Chris Rainey keeps watching the DVD of the Alabama debacle in last year's Southeastern Conference Championship Game. Sometimes it's with teammates and sometimes it's when he's all alone but always, it's a bit of self-induced torture, a necessary pain that serves as a constant reminder of the worst loss he's ever been a part of since he started playing football.
"We got embarrassed," Rainey said Thursday morning after the Florida Gators had finished their first preseason practice for their September 4 debut against Miami of Florida. "We looked like a high school team out there."
When Rainey was in high school at Lakeland, the mighty Dreadnaughts turned winning into an art form, taking their last 45 straight games --- most in convincing fashion --- as they won three straight Florida state championships and two mythical high school national championships. At Florida, Rainey took a medical redshirt his freshman year and then won a national championship ring as a redshirt freshman in 2008. Throughout the first 12 games of the 2009 season, the Gators maintained their winning ways but then came the week of the SEC Championship Game and the wheels started coming off early for Florida.
It began with the arrest of All-SEC defensive end Carlos Dunlap for DUI following a Monday night birthday party attended by a sizable group of players. The Dunlap incident and the subsequent questions about why so many Gators were partying on the Monday night before the most important game of the season created enough distraction that the Florida team that took the field Saturday night bore very little resemblance to the Gators who had won their previous 22 games.
"Every time they show the video, it's like is that us ... for real?" Rainey asks.
It was the Gators and it was real to the tune of 32-13. Alabama went on to win the national championship and while the Gators regrouped to blow Cincinnati's doors off 51-24 in the Sugar Bowl, it was little consolation for a team that went through 12 games hoping to become the first repeat national champion since Nebraska did the trick in 1994-95.
The memory of that Alabama game has everything to do with an offseason regimen that Rainey says "was ridiculous." Some of the offseason work, which Rainey says "seems like they were trying to kill us with punishment," was the handiwork of strength and conditioning coach Mickey Marotti. Outsiders looking in might think Marotti has a sadistic streak but there is method to his madness. Players who endure an offseason of his training end up bigger, stronger, faster and more importantly, tougher.
But Marotti wasn't the only one motivating the team and getting everyone to work harder in the gym and put forth the effort in the sweltering summer heat in the afternoons.
"We did it on our own," Rainey said. "That's the good thing about it. We did it on our own and we didn't have to use the coaches to tell us what to do and all that."
The end result of a motivated offseason is a team from diverse backgrounds and circumstances that has become more like a band of brothers.
"This is the closest team I've ever been around," Rainey said.
The difficulty of the offseason workouts, the collective embarrassment of that loss to Alabama and the tireless efforts of team leaders has produced a motivated the team that has closed ranks and bonded. Rainey says everybody is friendly, accountable and always looking for ways to have fun together as a team.
"There's just a bond this year like I've never seen since I've been here," he said.
Rainey and no one else would ever question Tim Tebow's dedication, determination or leadership abilities, but by the time Tebow reached his senior season at Florida, he had become a living legend and bigger than life personality who required around the clock monitoring to keep him safe from overzealous fans. And, Florida was so loaded with draftable talent that NFL distractions grew stronger with each passing week.
Add to those factors the mounting pressure of a 22-game winning streak and the weight of high expectations and the recipe was there for cracks in the team armor. Rainey says there were definitely some self-centered and divisive elements.
"You could say cliques ... [guys] worrying about themselves, worrying about trying to get to the NFL and stuff like that," Rainey said.
Tebow graduated and went to the NFL to the Denver Broncos in the first round. Nine other Gators were drafted and several others signed free agent agreements. For most teams, that kind of personnel attrition would be devastating. At Florida, it's what is expected. Graduation and the NFL will always be a part of the Gator landscape but Urban Meyer has the recruiting machine going so well that the holes are filled instantly by players of equal or perhaps even greater talent.
While this year's team might not have marquee names like Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes, there is no shortage of talent. Unlike last year's team which had to deal with the mega personalities and all the baggage that accompanied them, this group has bonded together, determined to move the Florida football program forward.
"I guess we got rid of all the prima donnas and selfish cats," Rainey said. "That's probably it this year. No rock stars this year."
There aren't any rock stars, but this team oozes with talent. Rainey, who has rushed for 1,278 yards (7.1 per carry) in his two seasons splitting time at tailback with Jeff Demps, moves to the slot this year where his speed and elusiveness should provide home run capability to a position which slumped to 350 total yards (rushing and receiving) and only one touchdown last year after averaging 1,450 and 14 touchdowns the previous three seasons.
Rainey got his first start at the slot in the Sugar Bowl where he gave the Gators more than 200 all-purpose yards rushing, receiving and returning kicks against Cincinnati. His four pass receptions for 71 yards were indicative of the kind of production that he'll be expected to give this year.
It's a new position for Rainey, who has always played tailback, but it's a change he has embraced with determination.
"Since I've been growing up I never thought I was going to be a receiver," Rainey said. "Every time I look on You Tube the receiver goes across the middle and gets the big hits and now that's not going to be me [getting hit]. I'm going to keep myself from doing that but receiver is fun. You don't get many injuries from it. A lot of running ... it's harder than running back, but I'm good at it."
In addition to learning pass routes and how to make all the catches, Rainey has also had to learn how to read defenses to adjust routes based on the coverage in the secondary.
"At receiver you have to know everything," he said. "What they call a running back you just know one thing and you're done. A receiver ... details like if on the ball or off the ball ... everything."
Everything also includes blocking. When he first came to Florida, Rainey didn't have a clue about blocking. At Lakeland, he lined up in the I-formation, took a handoff or a pitchout and let his speed and elusiveness take over. At Florida, where the offense is the spread option, a tailback has to be as much a blocker as he does runner or receiver.
That took some adjusting but Rainey discovered that blocking cornerbacks and safeties is a tad easier than taking on a defensive end or blitzing linebacker.
"Way easier, too ... somebody coming at you full speed about 250 pounds," he said with an infectious laugh.
Armed with a new position, a leadership role on the team --- he says Mike Pouncey, John Brantley, Justin Trattou, Deonte Thompson, Carl Moore and Ahmad Black are the other leaders --- and the determination to erase the memory of that Alabama game, Rainey is ready to get the season started. Like all the other Gators, that Alabama game has created a rather hefty chip on his shoulder and a searing need to prove that one game was a fluke, not the norm at Florida.
"We've got a lot to prove," he said. "The only thing we can do is get to Atlanta [for the SEC Championship Game in December]. That's all we can do. I can't stop thinking about it. I think about it every day."
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