This morning, Brandon Spikes finally ended the speculation of whether he would enter the Linebacker-heavy NFL draft in 2008 or follow Tim Tebow and return for his Senior season at the University of Florida and hope to repeat as National Champions. The speculation was ended by his announcement that he would return to Florida for two reasons; improving his draft status with the NFL and repeating as National Champions in 2009.

The AP All-American Linebacker fueled speculation that he may enter the draft when he was a no-show for the fans at the celebration of the BCS title on January 11, 2009. Many fans thought that he may already be in meetings with the NFL or not have been allowed with the team since he had already made his decision to leave for the pros. All of this was proved wrong on Thursday morning. The real reason he missed the celebration was to spend time with his family in South Florida after the National Championship game. He stayed over the weekend and did not ride back on the team bus.

With this announcement, the Gators will return all 11 of their starters from their National Championship team, which is exactly the opposite from their 2006 championship in which they lost almost everyone.

With this news coming on the heels of Tebow's announcement of his intention to stay, Gator Nation will hopefully await Percy Harvin's announcement that is sure to come later in the day.

UPDATE: ESPN and WRUF radio have released that Percy is leaving for the NFL. He has not made (and possibly will not) an official announcement yet, but a "close source" has released the information for him to specific media sources.

Rusty Thompson is a contributor to GatorTailgating.com.