The tough part for Chris Rainey is the eating. He forcibly consumed countless numbers of meals, waiting for his moment on the field to arrive. In front of a national television audience on Saturday, Rainey made sure to take advantage of the spotlight.
“Some slimy green stuff,” Rainey said of the nastiest food he downed in the offseason. “I still have no clue what that is.”
There’s a moment in the career of every athlete when it all becomes worth it. After coming in far under his ideal playing weight, Saturday’s Spring Game may have been his time. Six meals a day and often continuing to eat food long past the time he was full is all starting to pay off.
Rainey lined up at running back Saturday weighing 177 pounds, the most he has weighed in his time on campus. He carried the ball 11 times for 75 yards, and had one reception for 65 yards.
“It makes me feel good,” Rainey said. “I’m just showing Coach Urban Meyer what I can do so I can play in the games. They say that if you do well in the spring you will get the ball, so I had to do what I can do.”
The entire spring showed Rainey and the other running backs having a more consistent role in the passing game. He may have only had one reception Saturday, but it was something special. He was lined up in the slot, ran a fly pattern past Duke Lemmens, and caught a pass over the shoulder from Tim Tebow. That’s when the magic began.
Rainey noticed his high school teammate Ahmad Black getting an angle on him, so he cut back towards the middle of the field for a few steps, and cut back towards the sideline to get into the end zone, leaving Black tackling nothing but the air.
“He was mad because he knows what kind of juke I do, so that’s what he was looking for,” Rainey said. “I had to change it up on him.”
The overall performance made people believe the stereotype will final be erased this fall. Florida not only has a running back, but there are multiple ones. Rainey made the biggest impact, but it really didn’t surprise his coach.
“I thought he would do that,” Meyer said, “and he did do that.”
Kestahn Moore was handed the reins to the position last season, but he struggled to hold onto the ball, eventually leading to a running back by committee. The spring yielded as many as five running backs impressing the coaches, and Meyer knows he has plenty of options when the fall roles around.
“We won a national championship two years ago without one,” Meyer said, “and we led the SEC in offense last year without one. It’s a little harder to coach. You have to be creative. I remember being here a couple times and standing on the sidelines when we didn’t have anyone to hand the ball to and we didn’t have anybody to throw the ball to. Georgia two years ago…that’s a bad deal on the headsets.”
The offense, predicted to be the best in the nation by College Gameday’s Kirk Herbstreit, could potentially be better in the fall than it was last season. The loss of Andre Caldwell is made up for with the emergence of Deonte Thompson, Carl Moore and Chris Rainey.
“I’ve been here long enough for you to know that if he’s really good he’s going to touch the ball,” Meyer said. “If that means he’s a really good I (formation) runner, we’re going to run out of the “I” some. If he’s a really good stretch runner, we don’t run stretch, but we’ll run stretch tomorrow. We’ve been putting together an offense based on personnel. Period.”
People had mentioned things to Meyer before the Spring Game that raised questions around the ability of Rainey to catch the football. The running back had been answering those questions all spring, but used the Saturday to show his ability to the nation.
“If he works diligently in the offseason, a lot of that is going to be self discipline, because we can’t help him out there. I can’t take Chris out there and throw balls to him. Tebow can, Brantley can or Newton can.”
Since the Capital One Bowl loss to Michigan, the Florida quarterbacks haven’t been necessary for Rainey to get extra work on his receiving. The motivation came from his friends who joked with him about the penalties and fumbles he struggled with in the fall. All of that led to him following the coach’s instruction and getting 200 catches a day off the machine.
Rainey’s emergence throughout the spring showed Brandon James getting fewer and fewer carries. Kesthan Moore has had a spring similar to his Florida career. It hasn’t been flashy, but there haven’t been any overwhelming negatives. If the Gators were to begin their season next weekend, Meyer has it narrowed down to two running backs in the mix to start.
“It’s either going to be Kestahn Moore or Chris Rainey to start the game at tailback,” Meyer said if the opener against Hawaii were next week. “A lot of it depends on the play. If Chris Rainey was 215 pounds and Kestahn Moore ran 10.4 100-meters, put those two together and you’re good. The Adrian Petersons are hard to find. We’re looking.”
