Game week practice for the Florida Gators‘ 2010 season opener is officially underway and, with their first game coming on Saturday at 12 p.m. against the Miami (OH) RedHawks, coaches and players were made available to the media after practice on Tuesday. OGGOA has compiled some of the key details.
SIXTH CAPTAIN ADDED
Five Florida football players – redshirt senior linebacker A.J. Jones and seniors safety Ahmad Black, center Mike Pouncey, defensive end Justin Trattou and DE Duke Lemmens – were voted as captains by their teammates Saturday, according to head coach Urban Meyer. On Tuesday, Meyer said that redshirt senior defensive tackle Lawrence Marsh has been added, giving the Gators six captains this year.
TWO REDSHIRTS HANDED OUT
Freshmen defensive end Lynden Trail and defensive tackle Leon Orr will both be redshirted for the 2010-11 season, according to assistant head coach and defensive line coach Dan McCarney. “They’re not ready to play in the SEC, not ready to play winning football,” McCarney said, according to the Palm Beach Post‘s Jason Lieser. Ouch!
Trail would have been – at best – the seventh DE to play this season, while Orr has at least five other players in front of him. Trail, along with tight end Michael McFarland, had his black helmet stripe removed during practice on Monday.
Meyer noted Tuesday that wide receiver Solomon Patton had his stripe taken off.
QUOTE
Redshirt senior running back Emmanuel Moody on redshirt junior WR Chris Rainey breaking out: “I think he’s going to have a big year this year. We’re excited to see him returning punts as well. […] He’s making plays left and right. He’s taking them to the house sometimes. He’s making people miss, making people look foolish, breaking ankles out there. One time he made a play on Jelani Jenkins and Jelani didn’t know where Rainey was. Once he gets the ball in his hands this season, it will be electric.”
1 » Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Tim Tebow’s initial performance as a professional did little to sway his doubters – most notably former QB Joe Theismann and UCLA Bruins offensive coordinator Norm Chow. Theismann, who has been on Tebow’s case since before the 2010 NFL Draft, claims that many of his contemporaries were surprised to see the signal caller drafted I n the first round. “I would hope there isn’t anybody who would say Tim Tebow was going to come in and start for the Broncos this year,” Theismann said, according to The Denver Post. “It would have been too great an expectation for him. […] if you can’t refine his delivery, then he’s going to struggle to become a consistent quarterback. […] It’s long and low. Randall Cunningham had a long windup, but it was high. Tim’s is long and low. The ball is away from his body a long time.”
Chow agrees. “I don’t think Vince [Young] was ready because of where he came from. I don’t think Tebow is quite ready because of where he came from,” he said. “The intricacies of a pro passing game are unbelievable. It takes time. […] They said they were going to change his throwing style and that’s a bunch of bologna. You don’t change, in one summer, the throwing style a guy has been using for 20 years of his life.” Chow doesn’t even thing Tebow will survive as a running QB. “Tebow’s strength, obviously, is running the ball, and he’s not going to be able to do that in the NFL. We tried to do some of that stuff my first year with Vince, and he had a little success. But once teams figured it out – which in the NFL it usually takes them a half, or a quarter to figure things out – it wasn’t very effective anymore. All it’s going to do is you’re taking a lot of hits. And you’re not going to survive if you take a lot of hits in the NFL.”
2 » Florida Gators junior safety Will Hill knows it is his time to shine in the team’s starting secondary. Now holding the full-time job, Hill is aware that he will have an important role in the team’s success. “I feel the same responsibility as when Major [Wright] was here last year,” Hill said, according to The Gainesville Sun. “Just become a leader and help the team win the next game. […] I’ve been looking forward to [starting] for a while now. I just have to sit back and do my job and everything will come to me.”
The 2010 version of the Florida Gators is in the midst of their second week of fall practice and, while the activities were once again closed to both the media and public, some notable things did occur Tuesday. OGGOA has compiled some of the key details.
INJURIES PILING UP
Redshirt junior fullback Steven Wilks will miss about a month after having surgery on his back last week. He is expected to make a full recovery. Sophomore left tackle Xavier Nixon (ankle) is sitting out while his main competition, redshirt sophomore Matt Patchan (wrist), is back working out. Like Nixon, redshirt senior defensive tackle Lawrence Marsh (hamstring) is currently recovering and listed as day-to-day. Redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Rainey (accelerated heartbeat) is at full speed, and though junior running back Jeff Demps has missed a few practices with a concussion, he is back, too.
