11/13 Orange Blue News

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In order to make sure Florida Gators-related news stories don't fall through the cracks, once or twice a week The Silver Lining will take on a "news and notes" format to keep you up-to-date with the latest goings on in the world of University of Florida athletics.

Gators basketball lost a top target on four-star center Joel Embiid officially committed to Kansas over Florida and Texas. Despite playing for The Rock School in Gainesville, FL, Embiid saw playing in Lawrence, KS as a better opportunity. It was certainly tough for Kansas to pull Embiid out of Gainesville and Florida's grasp but there is no doubt that former UF assistant coach Norm Roberts, now working under Bill Self at KU, was instrumental in making that happen.

A random stat from the NFL this weekend: four former Gators recovered fumbles in a single day. Cincinnati defensive end Carlos Dunlap, Jacksonville DE Jeremy Mincey, New England DE Jermaine Cunningham and New York Giants safety Will Hill all picked up balls off the ground and came up with turnovers for their respective team. Dunlap had the best day out of any, however, adding five tackles (four solo, one for loss), 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hits to his stat line.

There is something about playing Miami that seems to get the best out of Houston forward Chandler Parsons, who scored a career-high 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting on Monday. Parsons went 5-for-10 from beyond the arc, 4-for-4 from the line and filled out his stat line with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Parsons's previous career-high was 23 points, which he also registered against Miami in the second-to-last game of his rookie season.

One way to quantify how great of a job head coach Will Muschamp has done with the Gators football team is to take a look at Florida's schedule difficulty this season. According to the NCAA, the Gators have the toughest schedule in the FBS (side note: Texas A&M, Missouri and Kentucky, all teams UF has beaten, are also in the top five). Florida's past opposition boasts a 53-29 record, its future opponent (FSU) is 7-1 and that makes its cumulative opponent winning record 60-30 (66.6 percent). The other teams in which UF may be competing for a BCS bowl appearance check in at 64.7 percent (Texas A&M), 58.5 percent (LSU) and 46.2 percent (Georgia). UGA's is 83rd in the nation. For comparison's sake, Florida State's is 52.4 percent, 50th nationally.

Rex Ryan may have allowed New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow to be on the field for more snaps and attempt the most passes (3-for-3) he has yet this season, but he is still not ready to make a quarterback change despite the fact that Mark Sanchez has opened the season 3-6 with a 70.4 passer rating, which is 30th in the league. Tebow felt that going to play in New York would give him the best opportunity to eventually start again in the league. He did not want to go to Jacksonville because he felt like the coaching staff had no desire to have him a part of the roster. As it turns out, while the Jets may like his presence and appreciate him as a football player, they are most certainly not using him up to his capabilities.

Solid weekend action is ahead for the Gators, but Florida also has some big mid-week games as well. No. 10 basketball is set to host No. 20 Wisconsin on Wednesday (7 p.m., ESPN2) in its first game against a top-25 opponent this season. On Thursday, both swimming and women's basketball will take on Florida State in Tallahassee, FL. Head women's basketball coach Amanda Butler picked up her 100th win over the weekend and will be going for No. 101 against UF's biggest rival (7 p.m., ESPN3.com) as she hopes to continue building the team's 2-0 record.