The Florida Gators Football Team

The Florida Gators football team, of the Southeastern Conference, was the 2008 national champion. The Florida Gators are well-known to all sports fanatics and the stadium they play in, the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is known as one of the hardest places for the competition to play. With Urban Meyer as the head coach and with Tim Tebow, a Heisman Winner, the team can definitely fight its way to the top next year and another championship win wouldn't be far out of reach. In 2008, the University of Florida Gators beat the Oklahoma Sooners at the Orange Bowl to capture their second championship in three years.

With the great leadership shown by Urban Meyer I believe that a win is in the cards for the school, especially if they start the season strong. They have an excellent coach and they have a lot of returning players as well as some guys who have signed up with the team that were specifically recruited. This coming fall, the Gators have the potential to win it all again with Tim Tebow throwing for them again.

Along with its returning stars, Florida has the nationally 10th ranked recruiting class to help secure its chances at another championship run. With star underclassman Percy Harvin going to the NFL draft, Coach Meyer landed five-star receiver Andre Debose from Sanford, Fl. Debose will have an immediate impact and the loss of Harvin won't be as painful. "He's as good as there is," Meyer said. "I think he's the best player in America. You watch him on film, for what we do, for our style of offense, for what we need right now with the departure of Percy Harvin... that's a crucial element. We're not going to change our offense."

Andre Debose isn't the only attention grabber the Gators roped in this year. They brought in the highest rated outside linebacker and 10th overall prospect with Jelani Jenkins of Olney, Md, who runs a 4.4 40 yard dash and also has a 4.0 grade point average which will help ensure he won't be academically ineligible. Jenkins will more than likely be a captain before long. They also brought in the nationally ranked 2nd best defensive tackle with Gary Brown from Greensboro, Fl, who accrued more than 40 sacks over his final two seasons at West Gadsden High. As if Florida hadn't beefed up their defense enough with these two, they got Jon Bostic from Wellington, Fl, the nationally ranked 5th best inside linebacker and the son of former Detroit Lions defensive back Jon Bostic Sr. However, with the return of star senior middle linebacker Brandon Spikes, Bostic likely won't get much playing time right away.

Despite losing a pair of commitments, receiver Nu'Keese Richardson and cornerback Marsalis Teague, to SEC East rival Tennessee, Florida is looking good. With a retention that shows all 11 starters on defense and seven starters on offense, including quarterback Tim Tebow and linebacker Brandon Spikes returning for their senior seasons, the Gators have the best chance at being National Champions in 2009.

Writer and editor, Freddie Brister, is a former high school football coach of 25 years. His love of the game of football is reflected in his words and memories of growing up in the South and playing football in the back yard with his brother, cousins and neighborhood friends. His biggest thrill is watching former high school players he has coached play at the college level. His favorite pastime is watching college football on tv and attending the games in person every chance he gets. Freddie Brister is a huge fan of the SEC and the Florida Gators. Check out his Florida Gators Belt or his Florida Gators Swimwear

Youth Football - How Does Your Youth Football Team Stack Up Nationwide?

Youth Football is Youth Football No Matter Where You Live

Many coaches seem to feel biased about certain areas of the country having better quality youth football than other parts of the country. Some youth football coaches from less densely populated areas of the country also seem to often feel a bit inferior about the level of play in their areas.

My personal experience and the evidence of results of National Youth Football Tournaments don't give credence to those ideas. I've seen video or watched teams play from nearly every state in the country and I've done clinics for over 5,000 coaches all over the country. I've seen great youth football played in areas of the country known for great football like Florida, Texas, Ohio and California. I've also seen some of the worst coached youth football in those same states. I've seen excellent athleticism and well coached football from states most don't think of when they think of football, places like Utah, Maryland, Virginia, New York, Illinois and Washington. At the youth level no one area of the country dominates, just look at the winners of the Pop Warner National Championship or the big Unlimited National Tournament in Daytona. The teams come from all over and there is no trend, winners come from all over the nation.

While many feel their leagues are competitive and their area of the country is somehow inherently better than others I highly recommend you take your team to one of the many national tournaments. They are a real eye opener and a great experience for your kids. As a kid I still remember my Bowl trips, especially the plane trip to Las Vegas and I know our kids love going to Florida as well.

