On to the Goal

Cartoon via XKCD

The 2009 NFL Draft has come and gone, and the consensus opinion seems to be that it was pretty much a disappointment for the Gators. I suppose that’s a natural reaction when the University of Connectiuct has more players selected on the draft’s first day (four) than Florida did in all seven rounds (three). Here’s the complete list of Gators who were drafted or signed a free agent deal:

• WR Percy Harvin – Round 1, 22 overall, Vikings
• WR Louis Murphy – Round 4, 124 overall, Raiders
• TE Cornelius Ingram – Round 5, 153 overall, Eagles
• ———————————————————–
• OT Jason Watkins – Undrafted free agent, Texans
• OT Phil Trautwein – UFA, Rams
• RB Kestahn Moore – UFA, Broncos
• LS James Smith – UFA, Bengals

Upon closer inspection, that list isn’t quite as much of a downer as it appears to be. The only free agent who was considered a probable draftee was Watkins, and he will be given about the same opportunity to make a roster as a seventh-round pick would. The same goes for the other free agents. Harvin and Ingram both could have been taken higher as well, but teams had logical concerns – injuries for both, off-the-field concerns for Harvin – that may have caused them to pass.

The one curiosity is Murphy, whose size (6’2”, 203) and speed (4.43 in the 40, ninth-best among receivers at the NFL Combine) could have made him a second- or third-round pick. So what happened? His NFL Combine profile did express were some concerns about his hands, but I can’t for the life of me remember him dropping an inordinate amount of passes and the Gainesville Sun reported that he had no drops at his Pro Day workout.

So are there any other explanations? Mel Kiper Jr.: Your thoughts?

“Travis Taylor, Taylor Jacobs, Chad Jackson, Reidel Anthony: the list goes on and on and on. Florida receivers have struggled in the NFL and I think guys are afraid of people coming out of the program,” Kiper said.

Oh, right. The whole “Gator wide receivers don’t succeed in the NFL” thing again.

It’s tough to say whether this long-held belief had any impact on Murphy’s draft stock (or Harvin’s for that matter). Sometimes guys just drop for no apparent reason. But Kiper’s comments indicate that the idea is given at least some credence in NFL front offices. And that’s at least somewhat of an issue for Florida, if for no other reason than it’s potential to be used as a negative recruiting tool (as Joe Goodman mentioned).

It’s unfortunate, then, that the belief has such a strong basis in reality. The following chart from an article on Cold Hard Football Facts details every Gator receiver drafted between 1991 and 2008:

Even if we remove players with less than two years of experience and those selected in rounds four through seven (later rounds are hardly the realm of guaranteed success), we’re left with 11 players. Of those, it’s fair to say that only Darrell Jackson has met or exceeded expectations. Please note that when I say “met or exceeded expectations,” I mean that the player was considered a success relative to where he was drafted. For instance, Ike Hilliard was a good pro, but didn’t quite live up to the expectations of the seventh overall pick in the first round.

So in roughly two decades, no fewer than 10 Florida receivers have been considered high-round disappointments by the pro football world. But why do Florida receivers struggle so? Theories abound. Cold Hard Football Facts again:

“But the long, long list of busts and underachievers out of the same school at the same position reeks of a systemic problem. To put it another way: Florida receivers are simply not as good as they seem when they’re burning up SEC defenses. Florida receivers are consistently paired with top college quarterbacks, for example. They also play on teams filled by blue-chip performers at virtually every other position year after year. This cozy situations [sic] certainly help their production.”

Well, now might be a good time to mention that correlation does not imply causation. But frankly, I think the notion that NFL teams overvalue Gator wide receivers because they play on talented college offenses is ridiculous. If this was truly a driving factor, we should be able to see a similar ratio of busts coming out of other schools with top talent. But if we take into account all receivers selected in the first three rounds from 1991 to 2008, we can see plenty of elite programs that have churned out players with at least one Pro Bowl appearance. Florida, for the record, has produced none:

• - Miami: Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, Reggie Wayne
• - Florida State: Anquan Boldin, Javon Walker, Laverneus Coles
• - Michigan: Braylon Edwards, Amani Toomer
• - Ohio State: Terry Glenn, David Boston

I also find the idea of a “systemic problem” to be a bit of a stretch. Florida has had three different coaches since 1991, meaning that the “system” has changed at least that many times. A player’s experience and training is likely to be completely different under Meyer than it was under his predecessors. In short, anything that happened before 2005 has little relevance to the present. Of those 10 “busts” listed above, only one, Chad Jackson, played so much as a snap for Meyer. Harvin and Murphy are the first two Meyer recruits to be drafted at receiver.

