Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Highlights from Florida's Media Day

After a rather refreshing spring and summer in which he got took time away from football for the first time in his coaching career, Urban Meyer seems refreshed and enthused, ready to coach again. At Tuesday's Media Day, Meyer really didn't give away any trade secrets but he couldn't hide his enthusiasm to be back on the field coaching again. 

It's a new year with plenty of new challenges and the first time in four years that Meyer has had to coach without the benefit of Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes, not to mention seven other players who were drafted by the NFL and several who signed free agent contracts with a pro team. 

For some teams, losses like that would represent a step backward but it's still Florida and it's still Urban Meyer pulling the strings for the Gators, which means the cupboard is far from bare.

"Other than '07 this has been one of the newest [teams] but I will tell you what, there is a lot of talent running around on that field," Meyer said Tuesday. "I think you will be excited to see what that Florida team looks like ... not now. They're awful right now but in a couple of weeks they will be pretty good."

* * * 

A good reason for the excitement is fourth-year junior quarterback Johnny Brantley, who just might have the best and most accurate arm of any quarterback in UF history. Brantley has paid his dues and waited his turn to take over the position he's been dreaming about playing at the University of Florida since he was six years old. Now that he's the starter and the team leader, Brantley said can look back on the last three years and realize the benefits of taking a redshirt season (2007) before a two-year apprenticeship behind Tim Tebow.


"When I look back I'm happy that I redshirted," Brantley said. "Taking that year and two more years helped me to mature and grow up and learn this game. I got to learn from one of the best quarterbacks that will ever play. When I look back I'm just happy sat back I'm happy that I took those years off I guess you'd say, or just sat back and watched the game of football."


Asked if he's ready to take over, Brantley sounded assured when he replied, "I believe so."


Quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler, whose pupils who play in the NFL include Tom Brady, Chad Henne and Brian Griese, couldn't agree more. 


"He's the starting quarterback of the Florida Gators," Loeffler said. "He understands that the responsibility of being confident and poised under pressure is really important around here. He's developing into it and he's right where we want him. He's ready to lead this team." 


* * * 


This is the deepest Florida roster in the Meyer era. While the Gators have enormous reservoirs of talent at most positions, Meyer says the Gators are close but still not in a perpetual reload mode. 


"A junior can leave for the pros and it sets you back a little bit bit but it's as close probably as you can get," Meyer said. "I'm pleased with where we are but you never really have enough." 

Meyer used the safety position as an example.


"We're thin right there," Meyer said, adding that if Major Wright (third round draft pick of the Chicago Bears) had stayed for his senior year, safety might be one position where the Gators are considered as deep and talented as there is in the country.


* * *
While twin brother Maurkice Pouncey left a year early for the NFL (first round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers), Mike Pouncey elected to come back to switch from right guard to Maurkice's old center position. By staying the extra year, Mike's NFL draft status should soar (centers are usually drafted higher and make more money than guards) not only because of the position switch but because he has now become what Meyer calls the ultimate team leader. 

"There can't be a better leader than Mike Pouncey," Meyer said. 

"I'm a vocal leader," Pouncey said. e put me in this position to be a captain and leader of this team and I've been embracing it and taking it head on."


Mike has always been a leader on the field, but he says that now that he has the responsibility of being a senior as well as a team captain, he knows he has to be a leader by example off the field as well.


"Those young guys are always watching," he said. "When you're the leader, you've got to set the right example on the field and off the field. People follow the leader so it's a big responsibility to do the right thing."


* * *

Senior safety Ahmad Black admits he wasn't a very good practice player during his freshman season in 2007. Once he changed his attitude about practice, he became a starter (finished second nationally with eight interceptions in 2008; was the team's top tackler in the secondary in 2009) and has become one of the top safeties in the nation.


"I attack practice like a game," Black said. "Therefore, when it's time for the game, it's easier. We try to make the practices harder than the game and that makes the game easier.  Once I became a better practice player, things started slowing down for me a little bit more. I saw things that I didn't see before."  


Black credits Gator All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes with teaching him how to be a better leader. 


