First basketball player I've seen since Larry Legend that's just flat out fun to watch play the game.

The sneaky inside passing assists and the full court throw assists of a Bird.
The snap quick getting off of accurate shots. From under the basket, and from the out to the logo 3's of a Stephen Curry.
With rebound numbers that amount to getting triple doubles.

jusdamn....

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As news spreads about Dallas Wilson’s flip from Oregon to Florida it’s important to note Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia’s words paraphrased here: Florida is the only program in the country to bring in three receivers in the Top 100 and three of the top 11 receivers nationally. An incredible haul.

While praise rightly falls on Billy Napier, it’s past time to give Gator receivers coach Billy G his due. Gonzales is a recruiting liability, some detractors assert. Well, evidence swings hard the other way. Last year we gained Chimere Dike and then Elijhah Badger. Now three incoming major prospects.

And if anyone is concerned about our likelihood of striking gold in the transfer portal keep in mind the pull to talented receivers already cited and just arriving. With a far more experienced DJ Lagway behind Jake Slaughter and his OL mates we’ll see more passing and with more accuracy at short and intermediate depths next season. The addition of Dallas Wilson seems to be another sign of what awaits.

So glad this guy is the leader of my team. Tebow got put in some really good spots his freshman year behind Leak. Danny got redshirted his freshman year. But looking at what DJ had to do in his true freshman season against the schedule we had was insane. And I would not be shocked if he stays here all 4 years.

Gators Gymnastics Season Opens Friday

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Florida gymnastics starts the 2025 season this Friday. Preseason No. 3 Florida opens the campaign with a home quad versus preseason No. 11 Michigan State, No. 23 Nebraska and Northern Illinois for GNV & Club Gym Night presented by Cox.

The meet starts at 6:45 p.m. in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center<https://www.oconnellcenter.ufl.edu/events/gymnastics-vs-michigan-state-nebraska-northern-illinois/>. Gates open at 5:30 p.m.

About Friday's Meet:
Friday's meet is the season opener for Florida and Northern Illinois. Michigan State opened with a 196.85 - 194.675 home dual meet win over Western Michigan on Saturday. Nebraska opened with a 194.475 to take fourth at Saturday's American Gold Collegiate Gymnastics Classic in Nashville versus No. 1 Oklahoma (197.55), No. 17 Auburn (195.55) and BYU (194.625).

Friday's quad includes two defending regular-season conference champions. Florida won its sixth consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season title in 2024 with a 6-1 record. Michigan State took its second straight Big Ten regular-season title with a 9-0 record and then claimed its first Big Ten Championships meet title at the 2024 league event in East Lansing, Mich. This is Florida's first opening meet versus a top-15 team since its 197.50-195.725 win at then No. 14 Auburn to begin the 2021 campaign.

Arrive Early to Cheer Your Gators
Be in your Exactech Arena seat by 6:45 p.m. to take in the new floor projection show which leads into the Gators first entrance for the 2025 campaign.

Here's some tips to expedite your trip to the Exactech Arena Friday:

Getting TO the Arena:

* Season parking holders can enter the O'Connell Center lot off Lemerand Drive OR SW 2nd Avenue.
* A complimentary parking shuttle transports fans from which originates at Garage 109 (located at corner of Archer Road and Lemerand Drive to the O'Connell Center. The parking shuttle begins at 5 p.m. Parking map for Gator Gymnastics<https://floridagators.com/sports/2015/12/10/_facilities_parking_gymnastics_.aspx>.
* Use the Waze app<https://www.waze.com/live-map/directions?to=ll.29.6517704,-82.3508596> to provide the best route to parking shuttle.
* Check the Parking Lot Availability Tracker<https://floridagators.com/sports/2015/12/10/_facilities_parking_gymnastics_.aspx> to see your options in real time.
* For 5-10 minutes following Gator gymnastics meets, Lemerand Drive will close for north and south bound traffic from University Avenue to Stadium Road to provide pedestrians a safe exit.
* More information at 2025 Meet Guide<https://floridagators.com/sports/2015/12/10/_gameday_gymnastics_.aspx>


Getting IN the Arena:

