Moody's fumble hurts solid debut

As he dove for the end zone, Southern Cal transfer running back Emmanuel Moody was one yard away from making a big first impression on his new team and the record crowd of 61,000 attending Saturday's Orange and Blue Debut.

Any hopes of Moody leaving his mark were erased when the sophomore fumbled before he crossed the plane, and the Blue team recovered for a touchback.

"I thought that run before he got hit going into the end zone was an excellent run. He's got talent," coach Urban Meyer said. "But there's no chance you'll see him play regardless of what dot.com says and all the e-mail I'll get and everything else. He will not play football if there's a chance it's falling on the ground."

With the Blue team leading 21-7 at the start of the second half, Moody (14 carries, 111 yards) was set to single-handedly march the Orange team in for a score with three consecutive runs. After Moody reversed field and rumbled 34 yards to the Blue team's 31-yard line, he ran for 12 more, then for 19 before the ball was jarred loose at the 1.

Running backs coach Kenny Carter was asked if he gave Moody "a talking to" on the sidelines after the play.

"That's an understatement," said Carter, who's in his first year at Florida. "Football players make plays. Either you make them or you don't. It's unacceptable, and there are consequences that follow irresponsibility."

Although his performance was tainted by the turnover, the 5-foot-11, 206-pound Moody muscled his way into the end zone with just 1:41 left to play after bouncing off tacklers on a 10-yard touchdown run.

"That kind of let everybody down on that drive where he fumbled. I felt like he wanted to make up for it," sophomore running back Brandon James said. "When he got in the end zone, I think he got a little better morale about himself."

Moody ended up helping the Orange team rush for 155 yards on the day, which is the highest total since the Blue team rushed for 157 in 2004.

His combination of power and speed in spring practices have still impressed his coaches, who believe this will only motivate a workhorse like Moody.

"He got a lot of carries (today) and was productive, which we expected," Carter said. He's got the ability to be a special player," Carter said. "We expect him to come back in preseason and do a good job this summer to get himself to that (level)."

Moody was not available for comment after the game.