MORE STRIPES COME OFF
Freshmen offensive tackle Ian Silberman and tight end Gerald Christian both had their black helmet stripes removed on Tuesday. That now makes 10 frosh who are stripe-less with 16 more to go.
POWELL TAKING A WHILE
With freshmen DTs Sharrif Floyd and Dominique Easley and safety Matt Elam impressing early, defensive end Ronald Powell is bringing up the rear in terms of development for arguably the team’s top four 2010 recruits. “Powell’s a little bit behind [Floyd and Easley], but he’s coming on,” head coach Urban Meyer said. “He gained a little weight, because he wants to be bigger. We’re trying to knock a few pounds off him.”
QUOTES
Meyer on sophomore S Will Hill’s improvement: “Night and day. There were a lot of issues. We’ve got 105 guys and he was a guy that drank the poison, or whatever you want to call it. Now he’s going as hard as we’ve ever had a safety go around here, and he’s doing really well. He and [co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach] Chuck Heater have a good little deal going on back there. His position coach is real strong. Everyone knows Heater. He handles things a certain way and expects great effort and great performance on- and off-the-field. We’re starting to see that now with him.”
Meyer on defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach Teryl Austin’s effect on junior CB Janoris Jenkins: “The same thing you see from our safeties. We have a big saying around here: ‘power of the unity.’ That’s a unit that’s really going well and [Jenkins] is the leader. Night and day. You’re going to see a really good player this season. He’s no nonsense. He’s just 100 percent all the time. It’s a credit to his position coach. Change is good. The transition is good. Janoris is the man there and he knows it.”
Meyer on S Jordan Haden transferring: “Jordan’s a great young man. […] When you have that name on the back of your jersey, that’s darn near Tebow-ish. That’s Pouncey-ish. When you start talking about the name, there’s an expectation level that is sometimes not fair. […] I was worried about that when we first started recruiting him because those are tough shoes to fill right there. But he’ll be fine, and we’ll help him do all we can.”
Meyer on the WRs as a whole: “Deonte [Thompson] is there, Carl Moore’s there. I’m hoping Omarius Hines gets there real soon. Quinton Dunbar is darn close – that kid’s good. Andre Debose is struggling – just dead legs right now, but he’s coming back.”
Meyer clarifying Hines’ role on the team: “He’s not a tight end, he’s a movement guy. [...] We’re kind of created a position in the last few years, the ‘Percy [Harvin] position’ and the ‘Aaron Hernandez position,’ and if you have that, you can be dynamic. I think he’s got that kind of ability. He’s doing well.”
Concluding the Florida Gators‘ first day of fall practice for the 2010-11 season, head coach Urban Meyer sat with reporters for quite some time to discuss a number of topics including his outlook on the team, players leaving the program and why exactly camp has been closed to both the media and fans. OGGOA has compiled some of the key points:
PERSONNEL
» Meyer announced that seniors center Mike Pouncey and defensive end Justin Trattou are the team’s two fall captains. Senior safety Ahmad Black and redshirt senior defensive tackle Lawrence Marsh may be added to the group at a later date.
» Doing some housekeeping, Meyer told reporters that redshirt sophomroe wide receiver T.J. Lawrence and the team mutually agreed to part ways. More on this here.
» He also explained that redshirt freshman tight end Desmond Parks will likely be out 2-3 weeks after previously injuring his wrist and undergoing a procedure to fix the issue.
» Meyer noted that five-star linebacker transfer Chris Martin is already working with the team in camp even though he must sit out a year due to NCAA transfer eligibility rules.
QUOTES
» Explaining to reporters that his motivation for closing practice was not about restricting their access but rather curbing the distractions that agents and autograph hounds cause his players every day, Meyer touched on two subjects in particular…
On the growing concern regarding agents: “With all that agent [stuff], and I’m hearing about parties and all this, my gosh. We just want to do the best job we can. We’re going to have a lot of discussions around here and continue non-stop education because it’s an epidemic. You hear people talking about this school and this school. That’s nuts. The good thing is the other side of it [the agents] wants to help. When I say they really want to help, there are going to be some positive things come out of this. Real positive.”