As the kids get older maybe there are some differences as weather, regional preferences, and Spring Football or even year round football make certain areas of the country "hotbeds" for football talent. Some states even have huge football budgets and coaches who either don't teach at all or have very low class loads and even "athletic" periods where they meet with their football players year round in the classroom. Those differences may account for some of the differences in DI Football players coming from various states. But in the early development years the differences are not as large as many might think.

I had the pleasure of working clinics in Utah, Montana and Washington State these last three weeks and they play good youth football there. Great people and coaches in it for the right reasons. These are some of the most organized and well coached leagues I've come across. More on that in the next few days along with some UNBELIEVABLE stories. Yes we have a youth football/ live bear story that is almost too unbelievable to report. Just know that while youth football has a lot of commonality across the nation, there are some HUGE nuances, including shooting a live bear in Montana during a youth football event, don't miss this one.

Dave Cisar

Dave is a Nike "Coach of the Year" Designate and speaks nationwide at Coaches Clinics. His book "Winning Youth Football a Step by Step Plan" was endorsed by Tom Osborne and Dave Rimington. His personal teams using this system to date have won 94% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

To Sign up for his free tips and drills newsletter or to view 325 free youth football coaching tips go to: Football Plays

A Video Taste of Dave's teams:
Football Practice

The Best of Terry Tate

A tribute to the #1 linebacker in the business world!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8702Im2P18&hl=en

The Top Ten Things Youth Football Coaches Do to Mess Up Their Teams

Back in the day, I used to drive a lot for business. I would often have to do a number of drives where I got up at 3:00 or 4:00 am, do a number of meetings and in order to maximize the efficiency of the trip drive to 10:00-11:00 pm that same night. Needless to say it was tough trying to stay awake so I would channel surf and listen to talk radio, the more outrageous it was, the easier it was to stay awake listening to it. There used to be a woman named Dr Laura that was on that I would catch from time to time, who had a somewhat famous book published called " Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives". While the book title seems pretty harsh, it was right on target, detailing 10 very common but absolutely preventable (non common sense) things women often did to destroy their own lives. I often thought there ought to be a book out entitled "Ten Silly Things Youth Football Coaches Do to Mess Up Their Teams"

Common Threads of Failing Teams

Unfortunately there are a number of things that are often common threads to poor performing youth football teams. After coaching for 15 years in 6 different leagues and fouding/managing several youth football teams I've seen a bunch of bad youth football teams. I even took two years off of coaching to study the best and worst youth football programs not only in my immediate area but nationwide. While there certainly is more than one way to skin a cat, there seemed to be a lot of commonality in the teams that were consistent bottom dwellers. These are teams that were consistently year after year in the basement of the standings and having a real problem with retaining players. It was painful watching some of these teams practice and play games, I really felt for the poor kids that had to play for some of these coaches, unfortunately it was obvious many of the kids were playing what would be their last youth football season . In many cases these teams had plenty of talent, more than I had imagined, but they were being coached so poorly they had no chance at having much individual success and little if any team success. While some of the coaches were obviously well meaning but lost, there were also plenty of coaches that looked like they were very confident in the abilities and their approach, in spite of their overwhelmingly poor results. While I could write volumes on why these teams did so poorly, I'm going to attempt to give you my version of the top 10.

Top Ten Things Youth Coaches Do to Mess Up Their Teams

10) Scrimmaging too much.
Some of these poor performing teams were scrimmaging for half of the practice and did not do a single fit-and-freeze or bird-dog rep.

9) Too much conditioning.
Most of these teams were spending from 25% to 40% of their practice time doing non-football related conditioning type drills. These youth football teams would have been great had they been competing in a cross country meet or push up contest, but when it came to playing football, they were getting crushed every week.

8) Poor Defensive schemes-
These teams used defensive schemes that were designed to stop college football offenses and college or pro football players, not youth football plays or offenses and youth football players. Let's not even get started about those that have minimum play rules and how their defenses rarely accommodate the playing of these players on defense in situations where they can execute and provide team value on each snap.