In fact, if there is any kind of systemic issue, it may reside with Spurrier. Nine out of the 10 aforementioned busts were recruited and played the majority of their careers during his tenure. That’s not to say there’s a problem with Steve Spurrier. To paraphrase a refrain often recited by Chris at Smart Football, it’s a college coach’s job to win college football games, not to turn out great pros. And very few people were better at winning college football games than Spurrier (at Florida, at least). But for whatever reason – be it technique, coaching or over-valuation – SOS never did produce a top-flight NFL wideout.

None of that has a damn thing to do with Louis Murphy, however. Maybe I live in a dream world, but I’d like to think that NFL teams base their evaluations on an individual player’s merits as opposed to the reputation of other players from his college. The New York Giants didn’t seem to have a problem drafting Ramses Barden of Cal Poly in the third round, a full 40 picks ahead of Murphy, despite the fact that the school has produced just one other draft pick at receiver since 1991.

Maybe Barden will be a great pro, and maybe Murphy fell for a good reason, or maybe it was no reason at all. But until he — or Harvin or Caldwell or somebody — has some NFL success, the perception that Gator receivers don’t make good pros will persist.

Back in the age of boyish innocence and lucious, golden locks.

When I posted my wistful longing for August on Friday, I sort of neglected to remember this whole “NFL Draft” thing and its propensity for generating interesting news and quotes, all of which we’ll get to in a few moments.

But first, did ESPN’s draft-day coverage leave you with the metaphorical feeling that you just got repeatedly struck in the head by a blunt object? If so, just be glad you weren’t literally receiving this treatment at the hands of former Gator tight end and not-for-much longer USF Bull Trent Pupello.

Pupello allegedly spent the wee hours of a recent Friday getting his pistol-whip on in a Tampa parking lot. The mainstream article is very much worth reading, but we’ll summarize thusly:

During a fight at 2:50 a.m., Pupello ran to his 2005 Denali, grabbed a handgun, ran back to the fight and pistol-whipped three individuals, causing each injury, the most serious of which was a fractured orbital socket. Good times. Allegedly.

That a fight occurred at such a classy establishment as The Hut Channelside really should come as no surprise. I’ve never set foot in this bar but based on the photos I guarantee you it’s a place where guys with bad tattoos flex their pecs, drink Crown and Cokes and say things like, “I a’int lookin’ to fight, but sometimes shit just needs to happen. You gotta do what you gotta do.” But as Orson pointed out, there’s just something jarring about the concept of pistol-whipping. If Pupello had allegedly delivered a brutal ass-whooping with his fists, this is probably a minor item. Instead, it’s 17 big points in the Fulmer Cup.

Does this reflect badly on the Gators? Eh, not really. Pupello hadn’t been on the team for about 18 months, so unless you’re hellbent on poking a few more holes in Urban’s “top one-percent of one-percent” promise, there’s really not much here. (And, orange and blue glasses off for a moment, if you ever bought into that whole line of thinking… I don’t know what to tell you.)

Unfortunately, however, an actual member of the Florida football team (well, at the time anyway) did manage to see the inside of the Alachua County Jail this weekend. Walk-on running back Marquis Hannah was charged with a second-degree felony and is “not part of the team until this issue is resolved.” Which, barring a total reversal, means you can close the books on the Marquis Hannah era.

Suffice it to say that I would really, really like to not have to check the “Law & Order” category again this offseason. Pretty please?

Here’s the bad news: Spring football is over and so too is the minor diversion of the Gators’ visit to Washington, D.C. Between now and two-a-days, there won’t be much news about Gator football, and if there is, it probably won’t be of the “good” variety.

In the coming months I’ll try to fill these interwebs with some more posts of the “in-depth analysis” variety, but today, just consider the following. It’s Friday. The weather is finally warming up and, if you’re anywhere on the East Coast right now, the sun is shinning. So enjoy the weekend and if you need any additional reason to smile, there’s always this:

Photo courtesy of friend.

