Urban Meyer: On the impact of the running backs in the game plan: “I did a little study on the bye week on our scoring drives and almost every time we have a big play over 15 yards, we’ve scored, except for twice, and that’s for the year. Having the ability to hit a big play in the middle of the drive is just phenomenal; your percentage of scoring goes way up. (Emmanuel) Moody should be getting back this week. We’ve got some quality players there.”
University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer
On moving Matt Patchan from offense to defense early in the season: “There’s certain offensive players that can’t play defense, they just don’t have that mentality. Our line coach tries to develop a defensive mentality in all of the offensive line, the Pounceys, (Phil) Trautwein, (Jim) Tartt and (Jason) Watkins. They have the aggressive mentality. Sometimes there’s a passive mentality in the offensive line, but not here. From the first day we met him, Patchan’s had a defensive mentality. He’s very aggressive, very relentless. It was a natural change. He’s a guy that can play on defense for a long time.”
On the impact of Janoris Jenkins: “He’s a heck of a player. There are things that make Janoris what he is – he goes to class, he’s a high character guy, he has a great family, he’s appreciative of everything, he busts his tail and he’s a playmaker. Was I concerned? Yes, because sometimes at that position it’s not fair to put a freshman out there. We’ve seen guys get toasted at times, but what’s helped Janoris is that Joe Haden and Major Wright are veterans. We’ve got some veteran players out there to help him, which wasn’t the case last year when we had a lot of young guys. He’s a really good player.”
On Aaron Hernandez’s adjustment as a tight end on a running-game offense: “I don’t believe he caught a ball against LSU. He’s one of our top receivers. To have a guy that big and that skilled do what he did against LSU on the arc – every one of those big plays on the edge are because of Aaron Hernandez’s athleticism and ability to block. I think he’s doing very well. He’s an All-SEC caliber tight end.”
On his impression of Kentucky: “They’ve had some injuries, but I think they’re as well coached on defense of any team we’ll play. They’re number one in the league in defense, number one in scoring defense and third in pass defense. They’re clean. They have two excellent corners, two that we think are the best we’ll have faced this year, which tells you they’ve recruited well. When I say they’re clean, they don’t run a lot of defense, they have a unique approach. A lot of guys throw the kitchen sink at you, these guys don’t. They’re very fundamental. They don’t give you the shots, they’re going to play how they play coverage-wise and force you to methodically work the ball down the field, which is something we haven’t been great at, so it’s a heck of a challenge. Their special teams are excellent as well.”
On Brandon James’ feedback on returning punts: “He reads blocks very well. He understands the concepts. He’ll even come up to me now and tell me he likes certain returns. We have right, middle and left, like most teams. During the game, he tells me what he likes. He likes the vertical return because he really trusts the guys blocking for him. We don’t block them all. We handpick the guys that we block and he knows that. He’s a very educated, very professional punt returner, the best I’ve been around in terms of discussion.”
On Cornelius Ingram: “The pro scouts love him. He’s going to graduate from Florida. There’s a lot of positive energy about him, like I said, for his professional career. He’s going to leave Florida with a degree and a national championship ring. The word ‘heartbreaking’ has never come out of my mouth. When his injury happened, I was disappointed, and I felt for the guy because he works as hard as anyone. Right now, CI is taking the same approach as we are. This is a good looking young guy that’s a first-generation college graduate in his family, he’s got a great life ahead of him and the pro scouts love him, so it’s all good for CI right now. He’s doing great.”
Quarterback Tim Tebow
On Florida’s play on offense: “The pieces are there. We have to keep working, executing, and getting things right. If we eliminate the mistakes we’ve made over the past few weeks, we’ll do fine. We have moved the ball efficiently and effectively throughout the year. We put drive-after-drive together and we’ll keep rolling with the momentum.”
On the key to staying sharp coming off a bye week: “Focus. We need to come out with the same intensity we had against LSU. I think our intensity during that game has been the highest we’ve played at so far this year. It’s an early game; we have to be ready to go and come out fired up.”
On Maurkice Pouncey’s effort to sprint over 40-yards downfield: “The Pounceys always give that type of effort. They are high motor, high-level guys who always play with a ton of intensity. Everyone should have that type of effort. It makes you smile as a player, coach, and a fan, because those kind of guys love to play football and they’re doing everything they can to win. I think you can see that from everyone on our team. I hope that the effort does not fade and we all will continue to do everything they can to help out their teammates.”
On how the splits helped against LSU: “We tried to put guys into space more. Most teams aren’t used to seeing those kind of splits, which made it tougher on the defensive tackles to react in the space we created. It puts another bind on the big, strong guys only looking to plug gaps because they have to get off blocks and then handle someone like Chris Rainey or Jeff Demps.”
On Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps: “We can tell during our live scrimmages. We know when they really make people miss and when they don’t really make people miss. They are special guys who can handle that kind of pressure very well. They both have the ability to create, which is what I think makes them so special.”