Perceptions, Shmerceptions
We at O&B Hue don’t often comment on the writings of other blogs or beat sites, but we’ll take exception today with a quick excerpt from the cream of the crop in Gator fansites, Gatorcountry.com.
Franz Beard writes ($) :
It is a battle of perceptions that Urban Meyer has had to deal with the last few days. It started this past Thursday when Jamar Hornsby was arrested and charged with fraudulent use of a credit card and extended into the weekend when freshman defensive lineman Matt Patchan was shot in the shoulder in Tampa. If you judge by the reaction of some in the media and read the message boards of some of Florida’s rivals, then you might come to the conclusion there is an out of control element at work among the Gators.
In Beard’s article, Meyer is quoted as saying that assailants unknown to Patchan fired shots into the crowd in which he was standing. Patchan “had no involvement whatsoever” and had no idea who fired the shots. That’s good enough for me.
Hornsby’s foul deed will unfortunately follow us around for awhile. Gator Nation wanted him gone when we learned of the crime and within 24 hours, he was. Fast actin’ Tinactin.
… The news of these two incidents has taken the attention away from the recent announcement that the Gators put together a team grade point average of 2.86 in the spring, marking the seventh straight semester that the team GPA has risen since Meyer became the head coach at Florida in December of 2004. The 2.86 team GPA is the highest of any Florida football team since they began keeping records of such things.
Hay-soos, am I glad someone finally wrote this. Not only does the team GPA rock, but 32 scholarship players have earned a 3.0 or higher GPA in the spring semester. That’s quite an achievement.
However, one thing missing in this analysis is that we’re one season away from one of the worst off-seasons on record in terms of Gator players getting in trouble. Ronnie Wilson’s assault rifle incident… Brandons James and Powell in the poorly-executed GPD sting… Avery Atkins… Marcus Thomas from 2006… Jermaine Cunningham throwing a sandwich at a restaurant employee… Dorian Munroe cutting a boot off his car (bravo, I say)… the list goes on.
Hornsby is a black mark, but Patchan shouldn’t be. From here on out, we need our kids to keep their noses clean and our coaches to safeguard the honor of Florida football.
This summer will go a long way toward how Gator athletics are viewed by the public at large. Perceptions, smerceptions? Well, they say perception is reality.

I covered this with the grey-colored hat over at 
Tim Tebow ![chadjohnson[1].jpg](http://www.orangeandbluehue.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/chadjohnson[1].jpg)
![archie_copy[1].jpg](http://www.orangeandbluehue.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/archie_copy[1].jpg)

Based on reports from Spring Practice and the 2008 Orange and Blue game I have some observations I’d like to share regarding Gator football. In an attempt to lend some cohesion and organization to my thoughts I will separate each rumination by section. In this section I will look at the Running Back situation.
Cameron “Cam” Newton has thus far had a relatively unspectacular career as a quarterback at the University of Florida. Of course we are talking about a player who was thrust into the backup role as a true freshman so expecting him to have performed like a veteran would be a ridiculous assumption. With only some mop up duty on his resume his career stats are a paltry 40 yards passing (5 of 10) and 103 yards rushing (16 attempts). Cam has the size and strength to be a Tim Tebow-like runner but unlike Tebow he has yet to significantly upgrade his passing form from his first season. Tebow was also a fastball type thrower in his freshman campaign but Tim significantly improved his passing skills in subsequent years while Newton seems to have flatlined in that regard.











