Gator Country

After Urban Meyer's fiery speech Friday night, defensive line coach Dan McCarney saw plenty to be excited about Saturday in Florida's 41-17 victory over Georgia./Gator Country file photo by Tim Casey

Now in his second season as the defensive line coach for the Florida Gators, Dan McCarney has heard some pregame speeches from Urban Meyer that could have brought the roof down. But it was the one Meyer gave the team Friday night on the eve of the annual battle with Georgia that was one of the most impressive speeches McCarney has heard in his entire football career.

“This Friday night with our football team was the best job he’s done talking to our team since I’ve been here,” McCarney said. “I had hair standing up on the back of my neck, and there were goose bumps all up and down my arms. I’ve been around this for a long time and I’ve heard a lot of coaches talk, and I’ve heard myself talk a lot, but I thought he did an unbelievable job. I was ready to go play Friday night. It was an A-plus speech.”

The message from Meyer was a rallying cry. He strongly told his players that all the outside influences, what people were saying or what they were hearing or reading in the media were out of their control. Meyer told them the only factors they can control were those they encounter Saturdays on the field, starting with the Bulldogs in less than 24 hours in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

“All the things that are out there that somebody wants to drag us down by saying, the negatives and pulling us apart, that this is truly a genuine family,” McCarney said. “If you’re really family, you take care of one another.”

The outside factors that Florida has faced this year have been numerous. The Gators have taken every team’s best shot and endured some uncontrollable issues like injuries, the flu bug and the aftermath of Tim Tebow’s concussion against Kentucky.

Despite what has happened and may happen in the future, the Gators have continued to feel the pressure that comes with being the top-ranked team in the country.

Yet Meyer and his staff have navigated all the issues during October. They may not have won any beauty contests along the way, but all the coaches and players care about is being 8-0, and that would not have been possible without Meyer’s leadership at the head of the program.

“He does an unbelievable job,” McCarney said. “He’s always on edge making sure coaches don’t relax and players never relax or get comfortable with what they’ve accomplished.”

Staying true to that form, the Gators met Sunday for the first time since clinching the SEC East when South Carolina lost to Tennessee on Saturday night. All season Florida coaches and players have mentioned the goal of getting the Atlanta to play in the SEC Championship. All off-season they worked out with that in mind, knowing they can’t control what happens after the conference championship game.

Now that they have clinched that SEC Championship berth over a month before the actual game. But at their team meeting Sunday, the achievement of that goal wasn’t even recognized.

“Atlanta didn’t even come up in the meeting,” McCarney said. “Vanderbilt did. We’ve had some hard lessons a year ago, and you see what happens around the SEC. The bottom line is our kids have a deep respect for all of our opponents.”

The Florida defensive line has seen better days this season stopping the run, but McCarney’s charges held their own against a talented Georgia offensive line. The Bulldogs ran the ball between the tackles with moderate success at the beginning of the game and ended with 121 rushing yards.

The line got a big boost when Jaye Howard and Lawrence Marsh returned to the rotation Saturday. McCarney didn’t expect a performance that would vault the two linemen to the top of defensive line charts, but the snaps Howard and Marsh were able to play gave the others a chance to catch their breaths.

“They were solid and helped us win a game, but those were not All-SEC performances,” McCarney said. “Now they’ve got some rust knocked off, and Marsh needs a lot of rust knocked off because he’s missed so much. They’ve got to play better and they both will.”

Throughout the injury process with Marsh, who has been out since the beginning of the season with a high ankle sprain, Omar Hunter’s emergence has made it easier. Marsh hasn’t been forced to rush back because of the solid play the redshirt freshman has given the Gators at the nose tackle position. Hunter’s short, stocky build makes him difficult for the interior of the offensive line to push him off the ball at the snap, putting him in perfect position to stop a running back or allow the linebackers to come in and make the tackle.

“He’s a guy who came in with high expectations and was a major disappointment, more to himself than anyone else,” McCarney said. “He wanted to make sure everyone knew he was going to help this program. Earning trust and respect from everyone around the program is important, and he’s doing that right now. He’s real coachable. He’ll never get to the 6-2 we list him at, and he’ll probably never see the far side of 5-11. You can still be effective in this conference if you’re tough and relentless.”

Justin Trattou also made his return to the lineup after a biceps tendon injury. The doctors originally projected him to be out of action for 4-6 weeks, but Trattou’s hard work in the training room played a big role in his early return. It’s an injury which will give Trattou pain for the rest of the season, it’s just a matter of the junior toughing it out and fighting through the pain.

“He defied all the medical odds and came back in two weeks,” McCarney said. “They said 4-6 weeks, and he was out there after exactly two weeks helping us win a game. It’s pretty amazing.”

Trattou, Marsh and Howard returning to the lineup is even more important as the Gators seem to be without Brandon Antwine for at least the next few weeks, potentially longer. “I don’t think he’ll be ready this week,” McCarney said. “It’s a major injury, and that’s the shame of the whole thing. I think he’s going to have more surgery.”

The Gators are tied with Ole Miss and Alabama for the most sacks in the conference at 23, and 11 of those have come from defensive ends Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham. The speed off the edge is forcing quarterbacks to step up into the pocket, which has McCarney hoping for a better pass rush from his defensive tackles.

But with two elite pass rushers coming after the quarterback from the edges, it won’t allow opponents to double team both. That means one is always in a one-on-one matchup and the Gators will take their chances with that every time.

“Those two guys off the edge right now are playing about as good as any pair of ends in the country right now,” McCarney said. “They need to continue doing that because they haven’t been all year.”

With the level they are playing now, Dan McCarney’s linemen are forcing quarterbacks to make quick decisions to throw the ball into a ball-hawking secondary.

About the author

GatorCody

Cody, born and raised in Daytona Beach, is a baseball fanatic, but loves covering Gator recruiting for Gator Country. He graduated from Spruce Creek High's prestigious International Baccalaureate program and is now in his sophomore year studying journalism at the University of Florida.

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