SEC Preview: Florida Gators
July 11th, 2008 by Chris Pendley
Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2008 Playstation offense! Sure, the Gators lost four games last year, but who cares? This place is a fantasy goldmine and now that the defense is a year older, the Gators should be national title contenders. As for the rest of the SEC, good luck. Lord knows you’ll need it.
Urban Meyer enters his 4th year as the head coach, with one national title under his belt and his guys in place for another run. His OC is Dan Mullen, who’s trying to speed up the offense (holy crap). Dan McCarney slots in at DC. McCarney coached at Iowa State for over a decade, so he brings a lot of experience to the table. It is also probable he brings in a modified scheme.
So if you listened to me talking about Cameron Newton last year …yeah, sorry. Screwed that one up pretty bad, huh? Starting QB and all-around fantasy god Tim Tebow will be doing the Tebow thing again this year. I am here to tell you to draft him, but you likely already know that. Don’t expect Tebow’s numbers to be as crazy on the ground as last year, but he’ll still get a fair amount of carries and TDs.
Last year, the other weapon in the ground game was Percy Harvin, which worked fairly well. Heck, Harvin should get a good amount of yardage on the ground again this year, but Emmanuel Moody and Chris Rainey were recruited / transferred specifically for this system. Expect one of these guys to succeed, possibly due to injury or possibly to performance. As of now, both guys are worth speculative picks in a lot of formats simply because the likelihood of each guy ending up with 10+ TDs on the year is decent. Although it is possible one guy becomes waiver wire material while the other becomes a keeper.
Look for Harvin to be Florida’s primary receiver (along with the double duty as a runner) along with TE Cornelius Ingram getting a good amount of balls thrown his way. Both players should be drafted in almost all formats. Harvin’s a threat to get 1,000 yards receiving and rushing, although that’s probably a bit of a reach. However, 2,000 all-purpose yards aren’t out of the question. Ingram should be a fair bet to repeat his numbers from 2007 (around 500 yards with 7 TDs). Other than those two guys, Louis Murphy and Carl Moore are the most likely to be potential fantasy WRs. Like the Moody/Rainey combination, it’s not a guarantee that either guy will be useful from a fantasy perspective. However, Murphy is the safer bet of the two, since he has experience in the offense and was the #3 receiver last year. Murphy at his peak would likely be a flex-position caliber player and likely would be a bye week starter only in shallow formats…deeper formats could start him most weeks.
For the defense, it’s a case of good news and bad news. On the plus side, the defense won’t be a whole lot worse than it was last year, even with the lose of their top sack man in Derrick Harvey. They return eight starters but are learning a new/modified D under McCarney. That being said, the bottom line is these guys should step up. Based on that (plus KR/PR Brandon James), Florida’s D/ST should be worth picking up in almost all formats, even if they’re only a second D.
At K, freshman Caleb Sturgis takes over for the departed Joey Iljas. With Sturgis being a freshman kicker, there is obvious risk in taking him as your primary kicker. However, the offense will give him plenty of opportunity to kick extra points at a minimum. If you’re the kind of person who’ll take chances on freshman kickers, pick him up – otherwise, don’t worry about it too much.
Summary
Between Tebow and Harvin, the Gators have a couple of fantasy super-studs. Of course, it’s not like they’re the only viable fantasy options here. Pretty much anyone who plays a skill position has at worst the potential to contribute to any fantasy team, so pay close attention to this team.
Related posts:
