GAINESVILLE, Fla. – College Football Hall of Famer Danny Wuerffel was named the 2021 Wooden Cup Professional Athlete Award recipient. Wuerffel will be honored at the 16th Annual Coach Wooden Citizen Cup Awards on Thursday, April 29, at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Wuerffel’s Hall of Fame head coach, Steve Spurrier, will present the prestigious award. Prior to the ceremonies, the two Gator legends will hold a conversation moderated by Athletes for a Better World Board Chair, Steve Petyerak, about the Wooden Citizen Cup and more. The discussion will be live-streamed and available on social media from the Gala at 5 p.m. To watch the conversation, click HERE.

Wuerffel has been named to the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame and the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame. The 1996 Heisman Trophy winner guided Florida to four straight Southeastern Conference crowns and back-to-back appearances in the national championship game. A two-time All-America honoree, Wuerffel also was a two-time recipient of the Davey O’Brien Award and received both the Sammy Baugh Trophy and the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. Wuerffel threw for nearly 11,000 career yards. This included 3,625 yards and 39 touchdowns as a senior during a season that featured a 462-yard effort against Arkansas during the Gators’ run to the national championship.

Wuerffel earned a degree in public relations from Florida and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. An active member of his New Orleans community, Wuerffel serves as director of Desire Street Ministries, whose goal is to transform impoverished neighborhoods into flourishing, healthy communities across the nation. Undaunted after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home and Desire Street’s facilities, Danny drew national attention to his efforts to rebuild the Ministries and to assist in rebuilding the city of New Orleans and the region as well.

Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization that celebrates the unselfish generosity of many participants in American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to all athletes in all high school, college and professional or Olympic sports.

Western Carolina is poised to begin a new chapter in its football program – with perhaps its most decorated offensive mind.

Sources tell FootballScoop that Kerwin Bell, a former University of Florida star quarterback who’s coached at both the high school and collegiate levels, as well as the Canadian Football League, for the past three decades, is Western’s target and an agreement is expected to be reached (potentially as soon as tomorrow) for Bell to become the Catamounts’ coach.

Western Carolina little more than two weeks ago fired veteran coach Mark Speir after nine seasons at the helm of the Cullowhee, North Carolina, program that competes at the Football Championship Level in the Southern Conference.

Bell’s greatest success as a coach came in 2018 at NCAA Division II power Valdosta State. There, Bell guided the program to a 14-0 season and the D-II national title while obliterating school and Gulf South Conference scoring records with an action-packed, high-powered offense.

That season proved a pathway to Bell’s biggest stage as a coach: offensive coordinator on Charlie Strong’s University of South Florida staff.

However, Strong could not recapture the success he had generated at Louisville that resulted in Strong’s hiring at Texas, and Strong was fired by the Bulls after just three seasons atop the program.

Strong’s firing also meant Bell was ushered out in the transition to Jeff Scott.

Now, Bell is charged with reviving a Catamounts program that generated three winning seasons in four years from 2014-17 but has since lost 25 games in three seasons – including a 1-9 2021 spring campaign that resulted in Speir’s dismissal.

It’s expected that if a deal with Bell is finalized, the veteran coach will likely add his son, Kade, to the Catamounts’ offensive staff.

Kade Bell, a former college quarterback for his father at Jacksonville University, spent the past season as offensive coordinator at NCAA Division II program Tusculum College (Greeneville, Tennessee). He previously was on staff with his father at both Valdosta State and the University of South Florida.

If the Bucs decide to draft a quarterback this month, they don’t need someone to dethrone Tom Brady.

They need someone who can learn from him for a season or two while developing into a starter. Someone with a history of maximizing limited reps. Someone patient enough to sit on the bench for years before rising to the moment when his opportunity finally arrives.

Someone like the Gators’ Kyle Trask.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/gators/2021/04/21/why-bucs-should-consider-drafting-gators-qb-kyle-trask/

Top-seeded Wisconsin was stretched to the max by eighth-seeded Florida in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship Quarterfinals on Monday in the CHI Health Center at Omaha, Neb., before prevailing 3-2.

Wisconsin (16-0) won 30-28, 18-25, 25-22, 18-25, 15-12 in its first five-set match of the year. The Badgers face fourth-seeded Texas (26-1), a 3-1 winner over five seed Nebraska (16-3) in Monday’s other quarterfinal, in Thursday’s 9:30 p.m. national semifinals (ESPN). The other semifinal pits No. 2 Kentucky vs. No. 6 Washington at 7 p.m.

The national championship match is Saturday.

UF (21-4) was seeking its ninth all-time NCAA semifinals appearance, looking to make it back for the first time since 2017. The Gators finish the campaign 2-2 in five-set matches.

“This was a heavy-weight match between two great teams from two great conferences,” UF coach Mary Wise said. “Awfully proud of this team and the growth they embraced starting way back in August. We asked more from this team for a longer period of time than any team in our history.”

OMAHA, Neb. – The eighth-seeded Florida volleyball team gets to keep dancing as the squad defeated the ninth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in four sets on Sunday evening in the Chi Health Center Convention Center.

The Gators advance to their 17th Regional Final in program history and will face No. 1 Wisconsin on Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPNU in the Chi Health Center Arena.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The ninth-ranked Florida lacrosse team got to hoist the American Athletic Conference regular season trophy after clinching at least a share of the championship with its 22-9 defeat of Vanderbilt on a rainy Sunday afternoon at Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

With the victory, the Gators have now won the regular season conference championship both of their years in the AAC and have now won 10 regular season crowns across three conferences (ALC: 2011, ’12, ’13, ’14; BIG EAST: 2015, ’16, ’17, ’18; AAC: 2019, ’21).

Due to weather in the area, the Gators honored their eight seniors and three student managers in Senior Day festivities after the victory. Eddy Shoop, Annie Wright, Kassidy Bresnahan, Grace Haus, Cara Trombetta, Shannon Kavanagh, Brianna Harris and Kaitlyn Dabkowski took part in the ceremony.

The Gators had eight different goal scorers on the afternoon, including a team-high seven from Kavanagh. With her first goal today, she tied the record for most consecutive games with a goal (40).

Haus, Bresnahan and Danielle Pavinelli each recorded a hat trick in the game, while Maggi Hall, Emily Heller and Harris each found the back of the cage twice. Paisley Eagan registered one goal of her own on the afternoon to round out Florida’s goal scorers.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -Two weather delays did not stop the Florida Gator lacrosse team from remaining undefeated in AAC conference play on Friday night. The Gators handed Vanderbilt its first conference loss of the season, defeating the Commodores 17-7.

UF improves to 10-2 overall, while Vanderbilt drops to 11-3 on the year.

Brianna Harris led Florida offensively scoring five goals, tying her career-best. Shannon Kavanagh was not too far behind Harris racking up three goals herself.

Sarah Reznick was once again lights out in the cage, coming up with six saves and allowing only four goals for a .600 save percentage.

The Gators close out the series against the Commodores Sunday at 11 a.m. 

OMAHA, Neb. – The eighth-seeded Florida volleyball team is set to take on the ninth-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in the NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal on Sunday in the Chi Health Center Arena Convention Center.

First serve is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and the match can also be heard on the airways of 98.1 FM/850 AM.

Florida (20-3, 19-3 SEC) and Ohio State (16-3, 15-3 BIG TEN) are facing one another for just the fourth time in program history on Sunday. The Gators hold the 2-1 series advantage and are 2-0 against the Buckeyes in the NCAA Tournament. The last time these two squads faced off was Dec. 4, 1998, where Florida was victorious in four sets.

The Gators advanced to the Regional Semifinal after downing the Morehead State Eagles in straight-sets on Thursday and Ohio State moved on to the Sweet 16 after sweeping the Missouri Tigers.

Florida is looking to make its 17th trip to the Regional Championship and overall, the Gators are 16-10 in Regional Semifinals in their 31-year NCAA Tournament history.