Florida

Kelby Collins Describes Florida vs. Alabama Recruitment, Fit With Gators

Published

2 years ago

December 29, 2022

Kelby Collins Describes Florida vs. Alabama Recruitment, Fit With Gators

ORLANDO, Fla. — Kelby Collins did not draw back from the stress utilized to his Florida dedication by Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide, requested concerning the nature of his recruitment throughout the media day forward of January’s Beneath Armour All-America Sport.

Neither did Gators head coach Billy Napier on the day Collins’ Nationwide Letter of Intent made its option to Gainesville.

“I might be mendacity to you if I did not suppose it was an uphill battle all the time,” Napier admitted on Dec. 21 after Collins had formally signed with UF.

Collins, a local of Gardendale, Ala., dedicated to UF in August and was instantly considered as a number one expertise in Florida’s haul of recruits. That did not cease Saban, infamous for poaching pledges earlier than signing day, together with colleges like Georgia from prying for the defensive lineman’s companies up till the very finish.

“It was onerous, I am not even gonna lie,” Collins expressed on Thursday. “Rising up as a Bama fan, it was onerous turning down Nick Saban and [defensive line] coach [Freddie] Roach. However I really feel like that was the perfect for me.”

Nevertheless, the loyalty Florida exhibited to Collins by the thick of his recruitment finally paid off. Particularly, his relationship with personnel assistant Chase Clark that crossed over from Dan Mullen’s workers to Napier’s went a great distance.

Having no challenge along with his return to Tuscaloosa for November’s Iron Bowl matchup between Alabama and Auburn, the Gators remained in Collins’ ear up till the incomes signing interval — pitching a management function on and off the sphere — and had been in a position to safe his signature consequently.

“Simply their pitch to me and simply how loyal they have been. Since my official go to they’ve proven a whole lot of love,” Collins shared about UF.

“You realize, they’ve made me their primary recruiter, so I imply, I helped get a few of these guys. They only entrusted me with among the stuff that they do on the program early on, even earlier than I signed. So I believe that spoke volumes and that is what saved me dedicated.”

In Collins, Florida is receiving a participant that the teaching workers believes could make an instantaneous and vital impression. He is considered one of 5 defensive linemen to signal with UF after depth points up entrance plagued the Gators’ protection in 2022.

Attrition solely amplified these challenges when Gervon Dexter declared for the NFL Draft and two linemen entered the switch portal in December.

Collins emerged as a nationwide recruit after a 60-tackle freshman marketing campaign, incomes presents from seven SEC colleges earlier than his sophomore yr started. He went on to complete his highschool profession with 239 tackles, 27 sacks, 47.5 tackles for loss and 4 pressured fumbles in 31 video games.

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“You simply flip the tape on,” Napier asserted throughout the early signing interval, “[Collins is] one of many extra polished, ready-to-play gamers within the nation.

“Simply essentially superior, 6-[foot]-4, 260 kilos, and actually a violent participant, performs with effort … he is been a frontrunner on this class and definitely, he’ll be right here in January and definitely a man I imagine is in prime place to be a distinction maker.”

Collins agrees and is not taking the chance in entrance of him calmly.

He plans to enroll at Florida on Jan. 7 and instantly get to work along with his new defensive position teammates earlier than spring camp will get underway. As soon as it does, he intends to battle for the numerous function that Napier envisions him inside.

“My mindset is I am prepared to come back take spots,” Collins said. “I am coming in, you understand, able to work onerous. First day on campus, you understand, I am gonna get with my D-line and we’re simply gonna work out, do some drills, stuff like that. Simply get to be taught one another’s playstyles and actually begin that connection.”

The Gators view Collins as a “true edge,” he stated, with the flexibility to play defensive finish, shades of defensive sort out and even occasional reps as a standing JACK outdoors linebacker. He’ll doubtless settle in as a five-technique much like Princely Umanmielen‘s function with snaps to come back as an inside rusher at not more than 275 kilos.

“They need me to have the ability to transfer round slightly bit. You realize, cease the run when want be and in addition be capable of get after the quarterback. And in addition set the sting, you understand, a whole lot of guys, they really feel like cannot actually do this proper now as a result of they are not as lengthy or as athletic. So, they really feel like I can are available in and do this fairly early.”

Florida’s 2023 recruiting class is taken into account foundational. Positions of want had been focused in abundance and Collins’s acquisition is an ideal instance of that technique, as he is set to set management examples and make performs alongside the Gators’ defensive position for years to come back.

Powerhouses like Alabama and Georgia typically signal these sorts of gamers. Collins is likely one of the few prospects who broke that pattern.

“I believe Kelby sees alternative, and he is a man that is keen to be completely different,” Napier stated. “I believe that is what it takes generally.”

Keep tuned to All Gators for steady protection of Florida Gators soccer, basketball and recruiting. Observe alongside on social media at @AllGatorsOnFN on Twitter and All Gators on FanNation-Sports activities Illustrated on Fb.

Get your Gators soccer, basketball and different sporting occasions tickets from SI Tickets right here.

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Florida

3 most underrated signees in Florida State football's 2025 class

Published

7 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

3 most underrated signees in Florida State football's 2025 class

Florida State football had an embarrassing 2024 campaign where it finished with a 2-10 record. This is not the expectation of what the Seminoles are all about.

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Head football coach Mike Norvell understood the urgency as he could not allow the program to snowball into a laughing stock after a productive 13-1 season in 2023. Norvell was heading into a pivotal sixth season with his job on the line.