* To get tickets ahead of Friday's meet, visit the FloridaGators.com ticket site<https://floridagators.com/sports/2015/12/10/_tickets_gymnastics_.aspx> or stop by the Gator Ticket Office (open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.).
* Gates 1 and 2 will be open for each gymnastics meet. UF students should enter at Gate 3.
* Check out the Exactech Arena's new apparatus layout for 2025 season<https://floridagators.com/sports/2024/2/21/gymnastics-tickets.aspx>.
* All Gator Athletics tickets are mobile. Visit Mobile Ticketing Guide<https://spark.adobe.com/page/0oiC6OLlbeGQN/> to help expediate your entrance into the arena. To help zip through the entrance, be sure to add your tickets to your digital wallet in case of possible connectivity issues outside the gate. Then have tickets up on device to present for scanning.
* Bags are checked before entering the building. Everyone will go through the O'Connell Center metal detectors when entering. When using the metal detectors fans need to empty their pockets prior to screening, then walk through the detector. After that, tickets will be scanned and then you are ready to cheer your Gators!

Friday's Promotions:

* New Look for Your Lunch Bag - First 500 children age 12 & under receive a Gator gymnastics lunch bag!
* Gate 1 Giveaways - Be sure to pick up 2025 Gators Gymnastics season poster, schedule magnet and 10.0 fan cards when you enter at O'Connell Center Gate 1.
* O2B Kid's Corner - Located on the Practice Courts near Gate 4, kids can get free giveaways, temporary tattoos, play games, make posters, meet the mascots & Dazzlers, and more!

How to Follow the Gators:
Follow the action live:

* SEC Network +<https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/1c8cd491-13f4-497e-b186-f3a757e22c09> - action called by Kyle Crooks and Gator gymnastics alumnae Stacey Abbott Gleim.
* Live scores

The 2025 Gators:

* The 19-member 2025 Gator team includes a national high eight All-Americans with 50 All-America honors. Nineteen team members is the highest in the program's history.
* UF returns all 24 routines from its 2024 NCAA team final performance (fourth-place finish).
* Two All-Americans - Ellie Lazzari and Victoria Nguyen - are back as Super Seniors.
* The senior class includes Bri Edwards and a trio of All-Americans - Sloane Blakely, Riley McCusker and Leanne Wong. Wong is the defending NCAA uneven bars champion.
* The junior class doubled in size this summer. Joining Lori Brubach in the class is All-American Selena Harris-Miranda, who joins the Gators after competing at UCLA the last two seasons.
* The Gators biggest class are the seven sophomores - Alyssa Arana, Kaylee Bluffstone, Gabby Disidore, Skylar Draser, Danie Ferris and All-American Anya Pilgrim. Returning to the Gators after a gap year to pursue a 2024 Olympic berth is All-American and 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year Kayla DiCello.
* It's a freshmen quad for the Gators in 2025 - Skye Blakely (Frisco, Texas), Lily Bruce (Kingwood, Texas) and Taylor Clark (Orange Park, Fla.). Ly Bui, who signed with Florida in November, finished high school early and enrolled at UF for the spring 2025 semester.
* Of the 16 gymnastics earning a spot in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials<https://usagym.org/usa-gymnastics-announces-rosters-for-2024-olympic-team-trials-gymnastics/>, seven are on 2025 collegiate rosters. Florida's three - Skye Blakely, DiCello and Wong - leads all as no other program has more than one. Blakely< Login to view embedded media > and DiCello< Login to view embedded media > suffered Achilles tears at Olympic Trials and were unable to compete. Wong was named a replacement athlete and traveled to Paris for the 2024 Summer Games.
* A national-high four among the 2025 Gators earned World Championship' individual or team medals for the U.S. -Skye Blakely (2022 and 2022 team gold), DiCello (2021 AA bronze; 2023 team gold), McCusker (2018 team gold) and Wong (2021 AA silver; 2022 team gold, 2023 team gold)
* Seven Gators have been a part of U.S. Senior national teams - Sloane Blakely (2018-19), Skye Blakely (2021, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25), Bui (2024), DiCello (2019-20, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025), McCusker (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2021), Nguyen (2016-17), Wong (2018-19, 2019-20, 2021, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25)
* Five Gators own collegiate bests of 10.0 -Sloane Blakely (floor), DiCello (bars), Harris-Miranda (vault, bars), Pilgrim (floor) and Wong (vault, bars, beam, floor)

Florida in 2024:
Florida placed fourth in the Gators' 40th NCAA Championships' appearance in 2024. Florida claimed its sixth consecutive Southeastern Conference regular season in 2024.

