Chomping At Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find. Got a link we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB.

Florida lacrosse plays in Final Four at 5:30: The Gators have revenge on Syracuse on their minds. Meanwhile, our Syracuse blog is trying to rally the troops to get a cheering section going at Stony Brook. (Scott Carter, GatorZone | Sean Keeley, Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician)

Joanna Mather's stellar career coming to an end: She doesn't get all the ink, but she was integral to Florida tennis' back-to-back titles. (Chris Harry, Harry Fodder | GatorZone)

Women's golf rallies at NCAA Championship: Being "tied for 11th" sounds way better than being "15 shots back of first." But the Gators could get a top-10 or even a top-five finish with a strong third round. (GatorZone)

Three Gators already set for NCAA Outdoor Track Championships: Many more could follow on Friday. (GatorZone)

Yes, baseball lost: But I'm writing that recap for a little later this morning.

As always: Talk about any and all of this and/or anything else you have to say in the comments. Need more Alligator Army in your life? Like AA on Facebook, follow AA on Twitter, and download the SB Nation Android app to take all of our Gators content — and the rest of SB Nation — with you on the go.

Last year, we tried 50 For 50, and got halfway done before things cropped up. This year, Alligator Army is coming back with 100 For 100, a countdown that begins today, with 100 days remaining to the first Florida Gators football game of the 2012 season, and will run down storylines, profile players, examine history, and make some predictions, possibly all haphazardly. The only thing we can promise is that each day's entry will bring us all one step closer to "Herrrrrrrrre ... come the Gators!"

Having two quarterbacks as talented as Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel would be a boon for nearly every FBS team. For Florida, it's a problem.

No one really and truly knows whether Driskel is better than Brissett or vice versa — right now, picking between the two is an aesthetic choice more than anything, with Brissett's calmer, less spectacular play from last year contrasting nicely with Driskel's athleticism and big play potential. And the two quarterbacks working on adding things to their games in the spring, with Driskel playing the role of patient pocket passer much better and Brissett taking more chances, makes them even harder to distinguish from each other.

Chances are that one of them will eventually pan out. Quarterbacks usually do at Florida: Since Steve Spurrier made Shane Matthews an NFL-caliber player, Florida quarterbacks have won two Heisman Trophies and three national championships, started in a Super Bowl, beaten Florida State by running Spurrier's offense to perfection (Doug Johnson, Eric Kresser, Noah Brindise) and running the 'Noles over (I think you can guess this one), and been John Brantley. Only the latter is a truly ignoble existence.

But as countless examples have shown, when you have two quarterbacks, you really don't have one, unless you're able to use them situationally like Chris Leak and Tim Tebow were in 2006. Driskel and Brissett each have their fans, and probably each have their supporters on the team, and they claim to be friends ... and they can't both start.

One guy has to show he can make all the throws into tight windows that playing against SEC defenses requires. One guy has to be the sort of assiduous keeper of the ball to avoid the turnovers that Will Muschamp hates. One guy has to lead a young offense that will be looking to make a mark with a new system under Brent Pease.

That guy asserting himself as early as possible this fall would be a boost to Florida's chances of competing for an SEC title. But I have no idea who it will be.

As Phil Steele's annual list of preseason all-conference teams continues to get released, it was just a matter of time until it was the SEC's turn. Well, the list is out in PDF form and their are ten Gators on it. Eleven if you want to count Andre Debose twice, who made the list at two different positions.

The Gators placed one on the first-team, five on the second-team, two on the third team and four on the fourth-team. While up there with the top teams in the conference in terms of total numbers, the lack of first-team members is glaring considering that just a few years ago the Gators used to dominate the list.

And people tell me that change is a good thing.

More on how the Gators fared after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

For the Florida Gators it's win or go home. Well, for the most part anyway.

Both the men's and women's track and field teams are in Jacksonville, Florida today for the NCAA East Preliminary round of the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

For a men's team that had championship aspirations at the beginning of the outdoor season, it's basically the end of the line. They aren't winning the National Championship without Gray Horn, who will miss these qualifiers due to an act of individual stupidity. There is some good news though, as Jeff Demps is back and ready to go.

The women's team on the other hand, has a chance. It's a small chance, but a chance nonetheless. But we'll get more in-depth into that subject a little later on.

Today marks the first of three-days in which athletes can qualify for the 2012 NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa that begin on June 6th.

As always, schedule of events and viewing information after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Chomping At Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find. Got a link we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB.

