By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
Published September 19, 2005
GAINESVILLE - Andre Caldwell had surgery to repair his broken right leg Sunday and will miss the rest of the season.
Coach Urban Meyer visited the receiver at Shands at the University of Florida at Gainesville about 2 a.m. Sunday and described him as "upbeat." The junior from Tampa was injured on the opening kickoff of the third quarter against Tennessee Saturday. Junior defensive tackle Ray McDonald injured his ACL but still was being evaluated Sunday.
"It's a devastating blow to lose especially those two guys," Meyer said. "To lose them, that obviously hurts us. However, what you've got to do is you've got to pick up that rifle and keep going, then go a little harder. I thought (Saturday) our team showed resiliency."
DEFENSE: The Florida defense took over a series dominated by offense, so Meyer awarded game balls to that coaching staff. How much has the defense improved? Consider the national rankings. The Gators are ranked No.2 in total defense (199.0), 11th in rushing defense (61.0), No.10 in pass defense (138.0) and fourth in scoring defense (8.0). The Gators were ranked No.42 in total defense and 31st in scoring defense in 2004. Those numbers could improve this weekend when the Gators play Kentucky at 3:30 p.m. on Ch.10. The Wildcats are ranked No.99 nationally in rushing offense and 102nd in total offense (284.0).
STILL CONCERNED: The Gators moved up to No.5, their first time in the AP Top 5 since 2001, but that and the 3-0 record aside, the offense is still a concern, Meyer said. "I'm disappointed to be honest," he said. "We wanted second-year production out of a first-year offense and we're not getting it. So I think it's to the point where we need to reevaluate and make sure we're doing the right stuff. I don't want to panic. The No.1 thing is we had the ball 35 minutes and we had no turnovers, which is how we won that game. Now the real factor is we had basically two drives in the entire game and everything else was because special teams gave them great field position. But we're certainly not going to panic. We have enough talent to get this thing going."
