Saturday scrimmage

[TheTodd]

The purpose of Florida’s Saturday morning scrimmage was to evaluate the young talent and with so many starters held out, Urban Meyer got a really good look at some of his younger players. Florida ran a 37-play scrimmage and also did a good bit of situational work.

“It was a good scrimmage,” Meyer said before rattling off the names of several players who missed the action.

Among those that didn’t answer the bell Saturday morning were offensive guard James Wilson (dinged up), defensive end Justin Trattou (recovering from a sprained foot), cornerback Jeremy Brown (recovering from a back injury), wide receiver Carl Moore (also recovering from a back injury), linebacker Brandon Hicks (sprained ankle), freshman linebacker Jon Bostic (sore neck), offensive tackle Matt Patchan (concussion) and safety Major Wright (concussion).

Among the young guys who stepped it up Saturday were freshman tailback Mike Gillislee and freshman offensive lineman Jonnothan Harrison, who became the first two members of the freshman class to lose their stripes. Harrison practiced at left guard because Wilson couldn’t go.

Gillislee, who played high school ball at DeLand, was the first to lose his stripe and Meyer said he did it on hustle.

“He just goes hard,” Meyer said. “He has no idea which way right and left is. All we care about right now is go as hard as you can and he did that and he’s tough as nails. It wasn’t because of great runs and great catches. He’s struggling with that stuff but we don’t care about that stuff. It’s just go hard and toughness. He has both.”

With Bostic held out of practice and Hicks sidelined for another 5-6 days with a sprained ankle, it was a chance for redshirt freshman Brendan Beal and true freshman Jelani Jenkins to show what they could do. Meyer said he was impressed with Jenkins and said that Beal is starting to earn some respect.

“Right now he (Beal) is a middle linebacker but I think he’s a good enough player that he can be a SAM linebacker,” Meyer said. “We’re still trying to figure that out with Bostic. Bostic was held out today because of a sore neck but he should be fine. He should practice when we go this afternoon.”

RAINEY LOOKING GOOD: Meyer has been singing the praises of third-year sophomore tailback Chris Rainey, who is showing added maturity to go with added muscle. Rainey, who was a 156-pounder when he showed up at UF, now tips the scales at 180. Rainey gained 652 yards last season, scoring four touchdowns. As a runner, he is a superb talent but he’s been one-dimensional because of issues with pass blocking mostly related to size and strength.

“Everybody knows he’s a great runner,” Meyer said. “Can he protect the quarterback and can he take care of the football? If he can do that he’ll play a lot of snaps.”

Meyer also noted that junior tailback Emmanuel Moody participated in Saturday’s scrimmage.

“Moody played and played pretty well,” Meyer said.

O-LINE: Starting center Maurkice Pouncey, who had offseason shoulder surgery, is practicing every day but being held out of contact for awhile longer. With Patchan and Wilson held out Saturday, that gave Meyer a chance to see his five freshmen offensive linemen extensively. Harrison worked with the first team and Xavier Nixon worked with both the first and second units. Kyle Koehne, Nick Alajajian and Jon Halapio all worked with the second unit.

The young guys working with the second unit have to grow up quickly because they go every day against the first team line.

“That’s tough especially with the defensive line they’re blocking,” Meyer said. “We do a lot of twos on ones so that means our second offensive line is out there and playing against those guys and it’s a lot of experience and a lot of talent and it looks like it on film. But they’re trying. Xavier Nixon sprained his ankle but he got back in there, fought and kept going. They’re all good guys but that’s the hardest position to play as a freshman by far.”

RECEIVERS: Filling the void left behind by slot receiver Percy Harvin is a major item on Meyer’s August agenda but he said there wasn’t much work done on that position Saturday.

“We’re going to start that next week,” he said. “We just wanted to be real base today.”

Meyer keeps hoping senior Carl Moore will be able to start practicing but so far he’s been unable to go due to his back injury. Meyer has high expectations for Moore this year but the lack of practice time is frustrating.

“I’m crushed, not more than him because he wants to play,” Meyer said. “I keep hearing that it’s getting close. I’ve been hearing that a month and a half now.”

Meyer is looking for tight end Aaron Hernandez to step up another notch in practice. Hernandez has such unique abilities to go with size and speed that he’s a nightmare matchup.

“He’ll be the Percy type matchup issue that we’re hoping for,” Meyer said. “He’s had a good camp, not a great camp. He has to be one of our main guys because he gives such a matchup issue for the defense.”

SPECIAL TEAMS: Placekicker Jonathan Phillips has been accepted into Florida law school. Phillips has an undergraduate degree in finance and a master’s in real estate at UF. Right now Phillips and sophomore Caleb Sturgis are battling it out for the starting job.

“Placekicking is a battle right now,” Meyer said. “Both our guys are kicking real well, Sturgis and Phillips and Phillips got into the University of Florida law school. Put a price on his five-year experience. You can’t do that. He’s got a degree from Florida, he’s in Florida law school now, he’s got six championship rings and he’s on some list and he might not even be starting. It’s a battle right now.”

Sturgis was inconsistent as a freshman and Meyer thinks some of that might have been stage fright. Apparently, he’s not so nervous now and Meyer is seeing consistency in practice.

“Right now he’s banging it right down the middle too, so he’s really done a nice job,” Meyer said.

Mike Williamson is the long snapper for punts while John Fairbanks is the long snapper for field goals and extra points. Backups are freshman walk-on Christopher Guido, Cade Holliday and Brendan Beal.

[TheTodd]

Freshmen Mike Gillislee and Jonnothan Harrison became the first freshmen to lose their stripes Saturday morning.