On to the Goal

Andre Debose is reporting to Gainesville for Summer A in a few days and the Gators picked up a commitment from 2010 recruit Solomon Patton earlier this week. But let’s be honest, you can never have enough The Next Percy Harvins.

After signing Debose, do you think that Meyer just leaned back, kicked up his feet and lit a cigar? Hell no! He was immediately back out on the road from Pahokee to Pago Pago looking for more The Next Percy Harvins. That’s what winners do.

So in this week’s edition of Thursday Recrootin’ Roundup, we focus on a 2026 receiver prospect that could be The Next Percy Harvin: Da Next Percy Harvin. Here’s his highlight reel:

Analysis and Scouting Report

Strengths: Shorter than scouts would like, but has a lean, compact build … Is expected to grow … Size makes him elusive in traffic, tacklers often forced to bend over to reach him … Good hands … Able to track and adjust to balls in flight … Quickly opens up hips to transition from bench route to quick curl … Demonstrates strong ability to recite own name and age on-demand.

Weaknesses: Looks shorter on film than his listed 3′2″ … Many of his plays on offense were slip-screens and quick passes with no defenders within frame … Could struggle making transition from neighborhood barbecue to Division I … Tendency to catch balls with his body instead of his hands … Character concerns … Tendency to look at the camera and grin after making a catch instead of turning upfield for additional yardage … In pre-school received a timeout after stealing a Thomas the Tank Engine from classmate … Missed time in 2008 due to a skinned knee and colic.

HT: Swamp Things

Perception is reality, but to perceive something, you actually have to observe it. And often in life, we simply choose not to observe. We are content to stroll down our safe, tree-lined streets, blissfully unaware of the fact that somewhere just across town someone is smoking crack or getting robbed at gunpoint. (If you live in Washington D.C., these things are actually occurring in the alley behind your house.) We make our own perception and thus our own reality.

The defending champs return 11 starters on defense and perhaps the greatest college football player ever at quarterback. Life is good for the Florida Gators. Just so long as we don’t think about those instances in which it’s not so good.

As a fan, my initial reaction to Florida being labeled the new “Thug U” for having 23 players arrested in Urban Meyer’s four-year tenure was to recoil in defense. “Other schools have plenty of guys arrested! We’re talking about young males here, things are going to happen! Florida has had perhaps hundreds of players during that time span, and 23 guys are a small fraction of a largely law-abiding team!”

All those things are true. And it’s natural that we reach for them when faced with unwelcome news. We love the Gators and the University of Florida, and we don’t want their good names to be sullied by a handful of lowlifes. But that doesn’t mean we can declare “case closed,” dismiss the article and launch a few insults at Tennessee just for good measure. We should not ignore the issue as if it doesn’t exist.

We might not think so, or at least tell ourselves we don’t, but the media thinks otherwise. A few years ago, The Seattle Times ran an investigative series on the 2000 Washington Huskies – another team with a great defense and a bruising option quarterback. Husky fans were outraged and called the series unfair, and I can’t say I necessarily blame them. But whether the series was “fair” is irrelevant at this point. It happened and the school’s reputation suffered somewhat. It could happen again to Florida.

So with that in mind, it would help to understand what we’re really talking about here. I couldn’t find a comprehensive list of the 23 arrests, so working from memory and a number of message board leads, I set out to document as many of the arrests as I could. A few hours of Googling yielded 14.

I’m probably forgetting some obvious ones, and I couldn’t find links for some stuff that I seem to remember happening. I haven’t named any of those “unconfirmed” cases here, nor did I include anything that happened before or after a player was enrolled. This is a list only of the arrests and/or charges (post-Meyer) that I could substantiate with an actual media report. I’ve sorted them by level of severity as judged by, well, me. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty, etc., etc., allegedly. Any instance in which I could confirm the charges were dropped is denoted by an asterisk.

C’mon, it’s college – generally harmless stuff

• John Curits – Probation violation stemming from an alcohol charge.
• Dorian Munroe – Illegally removing a boot from his car. Stupid, yes, but more funny than anything.
• Torrey Davis – Of his many alleged problems, driving with a suspended license wasn’t all that bad.
• Tony Joiner* – The underlying charge sounded serious, but considering the fairly humorous “misunderstanding” defense and subsequent dismissal, no reason to fret.
• Brandon James – Buying weed off an undercover cop. Yes, I’m including this here, because if you smoke weed (which many college kids do) you often have to buy it. James, well, he chose… poorly when it came to dealers.

Boys bein’ boys, not condoning it, not losing our shit over it

• Dustin Doe* – Fightin’. Moving on…
• Jermaine Cunningham – Sub-chuckin’. Abusing service industry employees is not funny if you’ve ever worked in the service industry. Except when it is. But seriously, tip your waiters.

He said, she said and a whole lotta nothing

• Carl Johnson* – Violating a restraining order. Frightening but completely unsubstantiated back-story.

