By DUGAN ARNETT
HOOVER, Ala. – Urban Meyer brought arguably the nation’s best 2010 recruiting class to Gainesville, and Florida’s sixth-year head coach has no plans to keep them off the field.
Meyer said Wednesday he expects a good number of players from the team’s 2010 recruiting class to contribute this season, adding that the program stopped recruiting potential redshirt candidates four seasons ago.
“There was no discussion about redshirting,” Meyer said of talks with recruits. “If that comes up, we don’t get that young man and move on. We’re going to play you. If you don’t play at Florida, it’s because you’re not good enough to play, it’s not because we’re saving you for down the road. We kind of learned our lesson and I was educated down in Florida.
“Here, I think we lost five guys as juniors this year,” added Meyer, alluding to Joe Haden, Maurkice Pouncey, Carlos Dunlap, Major Wright and Aaron Hernandez. “So we put them on an accelerated rate to graduate, an accelerated rate to play. We understand that a young person who picks Florida, that’s part of the process. Graduate, win championships, if blessed, go on to the NFL. We don’t hinder that. Go do it. We’ll get you on the field as soon as we can. I think this freshmen class, you’ll see a bunch of guys playing.”
HEALTH CONCERNS: His own concerns regarding his health put to bed, Meyer is now addressing the concerns of others.
The coach said Wednesday that he received constant questions about his health while recruiting for the Class of 2010, although, based on the results, it appears he had little trouble easing the minds of prospective players and their parents.
“I was asked quite often (about my health),” Meyer said. “But the good thing is, most of our relationships were already solid with those guys and we ended—I mean, I love this class. They’re already on campus. The relationships were already pretty much there.
“But how many times I answered that question is non-stop,” he added. “We’re still dealing with that non-stop.”
MEYER TO LIMIT DUTIES: The Florida coach helped clarify how his duties as head coach would change this season as he has vowed to delegate more to assistants.
“The thing I am going to do is I’m going to evaluate if it’s competitiveness that helps our team be competitive, then I’ll do it. If it’s not, I’m not,” he said. “I’m going to spend time with my family. What I did, I was trying to do everything. If that means I’m going to spend an evening at home with my family instead of travel and speaking, unless that speaking is going to help the competitiveness of Florida.”
Meyer said it was weird taking time out in the spring to do things with his family. “Yeah, always in the summer I got away for two weeks,” he said. “To take some time during the spring – that’s never occurred before. You know, you get very humbled when you realize your oldest (Nicki, a sophomore on the Georgia Tech volleyball team) is in college, she’s not home any longer (and) you have another one (Gigi) getting ready to go. You want to spend as much time with them (Urban and wife Shelley also have a son, Nate) as you can. I’m at that age where you want to spend as much time as you can with them. And we did that. It was a great offseason.”
PLAYERS REACTION: Despite the abrupt (and day-long) retirement of Meyer late last season, players said Wednesday they harbor no ill-feelings toward the coach and are excited the sixth-year coach will once again be roaming the sidelines this season.
“It was a little bit of chaos, when he first did it,” said senior safety Ahmad Black. “It kind of took the wind out of our sails when he first said it. But at the end of the day, he’s a father and he’s a husband, and his health is the only thing that matters at the end of the day.”
HAMMOND’S STATUS: Meyer gave an update on the status of wide receiver Frankie Hammond Jr., who was arrested for DUI in June.
“He’s off scholarship at Florida,” Meyer said. “If he tries to come back and play, which I understand he will, he’ll have to pay his own way and earn a spot like any other member that would like to be a part of Florida football. There will be playing time taken away from him. He’ll be on probation like other players that have made mistakes. If he does something again, it will be (a) probable dismissal. As of right now, he’s not on the football team. He’s training away from the team, off scholarship. We’ll see how he shows up and if he goes. If he goes, we’ll make the adjustment as we move on.”
OLD COACH, NEW COACH: Last year’s SEC Media Days turned into a mini-soap opera between Meyer and then Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin, of course, was one and done in Knoxville when USC offered him the head coaching spot vacated by Pete Carroll, who went to the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL months before the NCAA announced its sanctions in a four-year probation on the USC athletic program.
The media twice tried to draw out a comment from Meyer about his former SEC rival. First, he was asked if his relationship with Tennessee would improve with Kiffin gone and Derek Dooley as head coach.
“I have a lot of respect for the new coach at Tennessee,” Meyer said. “I spent a lot of time talking to him in Destin (at the SEC Spring Meetings). You can tell he has everything in order. He’s a high-character guy. That’s nice to see. I have a lot of respect for that coach.”
Meyer’s press conference ended when a media member asked for his reaction that Kiffin’s USC program is on probation. The media member wanted to know where was Meyer when he got the news and if he had given anyone a high-five.
Meyer smiled as the rest of the writers laughed.
“I’ll let the commissioner handle that one,” he said. “How is that? No, no comment. Sorry (smiling).”
SOUTH FLORIDA KICKOFF: The Gators game with South Florida will be telecast on the SEC Network and kick off in the Swamp on Sept. 11 at 12:21 p.m.