Florida Gators Bait & Bits: Treon Harris, Chris Walker, Brandone Francis, SEC, and UF News
By Brett Kaplan
Welcome to Bait & Bits, a series on Hail Florida Hail that will feature one “bait” about an opposing school and some bits about the Florida Gators. Have any links that you want on Bait & Bits? Tweet it at us @HailFloridaHail, @BrettKaplan13, or @TLane4Real or email it to us at BrettKaplanHFH@gmail.com.
Bait
South Carolina Soccer. The Gators looks to sweep the week in the Palmetto state Thursday night as the fifth-ranked soccer team heads to Columbia to face the Gamecocks. Florida’s looking for revenge after last season’s 2-1 OT defeat at the hands of South Carolina. That loss was the soccer program’s first home league overtime loss since 2004. Now, Florida will get a chance for revenge as they play on South Carolina’s turf. UF was picked to win the SEC, while USC was chosen to finish third. Match starts at 7 pm on the SEC Network. (GatorZone)
Bits
Can Treon Harris be the Hero? A lot’s been said about Treon Harris saving the Gators’ season, but let’s be honest: He’s completed 4-of-7 passes on the year and has only really played a quarter of meaningful time. Yes, two of those completed passes went for touchdowns, but it was against a horrific Eastern Michigan secondary in mop-up duty. He’s only been on campus for three months. Let’s not pin the entire season on the talented freshman’s arm (or legs). A rough day could kill his confidence for the next three years. (David Jones, Florida Today)
Gators SEC Championship Hopes Still Alive. We wrote about this last week, but things aren’t entirely terrible in Gainesville. Florida still has a shot at the SEC East and controls its own destiny. Games that didn’t seem winnable at the beginning of the season certainly look a little easier now starting this week with Mizzou. Georgia possibly without Todd Gurley and a severely struggling South Carolina team look like possible wins down the road. (Richard Johnson, The Florida Times-Union)
Florida’s Rushing Struggles. Once considered the strength of the Gators’ offense, the rushing attack has been less than stellar in the past few weeks. (Nick de la Torre, GatorCountry)
Lito Sheppard Get Another Shot at Mr. Two Bits. You may remember he was supposed to be Mr. Two Bits for the Idaho game, but that didn’t really go as planned. Glad to see they were able to schedule him again. (Chris Harry, GatorZone)
2015 Football Schedule Released. No real surprises on it as we knew Florida’s SEC West rotation back in July, but it’ll be good to see Ole Miss back in The Swamp on October 3rd. It’s also nice to see Tennessee back in September. What’s not nice is not having two BYE weeks again. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)
Chris Walker Suspended for Florida’s First Three Games. Probably the most talented player on the Gators basketball squad, Chris Walker, will be suspended for the first three games of the season due to a violation of team rules. You may remember Walker also missed most of last season for receiving improper benefits. Billy Donovan says, “He’s got a long way to go as far as being reliable, accountable, and disciplined.” Sounds a lot like Scottie Wilbekin last season when he was suspended for the first five games. He turned out just fine. Florida’s front court will miss him, however, against William & Mary, Miami, and Louisiana-Monroe. I think they should be able to navigate that schedule unscathed. (Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel)
Five-star freshman Brandon Francis Academically Ineligible. More bad news for the Gator basketball team. Billy Donovan announced highly touted shooting guard Brandone Francis will sit out the 2014-15 season after being ruled academically ineligible. The good news is Florida has decent back court depth. (Andy Hutchins, Alligator Army)
Basketball’s New Unis. We also got a look at the minor changes with the basketball road uniforms. I can’t say I like these more. (Andy Hutchins, Alligator Army)
Ranking the Top-15 College Basketball Coaches. Billy D comes in at number six. I think that’s way too low. Nobody’s done more with less than Donovan. (Daniel D. Zillmer, FanSided)
Volleyball Stays Perfect in Conference. Not only did Florida stay a perfect 7-0 in SEC play with Wednesday night’s 3-1 win over South Carolina, but it ran its winning streak to eight straight. This team could be special come tournament time, but aren’t all Mary Wise squads special? (GatorZone)
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive to Step Down. Unfortunately, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive has decided to retire in July 2015, after the academic school year. Slive has had unprecedented success as the commissioner of likely the top conference in college sports. SEC teams have won an incredible 67 national championships in 15 of the 21 SEC sanctioned sports during his tenure, since 2002.. Florida won 16 of those national titles over eight sports. Slive decided to retire because of a recurrence of prostate cancer. We wish him nothing but the best. (SEC)
UF Selects New President. The University of Florida finally chose current President Bernie Machen’s successor and he’s impressive. President-elect W. Kent Fuchs has spent the past six years as provost of Ivy League Cornell and really has an impressive resume. Nice job by UF to get it right (from the looks of it). (UF)