GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida head football coach Billy Napier announced Wednesday that Edward Thompson will serve as an assistant on the Gators strength and conditioning staff.
A native of Houston, he joins the Gators after spending the 2021 season as the head assistant strength coach and director of speed development at Louisiana.
Thompson, who was a defensive back with the Ragin’ Cajuns from 2014-16, started his strength coaching career at Louisiana in 2017 as an intern. His resume includes stops at Houston, Georgia Tech, Austin Peay State, LSU and the New York Giants.
Thompson is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and is a certified coach by USA Weightlifting, the national governing body for weightlifting in the United States. He is also certified as a speed specialist by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
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Great Insight on Coach Napier
From Gatorcountry, a great Gator Website……
Billy Napier’s overhaul at Florida includes program messaging and communication
Florida officially hired Billy Napier on November 28. Today is December 21.
During the 23 days since the hire, Florida has announced 17 hirings to the football program on top of the retaining of some existing staff like Vernell Brown. The newest came today with staffer Kyle Kazakevicius. If it at times has felt like there is a new staff member announced every day, it’s because there almost has been.
That feeling appears to be something UF is creating on purpose. Some of the announcements have come days after the staffers have reportedly started work.
Napier promised to build an army with the resources Florida agreed to grant him. He is making sure everyone knows he’s building that army with this announcement-a-day strategy. He could announce them in batches, but that’d make them easier to forget. Oh, he hired a couple assistant athletic somethings and directors of player whatever? That’s nice. Here comes a new news cycle about literally anything else.
Instead, there is a message getting out there on a near-daily basis: Florida hired. Florida hired who? I don’t know. It’s hard to keep up with everyone. But that’s the point: Florida is hiring so many people, it’s hard to keep up.
Florida hired. Florida hired. Florida hired.
It’s a marked change in the communications strategy for Gator football. The program is taking control of its own narrative and not merely reacting to things as they happen.
Dan Mullen has never been a good communicator. There are sections in Buddy Martin’s book Urban’s Way, published after the 2007 season, that talk about how awkward and off putting he could be back then. Nearly every account of someone meeting him tells of that person not liking him. Plenty came to like him over time, but it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that he’s something of an acquired taste.
And that was Mullen on a personal level, which is more forgiving than the level of a public persona. He got better over the years in Starkville, but he never got to be good at public relations.
On top of lacking the ability to read the room, he has an uncanny ability to say things in just the wrong way to allow them to get spun into something they don’t mean. The latest example of that was his “recruiting season” statement, which, when taken out of context, could allow someone to erroneously believe that he didn’t recruit during the football season.
There’s a famous quote from The Reagan Diaries by former President Ronald Reagan that gets repeated as gospel across both sides of the political aisle: if you’re explaining, you’re losing. Mullen had to do too much explaining as a result of his misstatements and general lack of effort on messaging.
Again, recruiting season. He had to go clean up that mess a couple of days later. Pulling the camera back, when the pandemic closed off most of the normal avenues of access to the program, Mullen walled off those avenues instead of trying to find alternate routes. He did little to craft a narrative for his team and project it to the world, instead receding into secrecy. With no alternate messaging coming forth from his program one way or the other, Mullen had no ability to try to get on top of the narrative once it started to turn against him this fall.
Napier hasn’t spoken publicly too many times as Florida’s head coach yet, but he’s been measured and precise with his language. Look up clips of him at Louisiana, and aside from his famous “scared money don’t make money” quote said off the cuff in a halftime interview, he comes off that way there too. If there’s one thing that anyone ever said about Napier, it’s that he’s a person who believes in preparation and attention to detail. His messaging has followed that to a T.
It’s for those reasons that the near-daily hiring announcements appear to be a real strategy and not, say, a consequence of the public relations department being short staffed from the coaching transition and the holidays. There hasn’t yet been time to put together attention-grabbing video content or glossy photo-laden profiles of coaches and players, but they’re doing what they can with what they’ve got to put forth a message.
Napier is still in the honeymoon period, especially after a strong finish to early National Signing Day. Gator fans won’t always celebrate hiring people they’ve never heard of to perform a role that’s ill-defined by their job titles. But for now they will, especially since the early hires started coming before that good NSD performance.
