Speed comes in small packages

There is a place in big-time college football for the small guys.

Just ask two champions of them: Southeastern Conference coaches Les Miles of Louisiana State and Florida’s Urban Meyer, who used a trio of small guys with afterburners on their heels – junior wide receiver/running back Percy Harvin (5-11, 195), redshirt freshman running back Chris Rainey (5-9, 185) and true freshman running back Jeffrey Demps (5-8, 176) – to run over Miles’ Tigers, 51-21, last Saturday night in “The Swamp.”

“There’s a revolution going on,” said Miles, a protégé of the late Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, who loved quickness and toughness in his running offense. “If you look at it, there are a number of (small) guys, even Ole Miss has a guy who runs their Wildcat or Wild Rebel offense. You don’t need a guy who is big, but if you have a guy who is athletic, strong and quick, you can do a lot.”

As Florida showed Miles last week. Harvin, Rainey and Demps, who all have sub 4.4-second speed in the 40 and run track in the offseason, all had big games. Harvin caught six passes from Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow for 112 yards – the first one a 70-yard touchdown play – while Rainey picked up 66 yards on 11 carries following a 103-yard rushing performance at Arkansas and Demps followed his similar 103-yard performance against the Razorbacks with a 129-yard performance (on 10 carries) which included a 42-yard TD burst.

“If you give him (a small, quick player) a seam, they can stretch it tremendously,” Miles admitted. “If the offensive line gives him a hole, he can get through there quick.”

Speaking along with Miles in the Wednesday conference call of SEC coaches, Meyer agreed.

“That’s why I wanted to coach at Florida,” admitted Meyer, whose team is off until it plays host to Kentucky on Oct. 25, “so I would be able to recruit those kinds of players.”

Meyer and his staff have done a great job of that. In fact, the Gator coaches were in a recruiting meeting when Meyer took his regular place in the SEC telephone booth, after Meyer had talked with a high school coach who had such a player.

“They have a young man like that,” Meyer said. “As I told him, I’d like to see someone go in and game plan without having Jeffrey, Chris or Percy. We believe in space, in speed and big plays. Four years ago (when Meyer came to Gainesville) we didn’t have that.”

The Tigers, of course, have 5-5, 164-pound junior wideout/running back Trindon Holliday, who set up two of LSU’s touchdowns with quick bursts of speed that surprised Florida. Ole Miss, which stunned the Gators in “The Swamp” with their 31-30 victory on Sept. 27, has 5-8, 165-pound junior wide receiver/running back Dexter McCluster of Largo. McCluster gave Ole Miss a 24-17 lead with a 40-yard run on a quick burst up the middle.

But nobody has as many of those players like the Gators, who impressed the coach of the team which takes on LSU this week – The Ol’ Ball Coach himself, Steve Spurrier, now the head coach at South Carolina.

“The speed of those running backs showed up on the tape,” Spurrier said. “I’ve seen teams have bad nights at ‘The Swamp.’ Things get out of hand when you got speed like Florida does.”

And it doesn’t matter that speed comes in little packages in Gainesville.

GATOR BITES: Rainey, who needed assistance late in the LSU victory after injuring himself on a 21-yard carry, has a slightly separated shoulder but Meyer believes he will be fine to play in the Kentucky game, which has a 12:30 p.m. start so it can be televised on Raycom. … Another tailback, redshirt sophomore transfer Emmanuel Moody, is still hampered by a high ankle sprain and was listed as questionable by Meyer for the Wildcats. … The kickoff for the annual game in Jacksonville against Georgia is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 1. The game will be telecast nationally by CBS Sports.