Gator Country

The overall health of his team, which has been hit by the flu bug, and its lack of quality depth at wide receiver are two things which concerned Florida head coach Urban Meyer as he prepares to take the No. 1 Gators on their first road trip of the season -- Saturday to Kentucky./Gator Country file photo by Tim Casey

Just before he scored on a 7-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that gave Florida a 23-6 lead over Tennessee Saturday, sophomore running back Jeff Demps had to be re-directed from the right of quarterback Tim Tebow to his left.

On the snap, Demps took the handoff from Tebow and burst into the end zone as right guard Mike Pouncey and right tackle Marcus Gilbert provided a hole that gave Demps, a world-class sprinter in track, a clear path to the end zone.

Yet, when Demps ran up to Tebow as they exited the field, it looked as if Tebow was a little concerned about how the play had unfolded.

Sunday almost 18 hours following the top-ranked Gators’ 23-13 hard-earned victory over the Tennessee Volunteers in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Florida head coach Urban Meyer revealed that Demps along with tight end Aaron Hernandez and defensive end Jermaine Cunningham play despite still feeling the effects of the H1N1 swine flu virus.

Following the victory, Meyer revealed to the media that Demps had played with a temperature of 101 degrees, and that both Hernandez and Cunningham weren’t anywhere near 100 percent.

“We had guys miss time, three of our best players, and one of them (Demps) shouldn’t have played,” Meyer said. “If that’s anybody else other than Jeff Demps, they probably wouldn’t have been able to function. Jeff didn’t look right. Aaron Hernandez didn’t play like Aaron Hernandez and Jermaine didn’t play like Jermaine.”

Florida has officially joined the ranks of college football teams that have been affected by the swine flu virus. Real-life Gators normally love swine as part of their diet, but the football-playing Gators surely don’t want any part of it.

“It is a panic level of proportions I have never seen before,” Meyer said during his weekly Sunday morning teleconference with statewide media. “That’s coming from me. You hear about it – I think Wisconsin had 40 players (with it), Ole Miss had 20 players. My wife (Shelley, a nurse), with her great insight, realized the swine flu had hit the Florida campus last week. Our training staff and doctors are attacking this has hard as we can. That Purell stuff (hand sanitizer) is everywhere. You can’t walk down the hallway without everyone telling you to do this, do that. We’re trying the best we can but it’s real.”

Considering the top-ranked Gators (3-0 overall, 1-0 SEC East) will make their first road excursion of the season to Kentucky for a 6 p.m. ESPN2 game with the Wildcats (2-0, 0-0 SEC East), it would behoove the medical folk to get it under some kind of control before the travel party boards the confined space of a charter airplane Friday.

“I think Hernandez is on the back half (the Gator tight end first showed signs of the bug last Wednesday and was quarantined from the rest of the club; same with Cunningham) and Demps is on the front half (just starting to show the signs Saturday),” Meyer continued. “We’ll put them in a separate dorm room or a separate hotel room. We put them on whatever the flu stuff is. Our team doctors are on it as fast as you can get on it.”

As Shelley has told her husband, the virus needs to run its course. All you can do is take as many precautions as there are and hope for the best. Meyer is concerned, too, about an Achilles heel strain to All-America middle linebacker Brandon Spikes and his dinged-up receiving corps.

Spikes played just enough to make four tackles before he was taken out of the game. Fellow senior Ryan Stamper, who normally plays the weakside linebacker spot, moved inside to take Spikes’ place (with Dustin Doe inheriting Stamper’s spot) and finished with a team-high 12 tackles, Florida’s only quarterback sack among his three tackles for losses and one forced fumble.

“It’s a pain issue, not structural,” Meyer explained when talking about Spikes’ injury which has been nagging him since last Wednesday. “It’s not a pull, it’s a tendon strain. I think it’s all pain tolerance. It’s one of those things you’ve really got to treat. The good thing is he won’t do anything (Sunday and his foot is now in a walking boot).”

On the offensive side of the ball, Meyer is concerned that is wide receiver cupboard is getting bare. Prior to the season, of course, the Gators needed to find replacements for NFL first-round draft pick Percy Harvin (Minnesota) and fourth-round pick Louis Murphy (Oakland Raiders). Then when preseason camp began, wide receiver Carl Moore (back) and freshman Andre Debose (hamstring) went to the sidelines (Moore is still in treatment; Debose had season-ending surgery) and Saturday the Gators were without Deonte Thompson, their expected deep threat who injured a hamstring on his second TD reception in the Gators’ 56-6 victory over Troy.

The injury situation reminded Meyer of his first season (2005) when the Gators were without Bubba Caldwell (broken leg), Dallas Baker (broken rib) and Jemalle Cornelius (ankle sprain).

As if those injuries this year weren’t enough, senior Riley Cooper, who has been the receiving star this season, suffered a pinched nerve in his back that almost took him from the lineup.

“Right now, our receiving corps is not up to Florida standards,” Meyer said. “When Deonte is in there, I think it is. When he’s not, it isn’t. There are some young players starting to make a move (Omarius Hines, Frankie Hammond Jr. and T.J. Lawrence) who have to get a little better. There is a sense of urgency with that group this week because that limits you if you don’t have a vertical stretch in your offense.”

As much as he would like to do something to get his players physically healthy, Meyer is concerned about making them mentally healthy as well. Things were kind of somber after the game among Florida fans, and it wasn’t much different in the Florida locker room. The Florida coach finds nothing wrong with the expectations which others feel might be unrealistic. He just wishes he could isolate his players from having to hear them over and over and over again.

“I don’t want to say it’s unrealistic because it’s not—that’s Florida,” Meyer said. “But when you starting hearing some of the comments, about being the greatest team ever and can you beat them by 100 or 120 or 470? I wish there was a way we could go to a deserted island somewhere and just play football and not worry about the nonsense.”

Meyer also wants his team to feel good about the victory and to have fun when it plays.

“I’ve got to make sure our players are playing the game and having fun because when they do they’re really good,” Meyer said.

Good enough maybe to run the table.

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