Even if you can’t name most anyone hired two days after the press release went out, you still can understand the narrative arc here:
- Napier said he’d hire an army to improve the program on the field and in recruiting.
- He began hiring that army.
- Members of the army helped him deliver an early NSD signing group that was well above expectations.
The through line is clear. No one has to explain anything, and therefore Napier is winning.
There will come a time when Napier puts his foot in his mouth or otherwise has some kind of mess to clean up. He’s human after all, and we all make mistakes.
The early returns suggest, however, that he’ll have a lot fewer messes to clean up than the past several coaching staffs had to. Message discipline and winning communications appear to have returned to Gainesville.
Recruiting News……
Florida really couldn’t have asked for a better early signing day than it had on Wednesday. Despite still building the new staff under coach Billy Napier, who had only been on the job for 10 days, the team didn’t lose any of its current commits and added three more blue-chip prospects, including five-star safety Kamari Wilson, who Georgia was considered the favorite to land until the IMG Academy prospect took an official visit to Gainesville last weekend.
Despite the idea that Billy Napier might punt to start the early signing period, the Gators played offense and pulled in two stunners with top 100 linebacker Shemar James and five-star safety Kamari Wilson, who most pegged for Georgia. The Gators also landed four-star defensive back Devin Moore to start the day. That’s the kind of recruiting effort Florida fans have craved from their coach and a great way for Napier to endear himself to the fanbase.
James, who was initially committed to Florida before decommitting in October and was considered a Georgia lean with Alabama close behind, was a big recruiting win for Napier and defensive coordinator Patrick Toney, who was his primary recruiter. Moore is also a very talented defensive back that eased the pain of losing out on Julian Humphrey, a one-time Gators commit who stuck with his pledge to the Bulldogs.
The signing day haul was especially impressive considering the fact that, by his own admission, Napier didn’t have a relationship with any of the prospects who signed — except for offensive lineman Christian Williams, who was originally committed to Napier at Lousiana — prior to Thanksgiving.
One of Napier’s main selling points as a coach was his recruiting prowess, and that’s already been made clear even as he’s less than two weeks into the job. Florida had never signed a five-star from IMG Academy before Wilson, and it will be interesting to see what other surprises this staff has in store over the next couple of months.
Letter to Target from Sheriff Rick Staly
When Target Corporation directed the local Palm Coast Target to cancel the Flagler Sheriff’s Children’s Charities planned Shop with a Cop event, the Grinch paid a visit. The Grinch then found a heart and joined FCSO and others in taking 125 kids on a free shopping spree to Walmart! (Paid for by donations from FCSO employees and the community.) Thank you Walmart for stepping-up and supporting Flagler Sheriff’s Children’s Shop with a Cop event. See you next year!
𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐲’𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐂𝐄𝐎 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰:
Mr. Brian Cornell December 15, 2021
Chairman & CEO
Target Corporation
1000 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Dear Chairman Cornell:
Like many law enforcement agencies across the country the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office partnered with Target for over a decade to provide a “Shop with a Cop” holiday shopping spree for local children who might not otherwise have Santa visit their home.
This year was to be the same. We worked with your local Palm Coast store, selected a date and your employees were once again excited to participate. Then on October 6, 2021 my staff received an email abruptly cancelling the partnership. We were told Target “retired” the “Heroes & Helpers” program and was “introducing a new give-back program to serve our communities, anchored to our purpose of helping families discover the joy of everyday life. We’ll be expanding our impact and reach, partnering directly with local nonprofits organizations across the country to provide families in need with essentials, gifts and more.” When we informed Target staff that Flagler Sheriff’s Children’s Charities was a nonprofit 501(C)(3) the email was ignored and no response was received.
A Google search quickly found many articles and carefully worded statements by Target’s Corporate public relations teams dating to 2020 in which Target denies it was “dropping its sponsorship of its annual holiday ‘Shop with a Cop’ event” (at least for 2020). When reviewing Target corporate policies under “Safety & Preparedness” we noted claims like:
• “We have thousands of public safety partnerships across the country.”
• “Target is a committed partner… Providing more than ‘Corporate Lip Service’ and genuinely reach out and engage the public safety community.”
• “Target is a shining example of public-private partnership.”