7) Blaming the kids.
The coaches blamed the kids lack of "effort" or lack of talent for the teams lack of success. Many of these coaches were "the grass in greener" guys. Coaches that think they had to have the best talent or big size to compete. Any lack of success was attributed to being a 'Jimmies and Joes" situation where their team got "out athleted". Rarely did any of these coaches take personal responsibility for the teams lack of success, it's always the kids, the refs, the weather, the breaks, player sick, the other team, cheating, the dog ate the homework blah blah blah

6) Lack of coaching effort.
While the typical youth football coach will put in between 110-160 hours per season in practice, travel and game time alone, many don't put a single hour into doing research about becoming a better youth football coach. Fewer than 15% of youth coaches ever purchase coaching materials. When these poor performing coaches were asked about coaching materials, most had no idea these materials existed and didn't own any. The other flavor of coaches kind of laughed it off like they knew everything they needed to know and didn't bother to own any either, in spite of their teams consistent lack of success.

5) Silly Playbook.
These coaches playbooks often looked like the best 25 plays (or more) that the coach had seen on TV on Saturdays and Sundays. There was no series basis to these offenses, most plays stood on their own and often were paired with a variety of formations. Other offenses included those that had no chance of succeeding unless their team had a monopoly on the best talent in their respective league. These offenses didn't fit the talent or the age group of these respective teams. The playbooks were often in excess of 40-50 plays of which not a single play was executed to perfection.

4) Nonexistent Blocking Schemes
Blocking schemes either non-existent or poorly coached. "Block the guy across from you" seemed to be the basic approach, but of course that is not a blocking scheme or rule. None of these teams would pull, down block, double team, trap or even cross block. Blocking obviously was not a priority and usually not assigned to the head coach.

3) Not Teaching using Progressions.
Many of these coaches had played football, but they had no idea how to transfer their knowledge to their players. In the end it doesn't matter what the coaches know, it matters what the players know. These coaches had no idea how to teach in a progression and often were trying to teach techniques that the average youth football player would have very little chance of executing consistently well even if it were taught properly.

2) Teaching age inappropriate techniques.
Many youth football coaches are clueless as to what average kids in certain age groups can and can not do. Many coaches get frustrated because the average youth player can't do what coach did in High School at age 18 with 9 years of playing experience under his belt, not to mention the body maturity and year round practice schedule that most High Schoolers do now. Others (very few) underestimate what can be done, yes age 8-10 kids can pull, trap, throw short passes on the run and play zone defense, but no they can't throw 20 yard outs or reach block 9 technique defensive ends.

1) Very poorly "designed" practices/Poor Priorities.
Too much standing around and at a pace that makes a snail look like an Indy 500 car on race day. No wonder the kids are bored and they look like they haven't practiced much, they wasted most of practice with large time spaces between drills, reps, everything. Poorly planned and poorly executed practices that seem to place a premium on wasting time. Emphasizing and spending valuable time on non critical nebulous factors instead of concentrating on perfecting the critical success factors of developing youth football teams and players. Instead of perfecting technique, holding players accountable to perfect technique, perfecting schemes and developing players, time is spent elsewhere or needlessly wasted.

Please don't be offended if you are doing one of these things. The reason I know this list so well is not only did I observe poorly performing teams doing all these things, I was gulity of doing them myself until I saw the light 8 seasons ago.

Dave Cisar-
With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.
For 325 off Dave's free youth football coaching tips or to see free clips of Dave's team in action: Football Plays

Puma Shoes - Sponsors Of Half The Worlds Football Teams

Dictionary meaning : Puma : A large solitary cat belonging to the feline family, having the greatest range of any terrestrial mammal and an extremely capable stalk and ambush predator. Hardly something to be worn on your feet! No people, I am not talking about poaching and animal hunting. Like its namesake, Puma, is a German based multinational company that is equally respected in its field of expertise. One of the earliest shoe manufacturing companies, PUMA started off in 1948, just before the end of the World War II. The history of the setting up of the company is a very interesting read. Let me try to explain it to you.

Born to a worker in a shoe factory, Rudolph Dassler and Adolf Dassler were brothers with big dreams in a war ravaged Germany. Wanting to do their part for the fatherland, both brothers served their time in the army and found a small shoe factory in the back of their house in their mother's laundry. In the 1936 Olympic Games, Adolf Dassler drove to the Olympic Village and persuaded American super star sprinter Jesse Owens to put spikes on the bottom of his shoes. After Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals, the success story of the Dassler shoes become a global phenomenon.

But their success was short lived. Before the fall of Germany, tension was rife between the two brothers and after Rudi Dassler was captured, both brothers had split for good. Adi Dassler set up his company and named it Adidas, the second largest shoe manufacturing company in the world, and Rudi names his RuDa.