Tim Tebow, Corch Urban Meyers and the rest of the 2008 Gators are in D.C. today doing the whole ‘gradulations thing with the President, Congress-folk and other people of great import. A friend snapped this picture of Tim Tebow doing Tim Tebow things at a reception hosted by the Florida House at the Library of Congress.

(Side note: Tebow looks pretty darn comfortable strolling the proverbial halls of power in a suit, so instead of merely inspiring legislation, maybe he could help craft it?)

Anyway, we hear the day has been a success so far, if only for the fact that Corrine Brown did not make a speech. Oh well. We’ll say it anyway. Go Gator.

Photo via Gainesville Sun

For more than a week, we’ve been subjected to ultra-sketchy reports (which deserve no link) indicating that several high-profile entrants into this year’s NFL Draft may have failed drug tests at the combine. One by one, these reports were denied and debunked. By the start of this week, every player’s name had been cleared to some extent. Except for one.

Today, a legitimate news-gathering organization finally went there: Percy Harvin tested positive for marijuana at the NFL Combine. The sources are still anonymous and therefore the word is still “unofficial” in the strictest sense of the word, but based on the number of quality outlets now reporting this news and the conspicuous lack of denial from anyone associated with Harvin, there seems to be little reason for doubt

Well then. There’s no positive way to spin this, as it’s pretty much bad news for everyone involved. But it does raise two questions: How does this impact Harvin’s draft stock? And what effect, if any, does it have on his legacy as a Florida Gator? To me, the answers to each could not be more different.

The NFL is a risky business. Investors (teams, owners) and their brokers (GMs, coaches) are making multi-million dollar bets on highly volatile commodities (players) whose success is dependent on dozens of uncontrollable variables (injury, chemistry and just plain old human free will). In short, past performance is very much not an indicator of future success.

But NFL teams obsess over past performance. Every little detail of a player’s life on and off the field is considered — from 40 times and college statistics to rumors about whether a player was involved in a parking-lot scuffle back in high school. Nothing is off-limits to over-analysis. Needless to say, flunking a weed test two months before the draft is, uh, not so good.

So Harvin will likely suffer from this failed test in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Once thought of as a mid-first round pick, Harvin had already slipped to No. 30 according to Mel Kiper, and that was before the FoxSports.com report. Many suspect he could slip out of the first round entirely. Comprehensive information on rookie salaries is surprisingly hard to come by, but according to USA Today, the No. 30 pick in 2007, wide receiver Craig Davis, made $3.33 million in bonuses paid out in the first year. The No. 51 overall pick from that year, wide receiver Steve Smith (the USC one) made just $1.61 million in bonus money.

Harvin’s reputation will also likely suffer long after draft day has passed. Any good he does on the field will be immediately qualified with a “Yeah, but…” from commentators, pundits, and perhaps most importantly, fans. Fairly or not, the “troubled” adjective will follow him for his first few years of pro football, at a minimum. (Side note: At least he wasn’t Brandon Tate, who also failed a mandatory piss test at the Combine. The same Combine where he didn’t work out at all due to injury and thus the same Combine that he could have just skipped entirely, drug test and all.)

For PR reasons alone, image-conscious NFL teams are well within their right to be nervous about selecting Harvin. But as a Gator fan, I don’t think this changes Harvin’s Florida legacy one bit.

Draft expert Todd McShay recently said the star receiver lives in “Percy Harvin World.” I’ll borrow from Joe Goodman here: What does that even mean? That he was arrogant and self-absorbed? This may come as a surprise, but many players, particularly the great ones, are selfish jerks. If it turns out that Percy Harvin falls into this category, he’d be just like pretty much everyone except Ray Allen. Was there behind-the-scenes drama during his Florida tenure? Message board rumors range from the mundane (posse of sketchy high school friends) to the outrageous (punched a Gator assistant coach). But remember the operative word here — rumors. To my knowledge, not one individual who was “there” has made a public utterance against Harvin’s character. (And someone who was “there” does not include a random guy who talked to the father of a walk-on placekicker while waiting in line for a urinal at the spring game)

Simply put, if Percy Harvin was off in his own world, it was never evident on the field. He played hard, he played hurt and he always seemed to save his best for the most opportune moment. In the 2006 SEC Championship game, just a week after suffering a concussion, he broke off 167 total yards and two touchdowns, including a poetic 67-yard run to paydirt. In the 2009 BCS Championship game, playing in pain on what turned out to be a broken ankle, he amassed 171 total yards and a touchdown, including several long runs when the Gators needed a spark. It may sound like a paradox, but even if he did all of that for purely selfish reasons, he’s still a team player. Harvin sacrificed for the Gators, and it’s almost certain that had he not, Florida would have two fewer national titles to its name.