Your recent actions demonstrate these statements are little more than corporate propaganda. As with any attempt to deceive or influence the public your statements provide the tiniest grain of truth in an attempt to paint a false narrative. So far in 2021, we have responded to 428 calls for service to the Palm Coast store. Further, since I became Sheriff in 2017, we have handled more than 3,870 calls for service to your Palm Coast store. In this aspect, you have definitely “engaged the [local] public safety community.” However, as to partnering with law enforcement it is evident your organization has elected to follow the pathway of political convenience.
Chairman & CEO Brian Cornell
December 15, 2021
Page two
As the Target Corporation displayed “Grinch” like behavior in cancelling the partnership at the last minute we went to your competitor Walmart who welcomed us with open arms. On December 10, 2021, we took over 125 culturally diverse children partnered with over 125 law enforcement, corrections and professional support employees shopping. Starting with a party, train rides, face painting, crafts, games and much more they rode in patrol cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring to Walmart (ironically, we drove by Target on our way to Walmart).
I am very proud of our employees and their support for the nonprofit Flagler Sheriff’s Children’s Charities. Annually, our employees donate over $30,000.00 to support the two official charities of Flagler Sheriff’s Children’s Charities – Shop with a Cop and the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranches. For this event they donated almost $16,000.00. Community supporters donated as well and together each child received $175.00 to buy presents for themselves, their brothers, sisters, moms, and dads. Many “chaperones” took money out of their own pockets when the children selected gifts totaling over the limit to bring a smile to a child’s face.
After the shopping spree the children ate hamburgers and hot dogs and were then taken back home. For siblings who could not go shopping our team gave them bags full of donated toys so they did not feel left out and we made every effort to care for the entire family. This was a team effort, a partnership between the law enforcement community and Walmart. This is community policing and building bridges with our future at its best! A concept you have apparently abandoned by cancelling your partnership with law enforcement for the holidays.
In closing, I want to make it very clear this is not about your local Palm Coast Target store employees. We enjoy a positive relationship with our local store, which we will continue to build upon. Your employees were looking forward to this event before Corporate shut it down. Not only did the local Target employees enjoy seeing the big smiles on the children’s faces but they appreciated the thousands of dollars in sales this event brought to the store, which helped meet their revenue and sales goals. I do not take issue with our local store, rather it is your corporate decision to end a very successful partnership which I find to be ill-conceived and short sighted. The “Heroes & Helpers” program was a proven mechanism which built relationships with first responders, the community and Target. It appears the Target Corporation has taken the path of political expediency throwing away an established relationship and a proven program for no gain.
Please understand the purpose of this letter, it is not seeking financial support or backing, as you can see we take care of our own. Rather, this letter is designed to highlight the hypocrisy and double-speak which your organization demonstrates. Caving into divisive rhetoric does not build a community but erodes its foundation.
I support your right to end our partnership however, it comes with a price; while I doubt it impacts your bottom line you have lost a customer in both my wife and I. Further, I will educate my peers within the law enforcement community about your corporate action and decision. Finally, I will take the opportunity to discuss Target’s position in every public forum with which I have a platform.
Sincerely,
RICK STALY
Sheriff
Football Signing Day Press Conference
Welcome Coach Colbert
Florida has hired Keary Colbert as its wide receivers coach, head coach Billy Napier announced on Wednesday.
Welcome to The Swamp, Coach @kearycolbert!
➡️: https://t.co/DUpimemhc2 pic.twitter.com/HtL2m6iUhY
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) December 15, 2021
Danny Wuerffel’s Heisman Anniversary. Has it been 25 years?
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Heading into his junior season in 1995, Gators quarterback Danny Wuerffel had two full seasons and 16 months in front of him before winning the 1996 Heisman Trophy.
Still, after leading the Gators to a thrilling 24-23 comeback win over Alabama in the 1994 Southeastern Conference Championship Game, Wuerffel was one of college football’s biggest names.
In a preseason feature in August 1995, current FloridaGators.com colleague Chris Harry, the UF beat writer for the Tampa Tribune at the time, did a question-and-answer segment with Wuerffel to complement the story.
One of the questions stands out in retrospect.
Q: A century from now, how do you want to be remembered?
A: There’s only two things that last, and those are the relationships you have with people and the relationship you have with God. I’d like to be remembered as a guy who got along well with everybody and someone who took the word of God seriously.
More than a quarter-century later, Wuerffel has upheld that legacy and more.