On others trying to take advantage of the players’ generosity: “We’ve had a great discussion with a group of us that got together and we’re trying to make some changes. Anything from signing balls to getting them sold on the Internet to practice, where people are showing up. In the fall, we’re going to shut it down. There are people showing up, ‘Why are you here?’ We can’t control our players’ lives, but we certainly can do the best we can. You should have the right as a player to walk from here to there without being bothered. That’s my fault for five years. That’s crazy. I tell that to my colleagues, people just mauling you and bothering you and Internet people grabbing helmets and signing this and all this, and we don’t have security saying, ‘Get the heck out of here.’ You’ll see a lot of ‘get the heck out of here’ from now on and let the kids go practice and concentrate on football. Big-time rules. I’m concerned about stuff where you get NCAA violations and scumbags that are involved that shouldn’t be involved. One way to control it is, get out.”
» On the team’s goal for the 2010-11 season: “This is a year of accountability and development. If that happens, we’ll have a good team.”
» When told about redshirt junior running back Chris Rainey‘s “prima donna” comments in the morning, Meyer quipped that it was the team’s “fault for letting him speak” while noting that Rainey’s comments were “absolutely wrong.” “Rainey said that? Chris Rainey won’t speak to the media again this year,” Meyer added in a joke-serious tone.
“I can name some other things he said to the media that were absolutely inappropriate, and that goes in the same category, believe it or not. So, take that for nothing. Inappropriate, wrong, non-thought out, which he does quite often. I love Chris Rainey, but when I ask him a question, I give him a whole day to think about it and write it down 100 times.”
The 2007 season was arguably the worst the Florida Gators have played since head coach Urban Meyer took over the program in 2005. That is often what happens when a team’s starting quarterback (Chris Leak) graduates, it loses the majority of its defensive starters to the NFL Draft (defensive linemen Jarvis Moss, Ray McDonald, Marcus Thomas and Joe Cohen, safeties Reggie Nelson and Ryan Smith, linebacker Brandon Siler) and a few other key pieces leave as well (wide receiver Dallas Baker, running back DeShawn Wynn).
Considering the departures following the 2009 season (QB Tim Tebow, WR Riley Cooper, tight end Aaron Hernandez, center Maurkice Pouncey, cornerback Joe Haden, DE Carlos Dunlap, S Major Wright, LBs Brandon Spikes and Jermaine Cunningham) appear eerily similar (if not greater) to those that occurred before 2007 got underway, many might expect the Gators to experience a similar downfall. Perhaps they will go from back-to-back one-loss seasons to a similar 9-4 record, 5-3 performance in the Southeastern Conference and maybe even a bowl game loss?
Flying into West Palm Beach, FL, for a Gator Gathering with the Palm Beach County Gator Club on Monday evening, Florida Gators offensive coordinator Steve Addazio was anything but tired from a long day’s work. He gave a passionate and informative speech and answered questions for over 90 minutes before departing. Below is a recap of some of the more newsworthy, interesting and passionate things that Addazio had to say during the event:
With the Florida Gators 2010 spring practice now in full swing, there is plenty of newsworthy information around the program. Rather than publishing it all in long form, OGGOA thought it would be best to lay it out piece-by-piece. We continue this series with a look at team practice from Fri., April 2.
Absences/Injuries:
» After missing two consecutive days of practice due to “personal issues,” redshirt senior wide receiver Carl Moore was one of the first players on the field Friday and practiced in full. He worked mostly with the second team but did have some nice receptions.
»Junior running back Jeff Demps attended practice but did not participate. Earlier in the day, he ran a 2010 world record 10.11-second 100-meter dash at the Pepsi Florida Relays. He has already won the 60-meter indoor National Championship.
» Freshman WR Solomon Patton and redshirt freshman WR Stephen Alli both worked away from the team, appearing to be hobbled to injury. Patton had a boot on his left leg to protect his ankle. Both should be fine and were likely sitting out as a precaution.
» Fellow Freshman WR Robert Clark was fitted for a boot after injuring his foot in practice. He will have X-rays to determine the injury’s seriousness.
» Junior defensive end Lerentee McCray was not in pads Friday.
Flying into West Palm Beach, FL, for a Gator Gathering with the 
