Dee Finley's future is not so bright

It has been reported that Florida standout DB recruit Dee Finley failed to qualify academically for the 2008 season.

Here is the story from the Orlando Sentinel.


Florida Gator signee Dee Finley did not academically qualify to play football for the gators this season and will spend the fall at Milford Academy in Connecticut, according to several Internet media reports.

Finley, a highly touted safety out of Auburn High in Alabama, becomes the second signee in Coach Urban Meyer's four recruiting classes to fall short grade-wise. Mainland High tight end Brian Ellis, inked in 2005, was the other to not make grades.

Overall, of the 93 recruits signed by Meyer who wanted to play college football, 91 have qualified and started their careers at Florida, according to data on rivals.com. (2006 signee Derrick Robinson was selected in the baseball draft and elected to pursue a pro career in that sport.)

The UF coaches have worried about Finley's progress, or lack thereof, all spring. Meyer even spoke about Finley's struggles at the Southeastern Conference Spring Meetings last month.
"He's in limbo," Meyer said of Finley. "I still keep hearing there's a chance."

By late last week, though, Florida's coaches knew that chance had expired, and Finley's college football career would be delayed until at least 2009.

Finley probably wouldn't have seen all that much action in the Gator's secondary this season, but this will put him a year behind in terms of his progression. Having a player not qualify is never good news. As you can tell from the article, this is a rare occurrence under Meyer's watch.

I'm sure the Gator bashers will have a field day with this one.

Urban Meyer needs to know how gangsta is gangsta!

While giving a speech to a local Miami Gator Club, Urban Meyer began to vent a little bit.

Meyer has come under recent criticism for the perceived lack of discipline on the football team. This stems from the recent arrest of safety Jamar Hornsby and shooting of Matt Patchan. What most of the critics of the program fail to realize is that Hornsby was kicked off the team almost immediately following his transgressions, while Patchan was merely an innocent bystander in a Tampa park.

If you really follow the UF program you would know that Meyer is a serious upgrade from the Zooker in terms of disciplinarian. While Zook was quick to take on entire fraternities, his football team was running wild through the streets of Gainesville doing pretty much whatever they felt like. Urban's bunch have been more disciplined and better in the classroom. This UF team has the highest GPA in the history of Gator football. I know that's kind of like saying you're the tallest midget in your class, but hey it's something. In fact, over 58 players on this year;s squad have a GPA above 3.0.

It now seems that Urban Meyer is blaming the issues facing not only the UF program, but also other programs like, Penn St. Minnesota, Florida State, LSU & Mississippi St. among others on the strict restrictions that the NCAA imposes on the coaches and their staff.

The NCAA severely restricts the amount of communicae that coaches can have with potential recruits. Due to the lack of texting and one-on-one visits the coaches now are recruiting players that they know very little about. As Meyer noted in his speech, it's hard to evaluate someone's character with the minimal contact that is allowed by the NCAA. Coaches are now in a state of constant re-evaluation in regards to their own players.

Perhaps the NCAA could loosen up the restrictions just a tad. Maybe then we would have less Hornsbys, Perrillouxs & Parkers scattered around the D-1 landscape.