Troubling crimes, but not depraved or wanton

• Marquis Hannah – Felony burglary and misdemeanor assault in what sounded more like a crime of passion than cold, calculated criminality.
• Cam Newton – Stealing a laptop. And not very well.

Really, really terrible things

• Jacques Rickerson – Beating up his girlfriend. Totally unacceptable.
• Jamar Hornsby – Credit card fraud. Of a deceased woman. Who was the girlfriend of a teammate. Later, brass knucles. Giggity.
• Ronnie Wilson – Shootin’ an AK-47 behind Gator City, detailed in terrifying audio.
• Avery Atkins – Beating up his girlfriend led to a sad, tragic spiral that led to his untimely demise.

Of those 14, half are merely things that college-aged males do. None of it is to be condoned, mind you, but it’s inside the realm of mistakes that good, decent people can make before their brain is fully formed. I’m also going to throw out the Johnson matter, because of it’s high bullshit quotient and the fact that there’s no way to ever really know what actually happened. But that still leaves a minimum of six serious crimes, four of which can be accurately described as “totally messed up” offenses. Or worse. That’s an average of one per year. And my tally is missing nine arrests.

For the record, all six players who were accused of serious misconduct are no longer on the team. Most were quickly kicked off and only Newton seemed to have left of his own volition. Yes, Ron “Don’t call me Ronnie” Wilson was back last year, briefly, but is thankfully off the team once more.

In that respect, this is not Switzer’s Oklahoma or Miami circa 1980-something, as Dave Hyde suggested. I certainly don’t think it’s fair to accuse Urban Meyer of “running a loose ship.” Minor transgressions are punished, though admittedly sometimes a bit too lightly. Major issues are met with much more serious consequences, but not necessarily automatic termination. Think of it as “shades of gray” rather than “black and white.” Page two of this Sports Illustrated article by Andy Staples does a fantastic job of explaining Meyer’s philosophy on the matter, particularly his differing approach in dealing with Atkins and Marty Johhnson when he was at Utah. (I agree with many of Staples’ points, by the way, particularly the one about the “one percent of one percent” canard.)

It is fair, however, to point out that every one of those six players was either a Meyer recruit or, in Hannah’s case, a walk-on whose entire run with the team was during Meyer’s tenure. These are his guys. And Hyde is right when he says that the frequency of their heinous behavior runs the risk of damaging Meyer’s reputation and, worse, that of the team and university. A few bad apples, yes, but averaging one “totally messed up” incident a year is not good for business. Just. Not. Good.

So what’s the impact of all this? In the short term, probably not much. Our rivals will have some fun at our expense, newspaper columnists will moralize and, worst-case-scenario, Outside The Lines will launch an “OMG the horror!” investigative piece that reveals exactly zero new facts. (I don’t see anything in these arrests that the NCAA could latch onto.) But then, barring another gut-wrenching incident, silence. We’ll get back to talking about the things we like about football, entertainment, socializing and the ability to release all your pent up emotion by screaming “WOOOO” over and over again at high decibel levels.

The rest will fade into the background until the next backup lineman forgets how to hold his Natty Light. Pray it isn’t something worse.

Slightly old news, but Jesse Scroggins, a highly touted quarterback in the 2010 recruiting class, told ESPN.com that he’s considering in Florida. The dropback passer said that is especially interested because Urban Meyer apparently told him that the Gators will change their offense once Tim Tebow leaves:

“I’m hyped on Florida for sure,” Scroggins said. “They win national championships there and coach Meyer does a great job with the quarterback position. They said they’re changing the offense after Tebow graduates to a more drop back style offense and they brought in Scott Loeffler to be the OC there and that’s the kind of offense he has always run so I know it will be a good fit for me.”

Scroggins, a noted Beaver enthusiast, is listed as as a four-star recruit on both Rivals and Scout, so I guess he would be nice to have in the fold, especially given what the Gators will lose to graduation following the 2009 season.

Linebacker Tim Tebow (15) makes a tackle in the BCS Title Game. (Photo via The Oklahoma Daily.)

Quarterback Jevan Snead will be a senior in 2009, and linebacker Tim Tebow, a three-time All-American with nearly 500 tackles and 32.5 sacks in his illustrious career, is almost out of eligibility as well. With such big holes to fill on both offense and defense, every little bit helps. So don’t be surprised if the Gators start taking a few more snaps under center with John Brantley before switching to a full-blown Power-I with Jesse Scroggins in 2012.

(By the way, if Scroggins thinks Loeffler is the OC, he either knows something we don’t or is way, way off-base. Guess which one I’m leaning towards…)

(And just for the record, Mike Bianchi, et al., the recruiting game is nothing but a sleazy sales pitch, with both sides manipulating and bending the truth. Urban Meyer is a part of this bizarre dance, and he is no worse a huckster than Miles or Saban or Carroll or Brown or Stoops. So, really, just stop. Also, two national titles. Scoreboard. Bitch.)