"Me and Spikes would be sitting around playing a video game and I would ask him, 'what do I have to do to get the guys to respect me? What do I need to do to get the guys to listen to me ... we'd just have a lot of small talk," Black said. 


* * *
Fourth-year junior wide receiver Deonte Thompson is expected to finally blossom and become Florida's go-to guy this year. When he came out of Belle Glade, Thompson was the fastest wide receiver in the nation (10.32 100 meters) and considered a can't miss prospect, but he admits it hasn't been an easy road. 

"I had a lot of growing up to do," Thompson said, crediting former Gator (now Oakland Raider) Louis Murphy with taking him under his wing and patiently helping him smooth out the rough spots.

"He's like my brother," Thompson said. "He's my man. We talk a lot. When I got here, it seemed we just clicked. Whenever I fell down he was right there for me. He had a lot of stories for me. He went through a lot, too. He didn't have an easy road either."

Just as Murphy exploded his fourth year at Florida, Thompson is expected to make all those long hours spent on hot summer days catching endless passes from Brantley pay off this year. Brantley and Thompson arrived on campus the same time and have spent so much time pitching and catching that Thompson says he can almost run routes blindfolded and still catch the pass because he and JB are in total synch with each other. 

They have spent so much time together that Thompson says they can communicate without using any words. 

"We can ... and we've got signals and stuff, too," Thompson said. 


FRESHMAN NOTES: Tailback Mack Brown says he's 203 pounds now but will probably play this year at around 200. His chronic hamstring problems have been solved, in part, because of a different diet. 


"I've eliminated the fried foods from my diet," Brown said. "I'm eating baked, broiled and grilled foods now and that's got a lot to do with it. I'm eating healthier and feeling a lot better."


Defensive tackle Dominique Easley, who hails from Staten Island, New York, says the toughest adjustments for him were getting used to the Florida heat and living somewhere that it isn't wall-to-wall people. 


"It took me about a month to get used to the heat and I'm still adjusting," Easley said. "I love it here but it's different ... like a small town compared to New York. It's a lot quieter and a lot more laid back."


Defensive end Ronald Powell, who was considered the number one high school player in the nation, said he went through a mini-football culture shock when he saw all the schemes he had to learn and then realized that every player on the Florida roster is extremely talented.


"That's definitely been a shock here," Powell said. "I have to adjust to everything. We have a lot of great players here. When you compete against great players that work hard every day, that's actually good and you're definitely going to be up for a challenge."



INJURIES: Slot receiver Chris Rainey had a procedure done to correct what Meyer called a "racing heartbeat." Apparently it sounds more serious than it is because Meyer expected Rainey to be ready to go by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. 

Asked about the seriousness of Rainey's heart problem, Meyer responded, "I asked the same question. It is an accelerated heartbeat. Our guys (doctors) do a very thorough job here so they took care of him and everything is fine."

Junior tackle Matt Patchan suffered a hairline fracture of his write, what Meyer called a "10-day to two-week injury." Patchan, who sat out spring practice while rehabbing his knee (ACL last season), is otherwise in good health. Florida's media guide lists Patchan at 6-6 and 292 pounds but a couple of players said the junior from Tampa is pushing 300 for the first time in his career.

"We're just working with him on the sideline and being cautious with him," Meyer said.

Freshman wide receiver Chris Dunkley has chronic hamstring problems that have plagued him since his senior year in high school. 

"I was in the meeting room with him yesterday and it is just a 10-day injury so they are going to watch him really closely on a certain program," Meyer said. 


SAVING MONEY AT THE BARBER SHOP: Redshirt freshman Jon Halapio says he hasn't had a haircut since he was a junior in high school. The 6-3, 312-pound guard of Tongan descent, who is fighting for the starter's job on the right side of the offensive line, has a rather bushy mane that he pulls back and ties into a rather thick pony tail that hangs well below the bottom of his helmet. 


"I was thinking about getting it cut but my mother wouldn't let me," Halapio said. "She says she might not see my number but she can always tell where I am by looking for my hair."


Halapio, who is the human equivalent of a rather large concrete block, says he can bench press 225 pounds 31 consecutive reps. 



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