Week 1: Gators post-game notes and quotes

Putting forth a lackluster showing in their first game of the 2010-11 season, the No. 3/4 Florida Gators edged the Miami (OH) RedHawks 34-12 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL. With so much to discuss following the contest, OGGOA presents some of the most important notes and quotes coming out of The Swamp on Saturday.

POUNCEY STRUGGLES AT CENTER

Senior center Mike Pouncey stayed in school rather than declare for the 2010 NFL Draft for the sole purpose of improving his stock while taking over for his brother in a position more highly coveted by scouts. In his first action at his new position, Pouncey had more than a dozen miscues, snapping the ball too low – or too wobbly – or just plain poorly. One mistake early in the game led directly to a turnover, but a number of others killed offensive momentum or put Florida in a hole early in their series.

“I take full credit for messing up the whole offense,” Pouncey admitted after the game. “It was all on me. I’m the leader of the offense and I let the guys down. I’m going to work my ass off and it won’t happen again. The ball just kept slipping out of my hand. I don’t know how the hell, but it just kept slipping out. We’ll have it fixed by next week. We’ve got USF so we’ll be looking forward to it. […] When we did get stuff going, I f—ed up the snap. And then when we did get stuff going again, s–t, we just kept fumbling. It won’t happen again. […] It was my fault. I’m going to get in here in the morning to fix it. The ball kept slipping out. […] I’m glad it happened in this kind of game – a game that we could have just went out there and won – but if we do it next week we won’t win the game. We weren’t worrying about [Miami] beating us.”

STARTERS SIT FOR DISCIPLINARY REASONS

Prior to the game, it was known that at least four starters and two others players would be out of action Saturday. However, it came as a surprise to some to see neither junior safety Will Hill nor redshirt junior left guard Carl Johnson on the field to start the game. As first noted by OGGOA on Twitter, both players were held out of action for disciplinary reasons. “We expect certain things in the classroom. We expect their behavior off the field. You expect a lot of things and if you don’t fulfill that you don’t play,” head coach Urban Meyer said. “Those two guys didn’t fulfill expectations.”

Sophomore S Josh Evans started in Hill’s place, and the Gators were forced to re-shuffle an already misaligned offensive line, putting redshirt junior right guard James Wilson in Johnson’s place at LG and starting redshirt freshman Jon Halapio at his RG spot. Sophomore linebacker Dee Finely (groin) was a late scratch as well.

PAGING ANDRE DEBOSE…COME IN ANDRE DEBOSE

Conspicuous by his absence was redshirt freshman wide receiver Andre Debose. After missing his true freshman season recovering from a hamstring injury, Debose had been performing well in practice and was deemed ready to go for the season opener. But even with Florida’s offensive struggles, Debose was nowhere to be found. Meyer mentioned that there was no intent to keep Debose off of the field, but he would certainly speak with WR coach Zach Azzanni about the situation.

NEW INJURIES OCCUR WHILE OTHERS HEAL

Senior cornerback Moses Jenkins, who earned the starting nod Saturday, appeared to injure his left elbow and forearm after landing on it awkwardly, was put in a sling on the sidelines and iced the area while walking to the locker room during the game. Wilson seemed to injure himself during the fourth quarter, but walked off of the field mostly under his own power. Though no updates were available on those two, Meyer said after the game that sophomore left tackle Xavier Nixon, senior defensive tackle Terron Sanders and redshirt freshman TE Jordan Reed (all of whom have knee injuries) should be active next Saturday against South Florida.

MOORE BLANKED WHILE HINES AND BURTON STEP UP

Meyer was not blowing smoke this fall when he said that sophomore WR Omarius Hines would be an important piece of the puzzle this season. With redshirt senior WR Carl Moore held catchless, Hines played his new hybrid tight end role and reeled in three catches for 49 yards and the team’s first offensive touchdown on the season on a 10-yard slant from redshirt junior quarterback John Brantley.

Also contributing the entire game was freshman QB Trey Burton, who played five offensive positions (QB, WR, TE, fullback, H-back) and got some work on special teams. He even notched a touchdown on a two-yard run from the wildcat formation. “I imagine he graded out a winner because he seems to do everything right,” Meyer commented. “Trey Burton is going to be a major impact [player] on this team.”

QUOTES (after the break…)

Meyer summing up the offense’s struggles: “I didn’t imagine the offensive incompetence we displayed today.”

Meyer on the bright spot in Saturday’s game: “We won. There’s a bright spot for you.”

Meyer on the team’s performance: “I was not that shocked that we didn’t play well. I was shocked that the ball was on the ground. I thought our defense would come out and play well. I’m extremely disappointed in our kicking game. Very disappointed. We’ve got a long way to go, man. […] Very disappointed with our performance. That’s probably obvious. But the good thing is, and I told our team this after the game, I don’t mind coaching guys who want to work. We’ll come back [Sunday] and work hard. That’s what we do around here.”

Meyer on redshirt junior DT Jaye Howard stepping up: “I saw a guy that’s starting to grow up around here. He has not played to his potential and he’s starting to play to it.”

Brantley on if he was embarrassed by the offense: “Not so much embarrassed, because I know the potential of our offense. We’ve got a great offense. Mike’s a great center. I’m not worried about him. I know he’s going to get better. He always is [good]. But not really, I’m not embarrassed at all. [It was] one of those days, I guess you could say. We’re going to work on it this coming week and be ready for USF. […] I think this is going to bring the offense closer together and make us work harder. The only thing we can do is get better from here and learn from it. We’re going to get better each week. That’s all we’re looking for.”

Brantley on putting pressure on the defense: “We put our defense in a couple bad spots, but I think we have one of the best defenses in the country and they’re going to get the job done. I apologized to them a few times, but it’s a good thing we know we can count on them.”

Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Steve Addazio on the miscues: “You can’t turn the ball over. You start turning the ball over and you’re never going to get any continuity and you can’t get anything going. We’re going to fix that snapping stuff, and we’re going to be fine. We just have to get back to work and get it corrected. Football is momentum and rhythm. It’s hard to have that when you turn the ball over.”

Addazio on the offense’s struggles: “My job is to make sure we put this behind us. There’s one guy who is in charge of this thing and that’s me, not Mike Pouncey. Today was not a very good day.”

Junior running back Jeff Demps on his long touchdown and overall performance: “It was a giant hole there and I hit it 100 miles per hour. The line did a good job opening that. […] There were a couple of runs where I probably could have run a little more harder, a couple of shoe-string tackles. But you know, that’s why there is practice, for improvement.”

Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on Howard’s day: “Jaye did some good things. He did well today and made a lot of plays. He is kind of lazy and if you ask him, he’ll tell you that. He’s starting to work hard and guess what? Good things are happening to him.”

Austin on Jenkins’ injury: “He is a young man who had been waiting a long time to have an opportunity to play at the University of Florida, and then he goes out and gets hurt right away. That kind of dampens his spirit and my spirit.”

Senior safety Ahmad Black on the defense: “We’re pretty good over here. When the offense struggles, we’ve got to step up. We knew we had to cause turnovers.”

Junior cornerback Janoris Jenkins on his interception return for a touchdown: “I made a game-changing play. We’ve got to keep everybody’s head up and continue to play great defense.”

Sophomore LB Jon Bostic on his interception “I saw the running back trying to run behind me a little bit, so I started floating that way. I really didn’t think the quarterback was going to throw it since I was still right there, but he tried to take a chance.”

Special thanks to the University of Florida, Gainesville Sun, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post and Miami Herald for many of the above quotations.