Patric Young, working hard: There's a touch too much "I am leading this team" in this entry for me (show, don't tell), but Young says Florida basketballs's "headed in the right direction" in its offseason workouts. (Patric Young, The Gator Grind)

Kevin Sumlin, Will Muschamp trade barbs: Muschamp joked that College Station is a crap burrito (I'm paraphrasing); Sumlin fired back that Muschamp needs to worry about his own team. But is College Station a crap burrito? (Adam Silverstein, Only Gators)

Florida baseball gets Vanderbilt tonight: A spate of upsets in the SEC Tournament has made the Gators' road to a second straight tournament title easier, but the 'Dores are white-hot. (GatorZone)

Florida tennis in NCAA singles play: The national championship-winning women went undefeated on Wednesday, while the men lost just one player, and saw Bob van Overbeek upset the nation's No. 8 seed. Nassim Sillam plays the nation's top player on Thursday. (GatorZone | GatorZone)

As always: Talk about any and all of this and/or anything else you have to say in the comments. Need more Alligator Army in your life? Like AA on Facebook, follow AA on Twitter, and download the SB Nation Android app to take all of our Gators content — and the rest of SB Nation — with you on the go.

National Signing Day is a little over eight months away, so it's a little crazy to be talking about who will finish off Florida's Class of 2013. But with 16 players already committed -- eight on offense and eight on defense (we’ll count Marqui Hawkins as a wide receiver for now) -- it's a legitimate topic.

The Gators will likely sign somewhere between 22 and 25 prospects this cycle, leaving six to eight spots left for a number of players still highly interesting in Florida.

Who will round out this class for the Gators? Will Muschamp will have some time to evaluate and arrange his board, considering he already has more than half of this class wrapped up (although he has to continue recruiting the committed players).

After the jump, we’ll take a look at who’s left and who gets in.

Continue reading this post »

Chomping At Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find. Got a link we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB.

Will Muschamp knows how to make Gators fans happy:

Fan asks what Will Muschamp has planned for Mark Richt. "A loss," Muschamp says. #Gators

— Rachel George (@OS_RachelGeorge) May 22, 2012

Florida in Montrezl Harrell's top four: Am I hoping for Dorian Finney-Smith or Damontre Harris because I have a clue what their names sound like? Yes. (Kevin Brockway, Hoops Scoop | The Gainesville Sun)

Did Tim Walton do the right thing? Pat Dooley's probably heard the same things I have about Florida softball (which now go well beyond what has been reported here, though the veracity of rumor is tough to ascertain), but he thinks Walton did what he did for the best of the team. Do you? (Pat Dooley, The Gainesville Sun)

Florida men's tennis begins NCAA Tournament individual play: No Gators rank among the tournament favorites. (GatorZone)

Women's golf in NCAA Championship play: But the Gators are 18th after the first round, and are 16 strokes back of Alabama. (GatorZone)

As always: Talk about any and all of this and/or anything else you have to say in the comments. Need more Alligator Army in your life? Like AA on Facebook, follow AA on Twitter, and download the SB Nation Android app to take all of our Gators content — and the rest of SB Nation — with you on the go.

Florida's women's tennis team needed to win its last matches against Stanford in the 2011 NCAA Tournament final and Duke in Monday's 2012 NCAA Tournament Final Four to win those dramatic contests. Today, the Gators dispensed with the drama and opted for dominance, sweeping UCLA 4-0 for the program's second consecutive national title and sixth overall.

As usual, Lauren Embree provided the day's biggest thrill. But after battling back to win Florida's final singles point against Stanford in 2011 and helping fend off Duke on Monday, the junior's Tuesday went relatively smoothly: she and doubles partner Joanna Mather didn't even need to finish their match, with the pairings of Allie Will and Sofie Oyen and Alex Cercone and Caroline Hitimana taking their doubles matches to give the Gators the doubles point, and then Embree blitzed McCall Jones 6-4, 6-0 to clinch the Gators' title.

Cercone and Oyen won their singles matches to put Embree in position to clinch, and Embree wasn't the only Gator still with a chance to win a match, after Mather and Olivia Janowicz forced third sets in their singles contests. But Embree's victory made those matches, and Will's likely loss in No. 1 singles play, moot; gave the Gators their second national title of the calendar and academic year, following men's indoor track; and earned her a second consecutive NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player award.

Women's tennis' six national titles leads all Florida sports, and the title gives the Gators 28 national championships across NCAA, AIAW, and FBS .Florida has won 19 national titles since the hiring of Jeremy Foley as athletic director in 1992, coaches hired by Foley have 12 of the 19 titles in that span, and eight different programs have claimed national titles under his watchful eye.