10/13: Florida coach Meyer’s SEC teleconference

OGGOA had the opportunity to participate in Florida Gators head coach Urban Meyer’s Southeastern Conference teleconference on Wednesday (we will be doing so every week). Below are some notes from the event:

RAINEY IS BACK, WITH RESTRICTIONS

As OGGOA previously reported, redshirt junior wide receiver Chris Rainey returned to the team for practice on Tuesday after being officially reinstated by Meyer following a month away from the field. However, he will not play until he meets a number of conditions set forth by the coaches and administration. Meyer spoke about the decision to bring Rainey back and gave a bit of insight into what he has to do.

“I met with a variety of people involved in the situation. I let everything happen and then I just thought it would be the best interest to get him around the team,” Meyer said of the process. “[He will play] if he fulfills everything he [has been given to do], to kind of make things not happen again. […] I wasn’t going to let him practice until he fulfilled his obligations. He wasn’t back with the team until our first day of practice.”

Meyer said that athletic director Jeremy Foley and school president Bernie Machen were in “constant communication” with him about the situation. Rainey is “on scholarship, for now” after Meyer “met with professionals who deal with Chris.” He also indicated that someone associated with Florida met with the victim and relayed their opinions of the situation back to him.

“Chris has a history of opening his mouth and careless things come out of his mouth,” Meyer said. “Obviously this is the first time anything like this. Part of him getting back is correcting that issue. Second is community service. […] Chris is not a violent person. At times he has said careless things. […] We put a contract together and he just has to fulfill his obligations before he’s going to play.”

INJURY UPDATES PROMISING

Meyer noted that junior starting running back Jeff Demps is “feeling much better than last week” and called him Probable for Saturday’s game against Mississippi State. “He’s going to do some practice today, and they’re telling me he’s going to do some practice tomorrow,” he said.

Redshirt junior starting quarterback John Brantley “feels much better than he did a week ago” and is “practicing at full speed,” while redshirt freshman guard Jon Halapio was surprisingly called Probable by Meyer after having surgery on a broken finger on Sunday. He said Halapio is doing non-contact work right now but should be able to begin contract drills on Thursday.

MEYER QUOTES

Opening statement: “Obviously a tough home loss last week. We’re anxious to get going and get that out of our minds and face a very talented Mississippi State team.”

On opponents running the ball well on Florida: “Alabama we felt like we did well against the run. Last week we did not.”

On how important it is not to just defend the run against an offense like Mississippi State’s: “That’s the essence of that offense. It was no different than when Tim [Tebow] was playing here. That’s how you get the ability at times to score points in that offense, especially if you got talented receivers.”

On how the team is handling the back-to-back loss: “I like the way they’re handling it. They’re not handling it well.”

On how the Gators are able to recruit Connecticut: “I think the connections were coach [Steve] Addazio. That’s his home state. We don’t really use the Internet that much in recruiting. That’s how we got a hold of those guys.”

This post will be updated later Wednesday with more quotes.