The comparisons of Rainey to another player in the college game start with his own team.
“The thing Percy has over Chris right now is Percy is cut strong,” Meyer said. “He’s 197 pounds and Coach Mick thinks he’s pound-for-pound the strongest on the team. As far as quickness and speed, I don’t know if Percyish is a word, but he’s got some of that.”
The relationship between Harvin and Rainey grew even during Rainey’s redshirt season last fall. Rainey has been seen as the replacement for Harvin, and the two have grown close over their time together on campus. The time made it much easier for Rainey to work harder to gain weight.
“I’d talk to him about how all the hits feel,” Rainey said. “For me, I never really got hit before. When I got up here, the hits hurt. I’ve got to gain weight.”
While Harvin gets most of the praise for the Florida playmakers, there’s a new, younger crop beginning to assert themselves on the team. Redshirt freshman and good friend Deonte Thompson has seen the maturation process continue for Rainey both on the field and off.
“He’s going to be awesome,” Thompson said. “He had a pretty good day today. He makes plays like that every day in practice. He used to laugh a lot more, but now he’s taking things more serious.”
The scariest thing about Rainey’s game is that it’s only beginning. He begins track practice on Monday which will increase his speed. The improvement of his game on the field has been in large part thanks to his maturation off it.
“I was late a couple times to class and all that,” Rainey said. “Not combing my hair and having a long beard. (Coach Meyer) tells me to look professional, so you’ve got to do what he says.”
The only real time Rainey messed up was before the game even started. The athlete’s race against the students fell through, and Rainey missed the cue to start the race. He says he was expecting to start when ESPN College Gameday host Chris Fowler said “go”, but all the students went when strength coach Mickey Marotti said “go”. Regardless, Rainey was pleased with his times of 4.24 and 4.27, although he did admit his goal was a 4.1.
“That was really fun,” Rainey said. “I told Coach Mick they need to do something like that every year. I was nervous. My leg was shaking.”
Kenny Carter has seen Rainey do some special things in his few months at Florida. Both he and Coach Meyer said Saturday that he has potential to be a very special player for the Gators.
“Chris had a very good understanding of what we are trying to do,” Carter said. “He plays with a sense of urgency and an understanding that he needs to play with a fast pace. He understands the importance of ball security. He’s still got a ways to go, but he’s going to be a special player. He’s a football player. Some guys just have it. He has it. He has potential to be a great back. If he’ll work at it, he’ll really be special.”
Another running back that was looked at closely on Saturday was USC transfer Emmanuel Moody. He carried the ball 14 times for 111 yards and a touchdown. Moody was impressive on his carries, showing the ability to hit the hole fast when it opened up. The only glaring negative in his performance was a fumble, which occurred at the 1-yard line as he reached the ball out to get into the end zone.
“He’s not very good with ball security,” Meyer said, “and he won’t play tailback at Florida with poor ball security. He’s very talented. You saw some great runs. That run before he fumbled was an excellent run. He’s got talent, but there’s no chance you’ll see him play, regardless of the e-mails I get and everything else, he will not play football if there’s a chance it’s going on the ground. I thought he ran well, he just laid it on the ground.”
His position coach saw a lot of the same. When Moody gets the ball with bodies around him, he has a knack to somehow get through them or go around them into open space. Moody’s experience is only beginning with the Florida offense, and Carter knows the summer will be important for him.
“He was productive, but he turned the ball over in the red zone,” Carter said. “That’s one thing that is not tolerated. He got a lot of carries and was productive just like we expected. He’s got a lot of talent, but we still have work to do.”
Of the returning running back, Coach Meyer said that he is happy with what Kestahn Moore did in the spring, and that Mon Williams still isn’t 100% yet.
Saturday showed something special out of the running back position that Florida fans haven’t seen in a while. Not only one dominant runner, but there were four who impressed. The rest of the summer will play a key role in how dominant this group is.
But for now The Gator Nation tastes it. An offense running on all cylinders causing the downfall of SEC defensive coordinators. The next time a team drops seven in coverage to stop a pass heavy offense; they could be trying to catch Rainey, Moore, Moody, or Williams. The weak spot has been erased. And it’s about time.