes to throw up my hands and say "F*** IT!" with trying to weigh all the ins'n'outs from an objective POV, AND correlating that with what I read PLUS "what I hear" (and this last can get sort of blinding/distracting/misleading on its own in that I'm sometimes tempted to give it more weight than I have any actual evidence to do JUST BECAUSE it is "inside information", forgetting that I'm STILL getting it 2nd or 3rd hand, even if it IS from a source "inside the Athletic Dept., close to the TEAM").
I'm just trying to figure our future moves and where they are taking us--mostly because (1) I am that much the hyper-Gator fan who wants to know what we're doing to get better ASAP, and (2) It is so hard to evaluate who, how and what is happening with our recruiting, and judging the results "at first blush" come NSD, unless and until you know what is happening with the line-up we already have (or DON'T have, as the case may be).
Theoretically there probably ought to be a "#3" here, I guess, as in "(3) Too much time on my hands"...
These ARE the guys who, after "potential Franchise QBs", will be getting the most lucrative "Rookie 3-year contracts with 1st-round money"--and JJ has, or at least HAD, the prospective possibility of being one of those...Now, we'll see (but of course while I like the kid and wish him well, WANT him to stay one more year, think it may be now in-the-works, and believe (as y'all evidently do) that this will turn out to be likely best for THEM.
