Meyer remains confident in program's direction
Thursday, September 16, 2010 | Football, Scott Carter
Gators head coach Urban Meyer has had one of those weeks that it seems nearly every major college football coach has at least once a season these days.
A player makes headlines for his off-the-field behavior. Media attention is turned up a notch. Fan message boards overheat.
While junior receiver Chris Rainey's arrest Tuesday created the situation, Meyer remains confident in the direction of the program.
“We follow the rules and some guys make some mistakes and we've got to correct those mistakes, but we follow the rules, we do it the right way at Florida,'' Meyer said Thursday evening. “We have to do a better job of correcting some of the people making mistakes.”
Meyer and his staff constantly educate players about staying away from off-the-field trouble, but sometimes that's not enough to avoid the unwelcome attention a player's arrest can bring.
“After a while, enough's enough,'' Meyer said. “If there's something we can improve on, we're certainly looking into that. It's like if our graduation rate stinks, then we've got to improve that. If there's other issues in the program, that's our job to get it better.''
ROUTINE, ROUTINE, ROUTINE
Considering that 39 of the 69 Florida players who have seen action in the first two games are either freshmen or sophomores, a packed Neyland Stadium on Saturday when the Gators play at Tennessee will be a new environment for many of them.
Meyer says the team has worked hard this week in practice to acclimate the players to what they can expect in Knoxville.
“All you can do is what you can do. You can't worry about it,'' Meyer said. “As far as playing in front of that big crowd, there is probably going to be some wide eyes. You get through the first couple of minutes of that game, and you'll be fine.
“We just can't mess up the routine. All great players, all great teams have routines.''
MEYER ON RAINEY
While Rainey is currently not part of the team, Meyer has had contact with the junior from Lakeland.
“I did speak with him and he's very angry and disappointed that the whole thing happened,” Meyer said. “But we've gotta move on. We consider this a family. Sometimes family members make terrible mistakes and you've got to move on.
“I probably see a little bit of that [in this team], especially with the guys who have been here a long time and never had an issue.''
EXTRA POINTS
Senior DT Lawrence Marsh will travel to the Tennessee game but won't play according to Meyer; Marsh suffered a cut on his forearm that required several stitches on Wednesday after a sink he was leaning on at the team's practice facility broke … Meyer said junior S Will Hill “is going to play'' on Saturday after missing the first two games … Redshirt freshman WR Andre DeBose has had a solid week of practice. “He is more of an elongated receiver who can go make plays. He's got a lot of speed; more speed than I thought.''
