Blue Beats Orange 28-14
Not that it matters, but for those of you keeping track, the blue team beat the orange in Florida’s spring game yesterday in front of a record crowd of over 61,000 who weren’t just there to see the game. In addition to the standard scrimmage, UF held a fastest student competition, which wasn’t what I expected. The way they hyped it, it seemed like 1 student would get to go up against Louis Murphy, Chris Rainey, and Deonte Thompson. But instead there were heats with a number of students taking on Rainey in the finals. The problem was, Rainey didn’t run. After a false start, Rainey didn’t leave the starting line when the whistle blew, but instead ran by himself after the students. Times were then compared and as expected, it wasn’t close. Rainey finished with a time of 4.24. The fastest student was Bolaji Agbebe from Tampa, who clocked in at 4.53.
In the game, Tim Tebow played a lot more than expected due to an injury John Brantley suffered in practice. Despite battling a fever, Tebow managed to go 13-of-21 for 200 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions – which were both off tipped passes. Cameron Newton had a great chance to take control of the backup spot being the only QB other than Tebow available, but I think if anything, Brantley may have gotten a leg up. Newton didn’t look sharp all day and his accuracy was off. He ended up 6-of-18 for 53 yards.
The area I was most impressed with – and the area of biggest concern this offseason – was the run game. We all knew coming out of high school that Rainey was supposed to be the real deal, but after not getting to see him last year, we still weren’t sure what the Gators had. The Orange and Blue game was definitely his coming out party. Rainey finished with 75 yards and 1 touchdown on 11 carries and made the move of the day on a 65-yard touchdown reception. Rainey caught the ball in the open field, but as he seemed to be losing his footing, made a great cut move to freeze Ahmad Black. Somehow Rainey stayed on his feet and made his way to the end zone. A few other great moves during the day made all Gator fans desperately waiting for the day we get to see him on the field with Percy Harvin. The other surprise was Southern Cal transfer Emmanuel Moody. All we’ve heard the entire offseason was Moody’s inability to grasp the playbook and how lost he looked during practice, but on Saturday he took a leap forward. Moody did fumble early – while heading toward the end zone – and holding onto the ball is definitely a concern Urban Meyer has voiced, but other than that he looked solid. He finished the day with 111 yards and 1 touchdown on 11 carries. That comes out to 7.9 yards a carry, which I’ll take any day.
With only 19 total completions on the day – of which 13 went to WR’s or TE’s – we didn’t get a chance to see what many of the receivers could do. Yes Butch Rowley had 2 catches, but let’s be honest; he’s not going to be lining up at WR during a real game anytime soon. Riley Cooper put up the biggest numbers with 5 catches for 67 yards and 1 touchdown, but I still don’t know about him. He looks like he could be a great deep threat, but he also drops a lot of passes. Add that to the fact that he seems to get hurt – A LOT – and I’m still not sure what we have with him.
The star on defense was easily Carlos Dunlap. The last 2 years, the Gators have lost great players on the defensive line like Jarvis Moss, Ray McDonald, and Derrick Harvey. Last year Jermaine Cunningham looked like he was ready to be the next great one. Now it looks like Florida has not 1, but 2 nearly unstoppable defensive ends. The speed Dunlap showed was truly amazing. He ended up with 4 sacks on the day – a few of which he was untouched as he just ran right past the offensive tackles. Cunningham was able to shine last year because Harvey commanded a double team on every down. But this year, who would the opposing team put 2 guys on? They can’t choose both.
For a few years at linebacker, Brandon Siler overshadowed Earl Everett. Siler was great, but Everett was just as important and played his best during the national championship season. I think we have a similar situation with Brandon Spikes and Dustin Doe. Everyone across the nation knows who Spikes is, but Doe is nearly as good and just as important. He was solid last year and looked good in the game yesterday. We could easily see an All-SEC performance out of Doe this upcoming season. The 3rd linebacker spot is up for grabs and Lorenzo Edwards might have put himself a little closer to getting it. Edwards had 6 tackles and returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown.
The secondary looked good for both teams. They didn’t make a lot of big plays, but no one seemed lost, which after watching the Georgia and Michigan games last year, is a very good thing. For the most part, the cornerbacks seemed to be step-for-step with the receivers all day. The safety spots seem wide open and the Gators definitely have plenty of talent at either position. Yesterday must’ve been hard for a head hunter like Major Wright. Not only is he really not supposed to go all out against his teammates, but wearing the red no-contact jersey gave Tebow a free pass to truck him. Of course it was Tebow, so I’m not sure even Wright would’ve been able to withstand the hit even if he was allowed to hit back.
In the end, I thought it was a good showing by the team. There are some areas that obviously still need to be focused on during practice, but for the most part the Gators look impressive. Unfortunately we still have over 4 months before we get to see a real game.