By ANTONYA ENGLISH and FRANK PASTOR
Published December 31, 2003
TAMPA - Bowl season also means agent season, and things are heating up as agents try to persuade seniors to sign with them for upcoming contract negotiations when they turn pro.
As the Gators prepare to play Iowa on Thursday, the business cards are multiplying.
"They'll try to talk to you just to let you know they are out there, that they are interested," Florida senior receiver Kelvin Kight said. "You just listen to what they've got to say. It's not illegal or anything. You just listen to them if you choose to, and if they seem like someone you might want to talk to, you can give them a call. They're here. Sometimes they'll come up to you; sometimes they'll get somebody else to come up to you and give you a card or something like that. It's almost like high school recruiting all over again."
Florida senior All-American cornerback Keiwan Ratliff was bombarded at the ESPN awards event in Orlando, but has gotten used to being chased by agents.
"You'll get a card or two here and there," Ratliff said of agents in Tampa. "They'll walk by and hand you a card, things like that. But that's everywhere you go. You can go to a mall, and one will hand you a card."
Ratliff was once approached by an agent in Gainesville who simply handed him a card and walked off.
SNELL RETURNS: Florida senior offensive lineman Shannon Snell, who sat out Monday's practice with a temperature of 100, returned to workouts. Center Mike Degory missed his second practice to be at his grandfather's funeral, but Gators coach Ron Zook said the sophomore likely would be back late Tuesday night.
THE BIG NIGHT: How will the Gators celebrate New Year's Eve? As they would any other night before a game: dinner and a movie. Curfew is at 11 p.m., and Zook said players are expected to be in their rooms before 2004.
OPENING DAYS: It seems every time Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz turns on the television or picks up a newspaper, he sees his name mentioned in relation to an NFL coaching opening. Ferentz's name resurfaced when ESPN's John Clayton called him a candidate in Washington, where Steve Spurrier resigned after two seasons. But Ferentz, who acknowledged Monday he had heard from "more than one" NFL team, said he had not received any new calls. "Not to my knowledge," Ferentz said. Ferentz, who has been linked to openings with the Giants, Falcons and Cardinals, tried to distance himself from such reports by saying there are better candidates. He said the only reason he has been contacted is because he has NFL experience, having served as an offensive assistant in Cleveland and Baltimore from 1993-98. "Some of the names you hear being thrown around, myself and Nick Saban, we both coached there," Ferentz said. "I'm assuming that's probably the only real reason. But there are 10 people contacted for every job, so there are a lot of guys out there that are better candidates than I am, I'm sure, so it's not that big a deal."
WHO KNOWS?: While acknowledging there are differences between coaching in college and the NFL, Ferentz didn't know why Spurrier didn't succeed with the Redskins. "The only thing I can say, because I wasn't at Washington, is there are a lot of elements that go into making a successful team at any level and, certainly in professional football," Ferentz said. "There are a lot of things that go into it beyond just the head coach, and it just didn't work out, apparently."
READY OR NOT: Iowa receiver Maurice Brown, who missed five games with an ankle sprain, will start despite not being at full speed, Ferentz said. "He hasn't missed one workout since we got started, even back in Iowa City, and that surprised me," Ferentz said. "I thought he'd have to be limited, but he's worked hard, and the good news is he's not 100 percent as far as his speed goes, but I think his conditioning is going to be a lot better than it's been. When he came back in, he never got a chance to really get in shape."