So let the NFL think of Harvin as aloof and troubled, as the next prima donna likely to derail in the less-structured environment of the pros. I will always remember Harvin as one of college football’s most dynamic skill-position players of his era. And unless real evidence is presented to the contrary, I will always think of him as a great Gator.

Photo via Miami Herald

If you were to rank all the world’s social circles on factors such as propensity for irrational behavior and potential for swift, violent combustion, the blogosphere and SEC football would be near the top of the list. My guess is that they’d fall somewhere between illegal, underground cage fighting and the
Middle East.

When you combine the two in the form of blogs about SEC football… Well, sir, you’ve got yourself some madness of hyperbolic proportions. My goal for this blog is to keep things a bit more rational – not letting the highs get too high, the lows too low and so forth. I try my best to exude Gator fanboyism moderated by the firm, steady hand of reality. Laugh if you must, but that’s my dream.

Anyway, I bring this up because today I’ve let my guard down a bit. Normally, I’d be highly reticent to believe the hype, let alone embrace it. But after careful examination, I have come to the following highly logical conclusion about Florida’s prospects in 2009: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now under normal circumstances this would be considered by some to be, “calling down the thunder.” And, under normal circumstances, I would be the individual levying this charge. But these are no ordinary times for the Florida football program.

The Gators are reigning champions and a virtual shoo-in at number one in every preseason poll. “Astronomical” doesn’t even begin to define the expectations. Fairly or not, anything less than a 14-0 championship season will be considered a disappointment by most in the proverbial Gator Nation.

History tells us that living up to these expectations is going to be incredibly difficult. In the past seven seasons, only USC in 2004 went wire-to-wire from preseason #1 to national champions. It’s even more difficult to win back-to-back national titles. According to the BCS and the two major polls (whatever they happened to be called at the time) a repeat has happened just six times in the past 50 years. All but one of those involved a “split” championship in at least one of the two seasons — Nebraska in 1994-95 is the lone exception (and even then one could make a fairly strong argument that Penn State got screwed in ’94). More recently, no school has ever won consecutive BCS Championships.

So thus is the setup for the Gators in 2009: Impossibly high expectations to pull off what to this date has been an impossible feat.

As I see it, there’s two ways to go about this as a fan. On the one hand, we could spend the offseason living in constant fear, always expecting the next Google Alert to bring news of a late-night arrest or torn ACL. In the fall, we could dread every Saturday, wondering if today will bring this year’s “31-30.”

Or we could simply enjoy it. We can embrace these moments and go along with this thing for however long it lasts. Gator football has never been as strong as it is on April 20, 2009. Even if this is the high-water mark, it’s been one hell of a ride. But it’s not as if there are warnings of an impending end-point popping up at every turn. Rather, everywhere you look there are reasons for optimism.

The Orange and Blue game was a rousing success, with numerous backups shining in the place of resting starters. Though injuries were many this spring, as of press time, almost nobody from the two-deep suffered a setback that will keep him off the field for any length of time in 2009. The coaches, along with players such as Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes, are determined to not let the Gators get too comfortable this summer. And just as a reminder, the Florida returns 18 true starters – all 11 on defense and seven on offense (I count the Pounceys, Carl Johnson, Riley Cooper, Aaron Hernandez, Tim Tebow and a running back, take your pick which one).

In short, all of the usual pratfalls that can turn a champion into an also-ran seem to not apply here. There has not been an unusual amount of attrition or injuries, no bouts of lawlessness, no sense of entitlement or complacency. There isn’t even an overly daunting schedule awaiting Florida on the other side of August. With the usual disclaimer that injuries can befell any football team at any time, it seems that Florida’s chief enemies are history and the law of averages.

Maybe that’s an overly optimistic assessment, but if there were ever a time for that kind of confidence, this is it.

Somehow, someway, Florida to field football team in 2009

The injuries keep on coming. Fullback Steve Wilks tore an ACL and is probably done for the year. If I type those last 10 words again between now and September 5 I might lose it. Carl Johnson has “a little issue with his shoulder.” Uhm, uh oh? But through it all, Urban Meyer is still committed to playing a spring game. It’s definitely nice to have a coach that cares about the fan experience, but the Gators might be better off going with an “offense vs. defense” format this year instead of a true split-squad scrimmage.