This weekend, 25 years after he heard his name called and stood to accept the Heisman Trophy at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City, Wuerffel will attend the 2021 ceremony. The candidates are Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett, and Michigan edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson.
One of them will join the game’s most exclusive club and experience a life-changing event.
Wuerffel can attest to that. He still remembers Jerri Spurrier, the wife of Wuerffel’s college coach and 1966 Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier, telling him the night after he won the award about the impact of the Heisman on his life.
“You’ll learn more and more as the years go by,” she told him.
“Certainly, she was very prophetic in those words,” Wuerffel said this week.
Seated between Arizona State quarterback Jake Plummer and Iowa State running back Troy Davis, two of the other three finalists, and Ohio State offensive lineman Orlando Pace, Wuerffel was considered the favorite. However, he believed Davis had a chance.
The Iowa State star rushed for 21 touchdowns and 2,185 yards, his second consecutive 2,000-yard season.
“You never know until you know,” Wuerffel said. “I did win, earlier in the week, some of the awards that are indicators of who might win the Heisman. I was not presuming anything. I was just very grateful to hear my name called.”
The Spurriers and Wuerffel’s family were on hand when Wuerffel became Florida’s second Heisman winner. Tim Tebow became the third Gators quarterback to win the award in 2007.
The trio has stood in bronze together outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2011.
While the award solidified Wuerffel’s place in Gators lore and college football history, true to his character, the son of an Air Force chaplain has parlayed the Heisman Trophy into much more meaningful endeavors.
Following his professional career, Wuerffel joined Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans. He became the organization’s executive director in 2006, and under his direction, Desire Street moved its headquarters to Atlanta following Hurricane Katrina to expand its outreach. Wuerffel is also involved with The Wuerffel Trophy, which is part of the National Football Federation’s Collegiate Awards and the first significant award honoring the character of service to others.
Wuerffel’s ability to impact so many others positively over the years is in many ways because of the award he won on a December night 25 years ago.
“It was an incredible experience at the time, but it’s one of those things that just never ends,” he said. “You could win the Nobel Peace Prize, or you could end up in jail, and either way, you would still be known as the Heisman Trophy winner.
“For me, the Heisman Trophy is this amazing platform. It has been a tremendous value to raise awareness and funds and support to help a lot of different people over the years. I believe a lot of success that Desire Street has had and the Wuerffel Trophy has had is, in large part, is to the fact that I did win the Heisman Trophy.”
Wuerffel remains a favorite son of Gator Nation. At his introductory press conference on Sunday, new Gators head coach Billy Napier referenced Wuerffel by name, recalling his days watching Wuerffel play on TV growing up in north Georgia. Wuerffel and Napier exchanged messages this week.
Following a year in which the Heisman ceremony was held virtually due to COVID-19 protocols, Wuerffel is excited about returning to New York and seeing the Spurriers and other past winners.
It’s an event that lasts a lifetime for a lucky few.
“My wife [Jessica] and I love going up there and being a part of it,” he said. “My wife’s favorite part of the Heisman ceremony is getting to hang out with Jerri Spurrier. That’s what makes it fun for her.”
Like Jerri Spurrier told Wuerffel 25 years ago, it’s a life-changing gift that keeps on giving.
Congrats Lomas Brown
Las Vegas — Former University of Florida offensive tackle Lomas Brown was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Tuesday during the 63rd National Football Foundation Annual Awards Dinners in Las Vegas.
A member of the 2020 class, Brown became the 12th overall Gator and the ninth Florida player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.
The anchor of the Gators’ offensive line known as “The Great Wall of Florida,” Lomas Brown remains one of the most dominant blockers in SEC history.
A consensus First Team All-American in 1984, Brown received the Jacobs Blocking Trophy that season as the SEC’s top blocker. The senior team captain was a two-time All-SEC selection, earning first team honors in 1984 after taking home second team laurels in 1983. During his stellar 1984 campaign, Brown guided Florida to nine consecutive wins to finish the season 9-1-1 while anchoring an offense that helped three different backs each gain nearly 700 rushing yards
Position: Offensive Tackle
Years: 1981-1984
Place of Birth: Miami, FL
Date of Birth: March 30, 1963
Jersey Number: 75
Height: 6-4
Weight: 282
High School: Miami Springs HS (Miami Springs, FL)The anchor of the Gators’ offensive line known as “The Great Wall of Florida,” Lomas Brown remains one of the most dominant blockers in SEC history. The Miami native becomes the ninth Florida player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.
