Notebook: UF will use time to heal

The regular season couldn’t have ended at a better time for No. 1 Florida.

UF will have about a month to prepare for the BCS title game against Oklahoma and will spend most of that time resting players with nagging injuries.

The most notable is junior receiver Percy Harvin’s ankle concerns.

While the original diagnosis was a high-ankle sprain, Harvin said Sunday night that his heel was affected as well.

“I’ve been trying to lay low because I’ve been wanting it too bad,” he said. “The coaches have been telling me to relax, get healthy. I’m doing pretty good right now. The heel is healing up, so I should be all right.”

Harvin said the doctors expect him to run by next week, but he could run as soon as later this week.

Freshman tailback Chris Rainey said he played only one snap in Saturday’s SEC championship game because he re-aggravated his groin.

“They told me they didn’t want to put me in there because of my injury,” he said. “I was cool with that because at least I got a reason for why I sat down on the sideline. They were probably saving me to get ready for the national championship.”

Rainey said he’s been rehabbing the injury since summer workouts, but there’s constant pain when he practices and has had to stop practicing on numerous occasions. He’s received cortisone shots before each game to take some of the pain away, but Rainey said that it only cures about 93 percent of the pain. He also attributed it to why he’s been brought down from behind on a few of his longer runs recently.

“I feel good right now, but when that pain comes back it hurts real bad and makes me want to cry,” he said.

Doctors have yet to diagnose his injury, but Rainey said they told him he will need tissue cut out of his groin after the season.

Senior running back/fullback Kestahn Moore limped into the gathering on crutches and with a wrap around his left knee.

Meyer said he was unaware of the injury until after Moore arrived and that he believes it’s a sprained knee and will know more Monday.

Moore was overheard saying that he suffered a bruised meniscus, but would not go into any detail about how the injury occurred.

Assistant update

The Gators will not be losing defensive line coach Dan McCarney to New Mexico. McCarney interviewed for the head coaching position with the school Sunday. But sources confirmed to The Sun on Monday that the job has gone to former UF assistant Mike Locksley, the offensive coordinator at Illinois under former Florida head coach Ron Zook.

McCarney is in his first season with UF and is the former head coach at Iowa State.

Meyer also dismissed rumors about offensive coordinator Dan Mullen being a finalist for the Mississippi State opening.

“I don’t believe that’s true,” he said. “I think there might be some conversation, but I don’t believe that statement is true.”

Penalty talk

UF’s sideline interference penalty late in Saturday’s game was still fresh in Meyer’s mind Sunday.

Meyer was still confused on exactly why the penalty was called and explained that he was trying to get his offense to get back into the huddle after it mistook the referees resetting the play clock for a timeout.

“That was wrong,” Meyer said of the penalty call. “We’re addressing that and that was wrong.

“There’s nothing funny about that and I don’t know what you’re supposed to say. I need an answer for that one.

“Major implications in that game. Four-point lead and (he was) 35 yards away from where it was going on.”

Etc.

Former Florida safety Jamar Hornsby committed to Ole Miss. Alabama, Kentucky and Oregon were also on his list.

Hornsby was kicked off the UF team earlier this year after facing charges of credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound safety played at East Central CC in Mississippi. He was named the MAJC North Region Defensive Player of the Year after collecting 111 tackles and two interceptions.

Staff writer Robbie Andreu contributed to this report