Off-field incidents frustrate UF coach Urban Meyer
By
MARCUS NELSON
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008
MIAMI — Florida football coach Urban Meyer didn't wait long to dismiss Jamar Hornsby from the team last week after he was arrested last week on felony charges of credit-card fraud.
Hornsby turned himself in to police Friday morning. He was off the team that night.
The junior safety is one of 16 Gators football players who have been involved in off-the-field incidents since Meyer became coach in 2005. They've given Meyer plenty of chances to refine how he disciplines players.
That said, Meyer wishes he had fewer opportunities to be judge and jury when his players get in trouble. He told reporters Wednesday he is concerned that NCAA rules are keeping him from getting to know players well enough during recruiting.
"When you look around and see some of the things that go on, it's amazing, it's disconcerting and it is alarming what is happening," Meyer said before speaking at a Gator Gathering at Parrott Jungle. "We take a great deal of time and effort to educate guys and build character."
Meyer pointed out that the Hornsby incident was the first one the team has had to deal with since last season ended. That was in stark contrast to last off-season, during which Meyer was busy coping with his players' off-the-field problems.
"I can assure you one incident is not going to offset five great months as we get ready for the 2008 season," Meyer said.
When Meyer was hired at Florida in 2005, he arrived after stints at Utah and Bowling Green with the reputation of a coach who ran model programs and whose mantra at Florida has been to only take "the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent."
But those numbers nearly caught up with Meyer last season as he gave many players a second chance, including Hornsby.
Meyer was lenient on Hornsby and often gives second chances to first-time offenders to allow them to prove to him they deserve to work their way back on the team by doing extra running and conditioning or revoking scholarships.
Meyer remembers his emotion when he heard the news: "It's anger and you just have to reevaluate how you're doing."
Meyer said he is afraid recent NCAA bans on text messaging and head coaches not allowed to go out and evaluate players during the spring will hurt a coach's ability to know the character of players he is signing.
"The NCAA is pulling us off the recruiting process," Meyer said. "I'm not allowed to go out and I'm not allowed to text message, but I'm trying to find out (about players) the best I can."
Meyer often uses dismissal from the team only as a last resort.
When he was at Utah, many clamored for him to kick star running back Marty Johnson off the team after his second drunken-driving arrest.
Instead Meyer and his wife, Shelly, who has a degree in psychiatric nursing with a specialty in addiction, helped Johnson, who led the Utes to an undefeated season in 2004, to deal with his alcoholism.
Hornsby's story likely won't have a happy ending.
Hornsby's most recent arrest - on charges that he charged more than $2,800 to a gas card that belonged to a student who died in a car accident that also killed Florida football walk-on Michael Guilford - was his second brush with the law after he entered a deferred prosecution program on a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge stemming from a fight in April 2007.
In that case, Hornsby was accused of throwing someone onto the hood of a car during a fight and causing $750 in damage.
Hornsby was also suspended by Meyer for the final five games of the season for what Meyer said was related to selling tickets he was allotted, a violation of NCAA rules.
"It's case by case, and he's not the first guy to have an issue and won't be the last," Meyer said.
"... Are we perfect, absolutely not. Give me a school that is perfect and I'll give you a couple of examples to show it's not, but that's not our business. Our business is the University of Florida."