Not all injuries totally suck

Riley Cooper is apparently a heckuva baseball player, but he’s hitting just .247 for the Gator baseball team this year. Now, he suffered what appears to be a minor knee injury and will be out 7-10 days. With this latest setback, Cooper may not be selected high in the Major League Baseball draft, making him that much more likely to return to the football team this fall.

The depth-charty goodness you crave

Joe Goodman takes a stab at the 2009 depth chart, with sexy results on defense. The “33 stack” and “Joker” lineups would be just downright brutal to deal with as an OC.

We are dangerously thin at dangerously thin positions

One of the ongoing flamewars on Gator message boards seems to be the notion that Florida is “dangerously thin” at various positions. With the possible exception of tight end/H-back, this is a ridiculous notion for a team returning, like, everyone from a national championship season, but heavy is the head that wears the crown and all that jazz. Anyway, just in case you subscribe to the idea that the Gators have depth issues at some spots, take heart in Jeremy Fowler’s top-five most impressive players from spring, all of whom play at positions where Florida is thin. Relatively speaking, of course.

An assortment of odds and ends from the past few days of spring practice

Omar Hunter, heading for the mountains of Bussssssssssch

My money would have been on Matt Patchan, but Omar Hunter may have delivered this year’s outstanding installment of the Gainesville Sun’s Q&A series:

If you could have dinner with any three people, living or deceased, who’d be at the table with you?

Jay-Z, Martin Luther King and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I love all of them.

That’s kind of an odd mix. What is it about Lynyrd Skynyrd that you like?

“Simple Man” is my favorite song.

So if Hunter breaks out this fall and gets his own highlight video on YouTube, maybe instead of T-Pain he’ll get his own Busch commercial:

Who are we kidding? His highlight video will still feature T-Pain.

At least they’ll have fewer opportunities to tear an ACL

Add four more key players to the Florida M*A*S*H unit — Janoris Jenkins is out three-to-four weeks with a finger injury, Lawrence Marsh and Carlos Dunlap will miss time following likely abdominal surgeries and, perhaps most ominously, Maurkice Pouncey had surgery on Monday to repair a torn labrum and is out “at least” three months. As we know, it’s also never good to be an offensive lineman with a bum shoulder.

All four of those players are critical cogs in the Gator lineup, and when you add them to an already crowded injury list, things look pretty bad. But Meyer indicated that all will be back in plenty of time to begin fall practice as normal, so until further notice the only real consequence here is a boring spring game.

Ben Volin, crushing my dreams

In my excitement during yesterday’s offensive line bonanza, I missed the following three items from Ben Volin’s practice report:

1. The fullbacks have gone from “embarrassing” to “very functional” in Meyer’s eyes, as suspected.
2. Walk-on Charles Scott is pushing for playing time at either running back or fullback. That sounds a bit like the way Kestahn Moore was utilized last year and is another indication that “lead blocker” will be just fine.
3. Matt Patchan is “strictly an offensive tackle this year.”

Well, two out of three a’int bad. That could be a throwaway line, but Volin’s probably right, Patchan is going to be a tackle. I’m still going to hold out hope that he could be utilized in creative ways next year, despite obstacles such as “common sense” and “reality.”

Quickly

We’ve heard the heart-wrenching story of Brandon Spikes’ incarcerated older brother before, but Chris Low’s latest profile on ESPN.com indicates that Breyon Middlebrooks’ advice was instrumental in Spikes’ decision to return to Florida for his senior season … Carl Moore may be ready to step up and just in time, the Gators may need a big contribution out of the talented transfer … Carlos Dunlap is Freak 2.0, meaning Freak 3.0 will be 7-2, 380 pounds and run a 4.3 40 … Is the third-best quarterback in the SEC John Brantley? Let’s at least see Ryan Mallet first…

So sometimes a compliment really is just a compliment. A few hours ago, I wondered whether Sam Robey’s sudden emergence as a potential starter on the offensive line was serious or more of a motivational tactic by Meyer. Well, wonder no more, apparently:

Sam Robey is officially the Gators’ starting center. Barring injuries or ineffectiveness this August, your starting offensive line will be (L to R): Carl Johnson, Maurkice Pouncey, Sam Robey, Mike Pouncey and Marcus Gilbert. “Robey has been a great surprise this spring,” Addazio said. “He has really stepped up with maturity and toughness.”