As a result, he went out and hired a ton of new coaches on his staff, including Gus Malzahn, Tim Harris Jr., Herb Hand, Tony White, Terrance Knighton, and Evan Cooper. This was uncharted territory for Norvell since he had never had to fire multiple coaches like that.

Nonetheless, we were wondering how the Seminoles’ 2025 recruiting class would play out with new coaches as well as the struggling year in 2024.

The recruiting class did well, and it finished with the 20th-best in the 247Sports Composite rankings (prospects can still sign in February). In this article, I want to highlight three of the most underrated signees from Florida State’s 2025 recruiting class.

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U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida

Published

15 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida

Noah Kent is heading home.

The 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up is transferring to Florida, he announced Saturday. The sophomore at Iowa, whose hometown is Naples, Florida, entered the transfer portal earlier this month, and he made his decision to join coach J.C. Deacon and the 2023 national champions come next fall.

Because of NCAA rules, Kent won’t be eligible to compete for Florida until the 2025-26 season, but he can finish his sophomore year with the Hawkeyes. This fall, he placed in the top 13 all four tournaments, his best finish being a T-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic.

And, of course, he has a tee time at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring.

Kent will essentially be the fourth member of Florida’s 2025 signing class, which ranked second in the country on signing day. He’ll join a talented roster that includes Parker Bell, Mathew Kress and Jack Turner, though with new NCAA roster limits coming, there’s bound to be some unprecedented roster turnover in college golf before the start of the 2025-26 season.

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State Your Case: Do Panthers or Lightning own state of Florida? | NHL.com

Published

22 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

State Your Case: Do Panthers or Lightning own state of Florida? | NHL.com

There are two NHL teams in Florida: the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They are separated by about 250 miles and have been fierce rivals since the Panthers joined the NHL for the 1993-94 season. The Lightning joined the League a season earlier.

Florida (21-11-2) and Tampa Bay (18-10-2) meet for the first time this season at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, CRIPPS, SN, TVAS).

The teams have played each other 157 times in the regular season; the Panthers have gone 77-51-19, and the Lightning are 70-64-13. There have been 10 ties.

For years, the rivalry was a parochial affair, deeply important to hockey fans in the state but under the radar nationally. Lately, though, Florida supremacy has often meant NHL supremacy.

The Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champions and defeated the Lightning in five games in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round last season to start that title march. They reached the Stanley Cup Final two seasons ago, going on a miracle run before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights. The season before that, they won the Presidents’ Trophy with an NHL-best 122 points but lost to the Lightning in a second-round sweep, marking the second straight time that their noisy neighbors ended their season.

The Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 before reaching a third straight Final in 2022, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2018-19.

This season, each team is on course for another appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and has a point percentage of better than .600.

So which team has the merits to claim bragging rights in this all-Florida showdown as the rivals face off for the first time this season? That’s the question debated by NHL.com senior writers Amalie Benjamin and Dan Rosen in the latest installment of State Your Case.

Benjamin: Let’s lay out what the Lightning have accomplished in their 32-season history: They’ve won the Stanley Cup three times, becoming the first team from Florida to win it when they took the championship in 2004. But that doesn’t come close to what they’ve accomplished during the past 11 seasons, starting in 2013-14, when they became a powerhouse. They’ve been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs 10 times in those 11 seasons, making the Stanley Cup Final in a whopping four of them. Let me repeat that: Four trips to the Cup Final in the past 11 seasons, winning twice, in 2020 and 2021. And if that’s not enough, they made two more trips to the Eastern Conference Final, in 2016 and 2018. Forget Florida’s team. They’re the team of the past decade in the entire NHL.

Rosen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what have you done for me lately? Florida’s team fluctuates. It was the Lightning. It is the Panthers. They’ve got the Stanley Cup. They went to the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row. Sure, a few years ago, this wasn’t even a debate. Florida’s team, the Panthers? Please. No shot. Even the top executives with the Panthers would tell you that. But things change. With success come the riches. Just think about the past three seasons for the Panthers: Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2021-22, Stanley Cup Final in 2022-23, Stanley Cup champions in 2023-24. The Lightning lost in the 2022 Cup Final, lost in the first round in six games the next season and lost in the first round in five games to the Panthers last season. Florida’s team is Florida.

Benjamin: OK, sure, you have a point. Florida has done pretty darn well lately. But let’s see how history will judge the state of Florida and its hockey teams. Hall of Famers? The Lightning have got ’em. Though Steven Stamkos has moved on to the Nashville Predators, the Hall of Fame is going to come calling, and the forward will go in as a member of the Lightning. Add in coach Jon Cooper, forward Nikita Kucherov, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and you’re talking at least five future Hall of Famers on a single team. That’s not just good, that’s historically good. It’s a group whose names are synonymous with winning, with the Stanley Cup, with the state of Florida. That’s powerful. That says the Lightning win this debate, no question.

Rosen: I have a question. Is Aleksander Barkov not paving his way to the Hall of Fame? Is Sergei Bobrovsky, with a Stanley Cup ring, 400-plus wins and two Vezina Trophy wins as the NHL’s best goalie, not a lock for the Hall of Fame? Is Paul Maurice, who could finish his career with at least the second-most coaching wins of all time, along with his Stanley Cup ring, not also a lock for the Hall of Fame? In the way-too-early department, could Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart be future Hall of Famers? I lied. That’s four questions. But you get the point. You brought up the Hall of Fame and I countered. That’s why the Lightning do not win this debate without question. Could they win it? Yes, certainly, if we were having this debate in 2023. It’s almost 2025. It’s a different world. It’s the Panthers’ world, at least in Florida. The Lightning are just living in it. At least the sun is still shining on them too.

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