Two Gators turned in three 10.0 marks - Anya Pilgrim (floor) and Leanne Wong (uneven bars / floor). Wong's 10.0 floor mark concluded her Gym Slam (a 10.0 on each event). Florida added two this season with collegiate 10.0s on their competitive resumes. Sophomore Kayla DiCello earned two uneven bars 10.0s as a Gator freshman in 2023. She took a gap year in 2024 to train for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Junior Selena Harris-Miranda, the 2024 Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year, earned five 10.0s while with UCLA - four on vault and one on bars. She transferred to Florida last summer.

So much to look forward to in ‘25.

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interesting.

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Posted on the UF parent FB page tonight. These girls pay for everything on their own and do not get funding from the school.


Hi Gators & Gator families!
On behalf of University of Florida Club Cheerleading, we would like to thank you all for your support during this difficult time as we navigate recovering and replacing our stolen uniforms. At this time I cannot provide an update on the situation, but we have been working with alumni to secure borrowed uniforms from those who have graduated while we wait for our vendor to get back to us on a new production timeline and getting replacements out.

We are unsure at this time if the program will have to pay for new uniforms in full. As a student-run organization, our athletes pay for everything out of pocket with minimal assistance from RecSports. We are always looking for ways to alleviate the amount athletes pay out of pocket each season. This year, we have decided to set up an Amazon registry for some items that we will use at NCA college nationals in April and provide for all program athletes in their end-of-year goodie bag. By purchasing items on this list, athletes will benefit directly, and the club will be able to allocate more money directly to athletes to reduce their balaces owed for NCA Nationals (~$500 per athlete!). Again, we are incredibly appreciative of the support we have received from Gator Nation, and we will provide updates as they come via this post.

P.S. If you are a parent within our program, please don't show your athlete the Amazon registry! We want to keep some of these goodies a surprise 😉

Thank you so much, and Go Gators! 🐊
- University of Florida Club Cheerleading

Venmo: UF-Club-Cheer

Good news

New transfer QB commit from Charlotte. What do we know about this guy?

It’s his first Pro Bowl. Good for him!

By Carlton Reese
GatorBaitMedia.com Columnist

She told him she loved him and that they were soul mates, and like a fool he believed her. The next day she informed the poor lad that her ex-boyfriend was the proud owner of a winning lottery ticket and all of a sudden those old feelings had come back.

She said she was sorry that it turned out this way, but “perhaps we could still be friends.” Then, she moves in with her new beau right next door, a daily pouring of the salt into that fresh wound.

A better man would understand and make sense of it all from a logical perspective, perhaps even wish her the best of fortune as she embarks on this new life. But he is not the better man – he is a human being of this world that instead understands callous rejection and hypocrisy. His hope is that she and her man someday slide under a gas truck and if not that, at least blow through all his winnings in a year and wind up destitute.

Yes, this serves as a metaphor for the relationship between Gator Nation, the man, and Jack Pyburn, the pursued, and the lottery winner, LSU.

College football devotees had better get used to it – the game is now a breeding ground for the 21st Century relationship betrayal. Were it a romantic comedy, all would end well and be forgiven, but this is something far more insidious.

With “Name, Image and Likeness,” college football players enjoy their own special OnlyFans accounts, floozy caricatures in shoulder pads raking in insane wealth from whomever is fool enough to throw money at them.

College football grew into this country’s most popular and compelling sport without NIL and transfer portals yet seems to be headed straight for the red-light district with NIL and transfer portals.

Many Gator fans are downright pissed at Jack Pyburn and it is not simply because he transferred. No, Pyburn played the role beautifully for UF: claiming to bleed orange and blue and laying it all on the line on Saturday to prove as much. He played the right way and said the right things that endeared him to Gator fans everywhere – behind D.J. Lagway, Pyburn had become a favorite.

Others transfer and not a peep can be heard. Pyburn had worked hard to ingratiate himself with the fans and it worked – kids were clamoring for No. 44 jerseys because of their new idol. On the field, Pyburn’s play helped lead a resurgence of what was once a pitiful defense.

Were Pyburn’s transfer about being homesick or out of position or philosophical differences with the coaching staff, or even just a change of scenery folks would understand. Perhaps he wanted to change his major to something not offered at UF? Silly notion, indeed – is the guy even a student?

The rumors flew that Pyburn was asking for $45,000 per month and wanted to be able to dictate the terms of his playing time. If true, and Pyburn has yet to deny this, LSU can take him with UF’s blessing and everyone in Gainesville can burn those No. 44 jerseys.

What Pyburn has done is let money, or at least more money, dictate a major life decision. For money, he has chosen to play for Brian Kelly. That’s right, Brian Kelly, a man hated more by his own players than those going against him on Saturdays. Good luck with that, Jack.

