Former Gator Percy Harvin Drafted by Minnesota Vikings
Saturday, April 25, 2009 | Football
University of Florida football wide receiver Percy Harvin was selected by the Minnesota Vikings with the 22nd pick of the first round in the 2009 National Football League Draft Saturday, which was held in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.
“I'm happy for Percy,” said Florida head coach Urban Meyer. “He had dreams of coming to Florida to win championships and then have an opportunity to play in the NFL. His dreams came true.”
Harvin is the fourth first-round draft choice Urban Meyer has coached at Florida, and the fifth first-round draft pick Meyer has coached in his career. The Gators have now had 39 players selected in the opening round of the Draft.
“It was a great privilege (to be picked by the Vikings), actually going through this whole process,” Harvin said. “Me and my agent, Joel Segal, who helped me out a ton, we kind of went through the teams we wanted to go to. Minnesota was kind of number one on my list, just being a team that I could grow from, being under Bernard Berrian and being that they already got a workhorse in Adrian Peterson. I'm just looking to come in and help win and be a (piece of) this puzzle. I'm looking forward to being a Viking and helping the team win.”
Harvin is the 32nd wide receiver taken in the NFL Draft out of Florida, and the sixth Gator wide out taken in the first round. The last UF receiver to be taken in the Draft was Andre Caldwell, who was picked by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2008 Draft. Harvin is the highest Florida receiver taken since Travis Taylor was selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the 10th overall pick of the 2000 NFL Draft.
“We really meet (players) in kind of sound bites if you will; 15 minutes at a time, into the office for a 20-minute meeting,” Vikings head coach Brad Childress said. “I just wanted to be able to sit and talk to him, with coach (Urban) Meyer, talk to the coaches on their staff, coach (Charlie) Strong. I was able to get in a car and have him drive me over to meet his family over towards Jacksonville. It was interesting. We traveled right through Starke, Florida, where Letroy Guion is from. So I was able to just spend time on his turf and be able to ask a bunch of questions and get a bunch of answers and just have a better feel for the guy. I have talked to Urban before, but to be able to sit in his office and talk with him very transparently about the young man, who he is, and what he stands for.”
“One of the things I thought about Coach Childress and Rick Spielman was how thorough they are as far as big shots in NFL franchises,” Meyer continuted. “It is what it is. It's like us recruiting a player without getting to know the coaching staff, where they just spent four years in high school. So, we just spent three years with Percy Harvin. Coach Childress came down and Rick Spielman came down (to Florida) himself. They could not have done a more thorough job. I think when you start talking about the future of a franchise, the first round pick, that's what you have to do. So, we had a great discussion, asked all the in-depth questions, and the relationship between the Vikings and the Gators is tremendous.”
It is the first time that Minnesota has selected a wide receiver out of Florida, and Harvin became the 10th Gator picked by the Vikings. Ciatrick Fason was the last UF player drafted by Minnesota in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft.
“Well, I mentioned certainly the return game,” Childress added. “I don't think he can throw it, but I know you can hand it to him. I know he can catch it. I know he has operated out of that Wildcat situation before. Obviously he was a tremendous basketball player. I have talked to you guys before about having a certain guy back there. You can't just put a guy back there. You got to have a guy that has skills in terms of being able to think his way through: dish the ball off, hand it, run it between the tackles. He has done some of those things as well as the stuff on the edge as a receiver.”
Harvin was the consummate dual threat at wide receiver and running back while at Florida, amassing over 1,800 yards rushing and 1,900 yards receiving and scoring 32 total touchdowns in just three seasons. He is one of only two wide receivers in Division I-A football since 1996 to have over 1,500 rushing and 1,500 receiving yards, and is the only wide receiver to accomplish those numbers in just three seasons dating back to 1996. Harvin owns the record for most career yards rushing by a Florida wide receiver (1,852) and the most rushing yards in a single season by a UF receiver (858 yards in 2007). He totaled six 100-yard rushing games and six 100-yard receiving games in his career and is the only player in Florida history to have 100 yards rushing and receiving in a game, doing so against Vanderbilt in 2007. Harvin averaged 9.5 yards per carry as a Gator, the highest career average for any player in Division I since 1996 with at least 100 carries.
Drafted Gators Round Pick (Overall) Team
Percy Harvin 1 22 (22) Minnesota Vikings
Florida Football Draft Notes:
Thirty-nine Gator players have been selected in the opening round of the NFL Draft. A breakdown on those selections includes nine running backs, nine defensive linemen, six wide receivers, four offensive linemen, four linebackers, four defensive backs, and three quarterbacks.
Florida has had a player drafted in the first-round in 10 of the last 13 years, and 20 of the last 27.
A Florida receiver has been drafted in 14 of the last 16 years, and 18 Gator wide outs have been selected during that stretch. In all, there have been 32 UF wide receivers selected in the draft. Harvin is the highest Gator wide receiver drafted since Travis Taylor was chosen with the 10th overall pick by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2000 NFL Draft.
Under head coach Urban Meyer, Florida has had 15 players taken in the NFL Draft (as of the 22nd pick overall), third-most in the SEC since the 2006 Draft.
UF had at least 40 players chosen in the NFL Draft for the decades of 1950, 1970, 1980 and 1990. UF has already had 48 selections from the years 2000-08, setting a school record for choices in a decade.
Percy Harvin is the fourth first round draft choice Urban Meyer has coached at Florida.
Harvin became the first Gator wide receiver drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. He was the first Florida player selected by the organization since Ciatrick Fason was a fourth round choice in 2005.
SEC Draft Notes
The first overall pick and three of the first six picks in the 2009 NFL Draft came from the Southeastern Conference. It is the fifth time in the last 12 years that the SEC had the No. 1 overall pick.
Since conference expansion in 1992, the SEC has had 107 first round selections in 17 drafts, an average of 6.29 selections per draft.
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