Jeff Demps reportedly shuns track, will play football for Florida

[News Bot]

Six days ago, no one was quite sure what Florida running back Jeff Demps was going to do: run track, or play football for the Gators. Well, now we know. By way of multiple media outlets, the senior has put to rest all the speculation by announcing he will finish out 2011 in a football…

Source: CollegeFootballTalk.com

 

[DRU2012]

Are there many Gators who are surprised by this? It seemed to me that only the national/outsider-media ever really thought there was much of a story there...Demps has always said what he planned to do--Olympics or not, I would have been surprised only if he went back on that here at the last moment. Anyway, I don't think he's necessarily writing off a shot at the US Track Team in some capacity next year; I just figured he's a Gator and he'd make good his long time commitment to the team he's been so much a part of for his senior year, then see what he can do on the track LATER. It hasn't kept him from being the current fastest college sprinter in America in his chosen races thus far.
(By the way, did you happen to notice from whom the article's 2 comments originated? Hater-trolls both, one Tide ("Hope you like Silver and Black, Jeff") and one Irish ("Hope you like Jail, Jeff")--both pretty whiny, not so surprisingly, neither particularly clever or insightful, and even LESS so)

 

[Escambia94]

Demps is smarter than what people give him credit for. He only has so much eligibility for football, and if he does not get evaluated well by scouts near NFL draft time, professional track and field will still be waiting for him. If the NFL does not pan out, he would be a good track star because as far as we know he is not the kind of person who would go crazy like other track stars (other than Hussain Bolt who has been rather quiet...similar to Demps).

Demps and Rainey...with a smattering of Gillislee (or as Bob Griese calls him "Gillespie"). This could be a fun year of football. 35 more days.

 

[DRU2012]

Man, I'd take 30 days of cryogenic sleep right about now...(especially in this TX heat)

 

[Escambia94]

We got rain in this part of Texas. The heat should only get to 99 degrees.

 

[DRU2012]

They TALKED about it up this way--and talk was about as close as it got: High Sunday was 100 (Hey, I shouldn't complain, that's 4 degrees BELOW the avg. over the last 2 weeks...no use belly achin', tho'--Austin in summertime is what it is; this one's just a bit more relentless...hell, I'm used to those 99/99's I grew up with in Fla., so I can trade a few more points of temp. for a few less in humidity...'course, back home we had the springs and time to hit 'em; here there's Barton Springs and the lakes'n'rivers, but not as much time to get to 'em as I'd like...when I do, it helps.)
NONE of that changes how SLOOOOWWW time is moving, tho'. That's the part I'd really like to sleep thru' (but doing it frozen does sound pretty good right now).

 

[robdog]

With his speed, someone in the NFL is going to take a chance on this guy. I am going on record saying that right now!

 

[DRU2012]

(Yeah, got a WEE BIT off-topic there...Sorry: that's what this long "summer-in-the-oven" is doing to me--and I don't think I'm alone out here on "the edge"...I feel like we've been in this strange place since the 2nd Half of the '09 SEC Championship Game against the 'Tide, teetering at the edge of total disaster ever since: where last season was a strange interlude in the Twilight Zone, with Addazio "in charge", the players in either confusion or revolt, and Urban still here in name only...Meanwhile, no one knows what we've got now: I'm sick of the outsiders dismissing us AND our own people arguing about the likeliest possible scenarios--Have you seen Bianchi's latest column, where he insists that Zook left the program in better condition than Meyer? Yikes!--the sooner we GET TO IT, the better, right?)
As for Demps, you just KNOW Weis has a number of schemes to get Jeff into the other team's secondary--the line has to execute and stay healthy: run-block for Demps, short-pass-block-and-release for Rainey, and you've got two of the fastest, quickest and most elusive backs in college football getting loose for big gains--and all Brantley has to do is either hand off or set-and-throw it less than ten yards. That's a recipe for building confidence early on. For the sake of Demps' health AND our overall offensive balance, we'll have to run Gillisley (I always get this spelling wrong--but I SAY it right, which is more than Bob Griese can say) and Brown in there about a third of the time at least--and that may well turn out better than merely "expedient" in this version of the "pro-set"--both are strong, fast and slippery, powerful backs coming into their own right now. If the receivers come of age as well, if Brantley can stretch the field, deliver the long one accurately several times a game AND the WR's hold on to it, this offense COULD give our likely strong defense something to work with each week.
This is Florida, after all: we do still have speed all over the field. People seem to have lost sight of that--and even with Demps himself: perhaps they fail to consider, and therefore will inevitably misjudge, what it means to be the fastest player on the fastest TEAM in college football. It would be EXTREMELY satisfying to see that repeatedly shoved down their throats, don't y'all agree?

 

[Escambia94]

I neither want to set myself up for heartbreak nor sell my confidence short. Let the naysayers say whatever they want until the season starts. It's all speculation. Since 2007 it was easier to speculate because we were layers of talent and speed and we knew the coaches reasonably well. We still have talent and speed and maybe more strength this year, but we are thin and do knot know the coaches as well. If Demps stays healthy behind a healthy offensive line, I think the Gators surprise the SEC. If they get injured like last year, the Gators are in a world of hurt. People will be kicking us while we are down. Without injuries, we will be taunting the world with "Told you so! This is Florida! ".

 

[DRU2012]

You got it EXACTLY right, E-. It could go either way--and the keys are quarterback and (even more) lack of depth everywhere else, especially the lines (especially ESPECIALLY the O-line). Our first team COULD (if they stay healthy) be first-class across-the-board. This team will have to be lucky the way last year's WASN'T.
("travisduncan" has started a new thread that, among other things, raises the kind of dilemma this puts the coaches in at practice, especially a Coach like ours who by all accounts wants a hard, physical team--and who will thus likely subscribe to the "Play Like You Practice, Practice Like You Play" philosophy)
To get back to your other point, BECAUSE it truly could go either way, so many other variables that could play their part as things progress, I go back and forth, too...truth is, I can see it both ways: I'm sick of thinking, hoping, fearing, guessing, analyzing,--most of all WAITING, and THAT is EXACTLY why it's PAST time to get this thing teed up and kicked off!