Fastest Florida Students Just Not Fast Enough

I blogged about this on Friday, and was really looking forward to seeing how it all played out on Saturday. For the most part, it was a cool, though gimmicky, race event.

The first two heats with Deonte Thompson and Louis Murphy went off without a hitch. Thompson really looked like a man amongst boys in his race, beating the challengers handily. Murphy's race was a little closer, and caused Coach Meyer to joke that he needed to recruit the student in the red shorts(Bolaji Agbede) because of how well he ran.

Then came Chris Rainey's heat which had been pumped up the entire time because supposedly it had the fastest students in it. However, it ended up being the most disappointing heat because it didn't run very smoothly. First, Rainey false started. Then, he didn't leave the line at all when the students took off. Instead, he left a short while later and ran by himself. Then ESPN cut to a commercial, and no one got to see the real final race when Rainey lined up against the students and beat all of them. Leaving most with the impression that the coaching staff had been too scared to let Rainey race the students one on four. Though, that wasn't the case, and Rainey apparently didn't have any trouble beating them.

Even with his leg shaking because he was so nervous, Rainey, who ran a 40 alone before the final try, blew past everyone and crossed the line with a time of 4.24 seconds — the fastest time recorded during Meyer's tenure at UF.

“My goal was going for a 4.1,” Rainey said of his time. “I'm still working hard and I'm still trying to get it.”

Rainey might want to improve his time, but his competition was more than impressed with what they saw.

“All I know is we were still running and he had already crossed the line,” said Jeff Mesadieu, a criminology sophomore. “I knew he would smoke everybody. No one is in shape like he is. I was just trying to get through it.”

So no one won a scholarship, but Coach Meyer is still going to look at some of the students who performed well to see if they're walk-on material.

Meyer said he is planning to take a second look at a couple students to see if they have football scholarship material.

“We give more scholarships to walk-ons than any program in America,” Meyer said. “Every year, I probably give three out. I had a couple guys come up and ask me and we're going to certainly look at them.

All in all, it was a good opening for the Blue and Orange game, and showcased the University of Florida's football program in a positive light.