SIX BITS: Donovan on Boynton. Spurrier > Meyer? Johnson to play? Henry honored. More commits.

By Adam Silverstein
November 13, 2009

1 » Florida Gators head basketball coach Billy Donovan is doing his best to keep the pressure off five-star freshman guard Kenny Boynton. “He’s one guy on the team and I hope that our other players want to step up and provide more for him,” Donovan said. “But we are not going into this putting a lot of emphasis on him to make us productive. He’s going to be a good player here, but I think that the expectation that he’s going to be this total impact player is unfair to him.” Boynton has already been impressive in Florida’s two exhibition games and will certainly play a large role when the Gators open the 2009-10 season on Sunday.

2 » OGGOA makes it a point to not direct you to many of Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi’s columns. Why? Well, our mothers always told us that if you do not have something nice to say, don’t say anything. That being said, when he decides to write a column proclaiming loudly that South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier is “still a greater Gator” than head coach Urban Meyer, we feel like it is something you should check out and decide for yourself.

3 » On Wednesday, Spurrier told the media that injured defensive end Cliff Matthews, who had previously been ruled out with a shoulder injury, could return to face Florida on Saturday. Matthews ran around at practice on Monday and has been cleared by doctors, yet coaches are still calling him a game-time decision. “Even if he does play, [defensive coordinator Ellis] Johnson said there will be small, specialized packages for him. In other words, don’t expect a fully healthy, ready-to-go Matthews,” The Post and Courier reported Friday.

Three more BITS on Henry and a bunch of new UF commitments after the jump…

4 » Florida punter Chas Henry has been named one of 10 semifinalists for the 2009 Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate punter. Also a semifinalist in 2008, Henry has punted 25 times for 1,072 yards (42.9 average) this season. Prior to last week’s game against the Vanderbilt Commodores, Henry had not had any of his punts returned for a single yard in 2009.

5 » Eight more student-athletes have joined the ranks of the Orange and Blue over the past few days, each seemingly more talented than the next. The baseball team has brought in hard-throwing right-handed pitcher Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, FL), who committed on the first day of the early signing period Wednesday night. Big and strong, he hits the low 90s on his fastball and has an impressive curveball and strong bat. Florida tennis jumped on Andre Butz (Vero Beach, FL), a lifelong Gators fan who verbally committed in September and made it official on Thursday. Butz went 19-0 last season and won the state singles title.

6 » On the women’s side, the Gators’ superb gymnastics team got even better, signing what is described as a “tremendous class of gymnastics talent” by GatorZone. Three U.S. National Team members – MacKenzie Caquatto, Kytra Hunter and Alaina Johnson – join Marissa King (Great Britain), Liz Green and Brittney Noble in the 2010 class. “We genuinely feel, with the combination of all of these exceptional athletes, that from top to bottom this is the strongest recruiting class we’ve ever had at the University of Florida,” head coach Rhonda Faehn said.

2 Comments

  1. O-town Gator says:

    Unfortunately, I live in Orlando and am forced to deal with those hacks who write for the “Slantinel”, as we locals call it. Based on the fact that Bianchi was “booed” by everybody attending the Gator Country Caravan when it stopped in my town this past summer, it seemed to make clear everybody’s sentiment.

    If there’s one thing about the Internet that I’m grateful for, it’s the ability to obtain the news from more trustworthy sites.

  2. Gatorfan33 says:

    Spurrier will always have a place in UF history but he hasn’t done nearly what Meyer has done in such a short time or overall.

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