Pyburn, like everyone else, has the right to pursue as many dollars as he wishes in whatever endeavor he wishes. But there are consequences, and among them is his lifelong status as a true Gator, something that can’t be bought in a store.

Former Gator players, true Gators, can’t buy their own drinks – once recognized, their money is no good. It truly is special to be one who ran through the tunnel on Saturdays at The Swamp and they are not forgotten. But turn your back on the orange and blue faithful and you become persona non grata.

One year in Baton Rouge (one that won’t likely turn out the way he wishes) and Pyburn will not enter any sort of Tigers pantheon. He is a mere drifter, a mercenary there to do a job and pick up a check. The love he had in Gainesville will not be waiting for him in Baton Rouge.

On that end, Pyburn could have transferred to Colorado or Michigan State or any innocuous university in the nether regions of the sport, and many would have shaken his hand and wished him luck, even thanked him for his time in Gainesville. But he will now play for LSU, a hated rival, one the Gators will face next September. This reeks of spite, and in return spite he shall receive.

Pyburn enjoyed his best year at UF in 2024, and like any free agent this was a sign to shop around. In baseball, there is that contract year where one puts up big numbers and the offers come pouring in – take the money and run. Unfortunately, every season in college football is now a contract year – put up big numbers then shop around and go elsewhere. That’s what Pyburn did, and there are more coming down the pike.

As a player, Pyburn is very good. He’s not great. At least not great enough to make the demands he is alleged to have made. Perhaps an agent is making decisions for him, or his father – who knows? It could be the Mahatma advising him and it still would not change the justified resentment of this kid who will now have his character questioned by everyone. What motivates him? Do relationships matter in his life? Is the whole “team player” thing an act?

Pyburn made 60 tackles including one sack (against the worst pass-blocking team in the universe) and an interception in 2024. Decent numbers, but he wants more and believes that in a different scheme with different opportunities he can register more of those highlight-reel sacks that one parlays into even bigger money at the next level. Where in there is the motivation to helping a team win?

Perhaps it is unfair to go after Pyburn, still a college kid. Several years ago, there would be no argument on that point. But in the year 2024 and with the money flowing into these kids’ pockets, the gloves come off and all must take it like professionals. Bonehead mistake – drink in the boos; dogging it on a play – drink in the boos; lose too much – face the chopping block just as the coach. Make ridiculous financial and playing-time demands – feel the wrath of the scribes.


These are dark times, but ones for which many people begged. It was unfair that a player had to watch others make money when it was his number fans wanted on their jersey. So “Name, Image and Likeness” was created, but alas it was all a ruse. Under such a benign moniker as NIL, the pandora’s box of abject professionalism has been opened. The scholarship athlete has been replaced by the mercenary athlete, there for the highest bidder at any time and any place.


In the future, there will be stories of former college athletes who made a small fortune and now have absolutely nothing to show for it. Prepare for the inevitable cry that they were victimized, used by a system as pawns and spit out all for the glory and riches of the institutions. It’s an old saw, one you know doubt recognize, but one that isn’t going away just because NIL has now replaced the NCAA.


Trevor Etienne is a Georgia Bulldog and Jack Pyburn is an LSU Tiger. Steve Spurrier is a Florida Gator and so is Errict Rhett and Danny Wuerffel and Scot Brantley and Wes Chandler and Jack Youngblood and anyone else that earned a place as a true Gator through thick and thin. May it always be so.

Asked several times and nobody seems to have an answer. Will he possibly come back next season since he played all of 2 1/2 quarters for us.

What has surprised you so far if anything? Obviously, everyone's going to say the ACC. Are you surprised by this? This was prior to BYU game finishing.

1. American: 5-1 with 2 bowl games remaining

2. Big Ten: 4-2 with 8 bowl games remaining
MAC: 4-2 with 1 bowl game remaining

4. Big 12: 3-2 with 4 bowl games remaining

5. SEC: 4-3 with 7 bowl games remaining

6. Sun Belt: 3-3 with 1 bowl game remaining

7. Conference USA: 1-2 with 2 bowl games remaining

8. Mountain West: 1-3 with 1 bowl game remaining

9. ACC: 1-9 with 3 bowl games remaining

10. Pac-12: 0-1 with 0 bowl games remaining

I spoke to Nelly earlier today at noon - while we were on the phone I got the message to keep an eye on this kid. Now, he has tweeted the Gators offered.

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