Well then. Mea culpa. My initial skepticism was based on the assumption that both Johnson and Matt Patchan were too good to keep off the field. April lineups are very much subject to change, but so far, it looks as if Johnson is till a starter. Count me among those who believe he may be a better fit at guard than on the outside, but I could think of worse things than having a talent like CJ anywhere on the line.

Patchan’s case is a bit more interesting — we’ll cover that in a moment.

First, what is this thing you call a “Sam Robey“? Listed at 6′4″, 291, Robey is a redshirt freshman from Louisville, KY. He has an intriguing pedigree — his father, Rick, was an All-America basketball player at Kentucky and won an NBA title with the Celtics. From a recruiting standpoint, however, Robey was more of a “meh.” Robey was somewhat of an afterthought in the 2008 class that paid immediate dividends for Florida. Both major services had him ranked as a solid three-star player, Rivals as the #19 overall center and Scout, interestingly, as the #62 overall defensive end.

But as I mentioned previously, the Gators have had an impressive run of recent success developing merely “OK” or “good” linemen (from a recruiting perspective) into bigtime contributors. If Robey holds onto the center spot, he could be the latest success story. Because he’ll be just a redshirt freshman next season, he could be a big success story at that, but let’s just leave it at that for now.

So what does this mean for 2008’s heralded offensive line recruit, Patchan? Gilbert has more or less settled in at right tackle as of press time, so assuming Robey holds and Johnson stays on the outside (again, it’s April, folks), Patchan appears to be the odd man out. Of course, having the aforementioned starting lineup with Patchan, James Wilson and Maurice Hurt as backups would be a pretty good spot to be in.

But based on the superb athletic ability Patchan displayed last year as a backup defensive tackle, I find it hard to believe that he won’t contribute in some way next year. Patchan’s future is likely on offense, so a move back to the defensive line seems counter-productive.  But he quite literally hasn’t grown into the role of an everyday offensive lineman yet. He’s been stuck somewhere in the neighborhood of 270 pounds, mainly as a result of a bizarre string of ailments including a gunshot wound, mono and a scooter accident. But Patchan, ever the colorful interview, says he’s a “utility man” who will play wherever the team needs him. So let’s recap:

• Freakishly athletic blocker
• About a mid-sized toddler shy of 300 pounds
• Must play on offense
• Starting O-line may be set
• Willing to play anywhere

Oh, and one more thing: The Gators have a shortage of tight ends/H-backs. So, uh, are you thinking what Dan McCarney and I are thinking? Maybe “Matt Patchan: Tight end” is a bit of stretch at this point, but I’d love to at least see it, especially in short-yardage situations. And who knows? If he can catch the ball with any consistency, maybe we’re onto something here.

I freely admit that, despite a relatively out-of-context quote from a defensive assistant in early March, this is wild speculation on my part. But since I’ve missed out on most of this spring’s overly optimistic banter, humor me for a moment. If nothing else, the news of Robey’s asecndance and the potential depth chart issues it would raise is, again, a very good problem to have.

Perhaps more than any other profession, the job of “head football coach” is frequently likened to a wide variety of other jobs. One coach is “a teacher.” Another is a “CEO-style manager.” The guy who yells a lot? “General.”

But to me, the best modern college football coaches closely resemble PR guys.

It's Orwellian, bitch.

Every coach interacts with the media to a certain extent, but the best coaches are able to use the media with ninja-like precision to achieve a desired end. Spurrier used publicity to needle opponents. Pete Carroll leverages both traditional and social media to promote the dreamy SoCal lifestyle, brah. Lane Kiffin… well, he’s just a self-indulgent prick, actually.

But with Spurrier in decline in Columbia, Urban Meyer is now perhaps the greatest of the media Jedi masters. He plays mind tricks both with opponents and players on his own team and he does it without being incendiary or throwing out any “red meat” bulletin-board material. If anything, misinformation is his primary weapon. I like to call it the “Urban Meyer Ministry of Truth.” Case-in-point: Omar Hunter.