Later that year Ruda changed name to PUMA, and sponsored many footballers of Germany's national football team. So much so, that the scorer of Germany's first post war goal was wearing PUMA boots. Over the years, Rudi's expertise and willingness to work aid off great dividends and soon the world was wearing PUMA shoes. Football star Pele, stopped the final minutes of the 1970 FIFA world cup to tie his shoelaces thus giving the world precious minutes of his PUMA boots. These days, Puma sponsors half of the world's football teams, tons of players worldwide and sponsors a myriad of other sports and players. PUMA also specialises in creating sports apparel - football apparel, jump suits and track suits. You can find out more about nike and puma shoes at http://www.retronikeairshoes.com

PUMA has since then charted success stories year after year, increasing profits and establishing base in almost every country in the world. PUMA's famous Complete series provides a wide variety of features to customers worldwide. PUMA's other famous shoes involve shoes designed for sports like running, basketball and most importantly football. PUMA has tie ups with 2006 FIFA world cup winners, Italy and are the main sponsors for the team. They are also main sponsors of Formula 1 teams like Ferrari and BMW and have released their PUMA - Ferrari and PUMA - BMW apparel series. PUMA since its inception as a small company on a hillside has Germany has come a long way but never really forgotten its roots. For PUMA, it's always customers first.

Article by Dean Forster at http://www.retronikeairshoes.com . Read more about classic retro nike and puma sports shoes at => Nike Retro Shoes

Kansas State Wildcats College Football Team History and News

The Kansas Wildcats play for the Kansas State University. It represents the university in the North Division of the big 12 Conference and is classified under Division I of the NCAA. The team is also widely known as Kansas State, KSU or K-State. The Wildcats started playing football in 1893 during a Thanksgiving Day game against St. Mary's Academy which they won 18-10. The home stadium of the wildcats is the Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas which has a capacity of 52,200. Bill Snyder was one of the coaches of the KSU. During his time, the Wildcats had 11 seasons won including an eleven consecutive bowl game appearances. Its current coach is Ron Prince. However, he announced in November 2008 that he will no longer coach the Wildcats next season. The teams major rival is the Kansas Jaywalks. KSU's official mascot is Willie the Wildcat. Their all time record is 452-596-41 (.431).

Championships and Important Moments:

Kansas State won its first conference football championship in 1934. The New York Times called KSU "an established Middle Western leader" also in 1934. The Kansas State Wildcats competed in 13 bowl games. They had an 11 bowl appearance streak that lasted from 1993 to 2003. Wildcats players and coach won various awards such as the Lou Groza Award in 1997, the Jim Thrope Award in 2002, the Boddy Dodd Coach of the Year Awards in 1998, the Davey O'Brien Award in 1998, three Heisman Trophies in 1970, 1998 and 2003. Twenty two former Wildcats are now NFL players.

Quarterbacks in the current Roster:

-- Josh Freeman - Tysyn Hartman - Bobby Hauver - Joseph Kassanavoid - Collin Klein - Carson Coffman - Trey Scott -- Milton McPeek --

Kansas State Wildcats Recent News:

The team is currently on the look-out for a new coach. Ron Prince's three-year reign ends on November 22. Many fans are blaming him for Wildcats' losing streak. The coaching job is believed to go to Bill Snyder if he wants it. Kansas is said to desire a coach with Bowl experience and wants to hire as soon as possible. However, money might be an issue. There is still the matter of paying off Prince $1.3 to buy him out of the raise and extension given to him just last summer.

On the positive side, the November 15 loss against Nebraska Cornhuskers showed the abilities of the specials teams and the defense to score touchdowns off returns. They hope to sustain it by next season. On the players, Josh Freeman suffered a mild concussion during the Nebraska game. No further information however, was divulged by coach Prince. Questions on the future of some players, particularly Brandon Banks are being asked. Would he stay with the team now that Prince, who signed him, is leaving. Banks said that his stay will depend on the new coach that will be hired by the Kansas State.

Next game for Kansas Wildcats is on November 22, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. Against Iowa State. The venue of the game is the Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The Kansas Athletics Ticket Office is located at the south end of the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, which is attached to Allen Fieldhouse. Fans will have the chance to see the Wildcats take on the Iowa State.

When you need tickets for the Kansas State Wildcats you can count on Ticket America to get you the best seats at the best prices. If you need tickets Ticket America is the place to get them. To get Kansas State Wildcats College Football tickets before anyone else visit our website today!