Colleges

RB, hard feelings head to Gators

Moody leaves the Trojans for UF.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published August 28, 2007

GAINESVILLE - Could trouble be brewing between two of the nation's top programs, USC and Florida?

Two of USC's players left the team and appeared to be headed to Florida, but only one will wear a Gator uniform. USC will reportedly block the other.

Former USC running back Emmanuel Moody said Monday that he plans to transfer to Florida and should be in school by the middle of the week.

"It was an accumulation of everything," Moody said Monday. "The players, coaches, everything just clicked."

Florida coach Urban Meyer can't comment on players who have not signed a letter of intent or enrolled in school.

"I can't comment on him, he's not here yet, or he's not here," Meyer said. "Oops," he quickly added.

Moody was the Trojans' second-leading rusher last season, despite a series of injuries. He missed the final four games with an ankle injury, missed part of spring with a hamstring problem, then suffered a thigh injury in a scrimmage in the fall.

Moody chose Florida over North Carolina, saying during his announcement Monday that he just felt more comfortable at UF. He will have three years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2007 season per NCAA rules.

But it appears his former teammate, receiver Jamere Holland, won't join the Gators. Holland was dismissed from the team last week, but according to the Los Angeles Daily News, USC coach Pete Carroll will not grant his release to attend Florida he's looking at four other schools because Holland's former coach at Taft High School in Woodland Hills is Troy Starr, who last spring was hired as Florida's director of football operations.

Members of the USC athletic department are reportedly upset because they think Holland might have communicated with Starr before he transferred. Starr has said he talked to his former player after his dismissal.

Carroll was quoted by the Los Angeles Times last week as saying representatives from other schools were contacting USC's players in "subtle and just kind of secondary fashion."

"In a competitive sense, I understand why guys would eyeball our roster and look for guys here and there," Carroll said. "We have a terrific football team, but the other side of it is it's illegal."

TEBOW'S PROMISE:Tim Tebow has waited most of his life to be the starting quarterback at Florida, so when the time comes to run out of the tunnel Saturday afternoon, he admits he has no idea how he'll feel. He knows expectations are extremely high among Gator fans, but he says there's only one promise he can make to the Florida faithful.

"Everything I have," he said, when asked what fans can expect. "That's all I can control is going out there giving everything I have. I think guys on the team know that I'll go out there and do that. I'm not saying how many passes I'll complete, or how many rushing yards I'll have or what. I don't know that; no one knows that. But everybody does know I'm going to go out there and give everything I have."

CALDWELL'S EMERGENCE: Whatever Andre Caldwell has done in the offseason and preseason fall camp, it's working perfectly. He was selected by his teammates as one of five captains last week, and Meyer can't seem to stop praising the "new" Caldwell.

"Wait until you guys see Bubba Caldwell play," Meyer said Monday. "You have not seen him play like, I don't want to eat my words here ... but when I say a kid performs, practice, takes his game to another level. He was a fast guy that happened to play receiver. Now he's a wide receiver. He's understanding coverages, he's blocking, he's doing everything we've asked him to do."

QUOTE OF THE DAY:"Me and Tony Joiner were at Wal-Mart like two days ago and like some 13-year-old was like, 'I'll run over you.' " - Tebow on the fact that despite what it seems, not everyone is a big fan of his.

[Last modified August 27, 2007, 23:59:55]