Percy Harvin has been limited the last two days with a hip pointer but coach Urban Meyer said the sophomore wide receiver will be ready to go for Saturday's game when fourth-ranked Florida hosts Auburn at The Swamp. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.
"He'll be a go on Saturday for sure," Meyer said. "It's a concern because he's missing practice. He plays better when he practices. He's killing himself trying to get back. They had him running. He wasn't supposed to run today but he's fighting through it. I've coached guys with hip pointers. He'll be fine. I just worry about him missing practice time."
Fifth-year senior wide receiver Andre Caldwell (knee) is not expected back this weekend. Neither is sophomore cornerback Markihe Anderson (knee). Senior kicker Joey Ijjas (quad) will not kick until Thursday.
Cornerback Markus Manson (ankle) is still not ready to play. Wide receiver Riley Cooper (ankle) is expected to be healed. Offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey has returned to practice and defensive tackle Brandon Antwine should be ready to play.
Having Harvin on offense is important. He finished with a career-high 11 catches for 121 yards and one touchdown in Florida's 30-24 at Ole Miss last weekend. Harvin leads the team with 21 receptions for 336 yards and three scores.
Not having Anderson, the most experienced corner, for another week will hurt. Ole Miss scored both its touchdowns on pass plays – the first one a 19-yarder from Seth Adams to Shay Hodge to cut Florida's lead to 27-16 with 2:47 left in the third.
The second touchdown came 2:40 later when Adams hit Mike Wallace for a 77-yard score as the Rebels cut it to 27-24. Another area of concern for Meyer is competition at linebacker.
"If someone doesn't play very well you'd like to move a guy in there and right now our 2s, they'd be 3s if you had 2s," Meyer said. "They didn't play particularly well against Ole Miss. They played OK against Tennessee. We're still not up to par at linebacker."
More Meyer quotes from Tuesday
On Tuesday's practice: "Today was one of the hardest Tuesdays we've had. It was hot. It was hard on purpose. We had a good day though."
On addressing penalties: "Just address them over and over again. We're not an ignorant team so we had 200 yards of penalties, I think these guys can figure out what 200 yards are, so preaching it (is what we're doing). Special teams, we're not holding, we're just running numbers. That's fixable. Cadence issues when you play on the road, disappointed, but you're always going to have about two when you go on the road in a loud environment."
On Auburn's youth and its defense: "Defense there are no issues. That's Auburn defense. There are not a whole lot of people scoring points on them. On the other side of the ball, couple years ago they were dynamic…They have a bunch of new, talented players. They'll be fine."
On competition at defensive line: "Brandon Antwine had that hyper-extended elbow so he wasn't really able to play. He was out there today. I have to check with (defensive line coach) Greg (Mattison) to see how good a day he had. There's a lot of competition right now at d-line."
On Florida's defense: "Our whole defense is built against stopping the run. There's a belief in our defensive staff room and our coaching staff that you stop the run and you run the ball to win. Someone gave me the stat in three years here we've out-rushed every team except for two. To control the game you have to run the football. We sink a lot of time into that."
On making improvements: "They're not ignorant so let's watch the tape and see how they played. We had one defensive player grade a champion (Derrick Harvey) and we won the game. That's not good defense. Our coaches are coaching. It's almost like we're coaching like we lost. That's good around here. That's coaching real hard."