Around this time last year, Meyer was hyping Hunter as the “Tim Tebow” of the 2008 recruiting class. High praise indeed. Meyer made it publicly known that he expected Hunter to immediately help shore up the Gators’ glaring weakness at defensive tackle. Maybe he made those proclamations in earnest. Maybe he would have dominated from day one had injuries not limited his season to a few meaningless snaps against Hawaii. Gator fans can certainly hope that a healthy Hunter is some kind of super-human beast on the interior line. But one thing that is clear: By the time Hunter arrived, defensive tackle was no longer a weakness.

Between 2007 and 2008, Lawrence Marsh and Terron Sanders transformed from obscure backups to solid, occasionally spectacular starters. Their consistency and (for the most part) durability were a huge reason that the Gator defense made the leap from “certifiably terrible” to “AWESOME DEATH MACHINE” in just one calendar year.

This spring, I’ve read several quotes that indicate to me that Meyer is at it again. I’ll address a few of these in a moment, but first, two disclaimers:

#1 — I used to work in an athletic department and I fully understand the gap between outside perception and internal reality. These are my opinions and inferences based on published reports and prior knowledge.

#2 — I’m not mocking or questioning Meyer in any way. The man gets results and I’m not about to quarrel with his methods.

Now, on to four Urbanisms from this spring and the relative veracity of each:

The offensive line is so suspect, redshirt freshman Sam Robey may start at center

Quote: “Meyer said Robey has “really come on.” … “I’m not saying that’s happening (for sure),” Meyer said after Wednesday’s workout. “But we had a meeting about that (Tuesday). That’s a possibility.” — Florida Today, 4/9

Veracity: Completely unknown, but mildly dubious on the surface

Translation: It’s not inconceivable that a former three-star recruit such as Robey could turn out to be a surprise stalwart on the offensive line. The Gators have seen a number of three-star-or-lower guys made good recently, including Phil Trautwein, Jason Watkins, Jim Tartt, Steve Risler and Carlton Medder, to name five. But if Matt Patchan nails down a tackle spot, Carl Johnson seems likely to stay put at left guard, meaning that Robey would need to be awfully good to supplant CJ or one of the Pounceys inside. If Robey is that talented, this is a good problem to have. Even if he’s halfway decent it’s nice to have depth. But without any further proof, this one could be a motivational tactic.

Every tight end and fullback other than Aaron Hernandez sucks

Quote: “Des Parks right now has no idea which way right or left is and our fullbacks are struggling as well,” he said. “It’s not looking very good.” — Gainesville Sun, 3/31

Veracity: Dubious, at best

Translation: Aaron Hernandez is entrenched as a starter and potential All-America candidate at tight end, but behind him there is literally no lead-blocker/pass-catcher with significant experience. Though they may not be game-ready yet, I imagine that at least one productive player will emerge from the logjam of T.J. Pridemore, Rick Burgess, Steve Wilks and Desmond Parks emerges as a reliable “H-back” or whatever you want to call it. This seems like a textbook kick-in-the-pants tactic to me.

The I-formation is completely and totally dead

Quote: “I’m not sure how that I-package is going to be sticking around in here … We can run ‘I’ all you want, but if your players aren’t very good or they’re struggling or they’re young and inexperienced then we’re not going to run that ragged. We’ll go to five-wide and you’ve seen us do that before.” — Gainesville Sun, 3/31

Veracity: Highly likely

Translation: This one rings true. A young’un or two may step up to be a luxury at fullback/tight end, but that doesn’t mean that the Gators should devote precious hours of practice time to a package that requires such players. And I’m sure Tim Tebow can play under center, but for the purposes of winning games in 2009, uh, why make him? I’d take this one at face value.

The Gators are going hurry-up, Oklahoma-style

Quote: ”We’re working on our cadence and our tempo and no-huddle,” Meyer said. “We thought Oklahoma did a nice job of it so we messed around with some stuff.” — Miami Herald, 3/26

Veracity: Half-truth

Translation: The other half of the “grizzly bear/chainsaw” combo, the no-huddle is actually already part of Florida’s bag of tricks, so this isn’t a total ruse. However, a wholesale conversion to the breakneck philosophy employed by Oklahoma and (soon) Auburn seems unlikely. Even without Percy Harvin, the Gator offense should still score at a strong clip, and with the aforementioned deathsquad of a defense, the Gators might not want to extend games. But the mere threat that, at any moment, the Gators could shift into a no-huddle for more than a series or two is enough to give opposing defensive coordinators cold sweats at night. Ministry of Truth at its finest.