Place of Birth: Miami, FL
Date of Birth: March 30, 1963
Jersey Number: 75
Height: 6-4
Weight: 282
High School: Miami Springs HS (Miami Springs, FL)The anchor of the Gators’ offensive line known as “The Great Wall of Florida,” Lomas Brown remains one of the most dominant blockers in SEC history. The Miami native becomes the ninth Florida player to enter the College Football Hall of Fame.
A consensus First Team All-American in 1984, Brown received the Jacobs Blocking Trophy that season as the SEC’s top blocker. The senior team captain was a two-time All-SEC selection, earning first team honors in 1984 after taking home second team laurels in 1983. During his stellar 1984 campaign, Brown guided Florida to nine consecutive wins to finish the season 9-1-1 while anchoring an offense that helped three different backs each gain nearly 700 rushing yards.
Florida’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 1983, Brown led the Gators to three-straight bowl berths, including a win in the 1983 Gator Bowl. He started 31 of his last 33 games, guiding Florida to top 10 national rankings in 1983 (No. 6) and 1984 (No. 3). The Gators beat in-state rival Florida State all four years Brown was in Gainesville, and he capped his stellar collegiate career by playing in both the Hula and Senior bowls. A member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, he played for the Gators alongside fellow College Football Hall of Famer Wilber Marshall.
The sixth overall pick by the Detroit Lions in the 1985 NFL Draft, Brown played 18 seasons in the pros with the Lions (1985-95), Arizona Cardinals (1996-98), Cleveland Browns (1999), New York Giants (2000-01) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002). The seven-time Pro Bowl selection appeared in two Super Bowls, retiring on a high note after helping the Buccaneers win Super Bowl XXXVII. Brown returned to Florida during the NFL offseason to complete his bachelor’s degree in 1996.
While still playing in the NFL, he founded the Lomas Brown Jr. Foundation benefitting educational institutions and related activities focusing on scholarships, student financial aid and awards programs. Noted for his generosity, Brown has hosted free football camps in Detroit for local high school students among many other charitable endeavors. He currently serves as the CEO of LBJB Sports, a sports marketing firm in Detroit, and he can be heard as the color commentator on the Detroit Lions broadcast team for flagship radio station WJR-AM.
Gators Defeat the Seminoles
Florida State (6-3) fell to Florida (9-3) by a 69-55 score this afternoon in Gainesville, FL.
This game was tight early but Florida ended the first quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 19-11 lead after the first quarter. The Gators would never look back from there. Florida led 60-35 after the third quarter. FSU made it a bit more respectable in the fourth quarter winning that final quarter by eleven points but the deficit was too much to overcome.
The Gators were able to impose their will on FSU from almost the opening tip. The Seminoles struggled with UF’s pressure defense for the entire game. That pressure led to a whopping 23 turnovers for FSU while the Gators committed only seven. Florida State actually outshot the Gators from the field (40%-36.2%) but with all of the turnovers FSU only had 55 shots while UF had 69.
River Baldwin had a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards. Morgan Jones was the only other Nole in double figures with 12 points.
With the win, Florida snapped a five losing streak to Florida State. The last time UF beat FSU before today was in 2015.
This was an extremely disappointing performance from the Seminoles. FSU did continue to play hard until the end. However, the Noles were never able to fully get comfortable in this game due to UF’s pressure defense.
FSU really needs to get the point guard situation figured out. Bianca Jackson played today but she clearly isn’t 100%. The Seminoles are very vulnerable if their floor leader isn’t fully ready to go and that was proven in a big way today.
Florida State will try to regroup on Thursday, Dec. 16th when they welcome Houston to Tallahassee. The game will tip at 7pm and will be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra
Saturday Practice Report
SATURDAY PRACTICE
They have already practiced today.
Once again, they were in shorts and a helmet.
I was told it was once again a laid-back atmosphere.
One big addition today, after being absent (along with all the other transfer portal players) yesterday, linebacker Mohamoud Diabate was at practice today (but in a sling).
As Inside the Gators reported yesterday, we were told that he entered his name in the portal to keep his options open but wasn’t 100-percent leaving.
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