Notebook: Garcia a big concern for Meyer

Florida coach Urban Meyer is happy to have a team that’s relatively oblivious to the outside world.

There isn’t as much worry about the offense. There’s no Alabama talk. And there seems to be some confusion about Florida’s exact record.

The Gators are all probably well aware of Florida’s 9-0 record and 19-game winning streak, but junior punter Chas Henry admitted Tuesday that he thought his team was just 5-0 in SEC play.

The top-ranked Gators are, in fact, 7-0 in the conference and when Meyer heard of his punter’s goof, he simply replied with a “That’s good.”

Meyer is glad that something that simple isn’t a concern and that his team is focusing on other things besides records and statistics. With championship goals, Meyer’s team is too busy to worry about all the talk surrounding the program.

“We don’t have time to reflect,” Meyer said after Tuesday’s practice. “That’s the beautiful thing about this. Our kids don’t know.”

Meyer hopes all that focus is on Saturday’s opponent. The Gators will travel to Columbia expecting to face a South Carolina team looking to salvage its season.

The Gamecocks enter with a 6-4 record and are 3-4 in conference play, but to Meyer this team is much better than last year’s 7-3 team that was blown out 56-6 in Gainesville.

Despite the Gamecocks losing three of their last four games, this is still the team that beat then-No. 4 Mississippi 16-10 in late September. South Carolina has the fourth-best defense in the SEC, giving up only 305.7 yards per game.

That defense should be drooling at the sight of Florida’s stumbling offense, but it’s South Carolina’s quarterback that has Meyer concerned.

Stephen Garcia ranks second in the conference, throwing 242 yards a game, and has accounted for more than 2,500 total yards this season.

“Their quarterback’s night and day compared to what he was (last season),” Meyer said. “They’re not running the ball quite as well, but they’re throwing it much better.”

Moore possibly done

A serious back injury has kept senior receiver Carl Moore from playing — let alone practicing — this season for the Gators. On Tuesday, Meyer implied that Moore might not see any sort of football action in ’09.

“I don’t want to make that decision (to sit him for the remainder of the season). I think it’s been made, though,” Meyer said.

Meyer said Moore does have a redshirt available, but he’s holding out a slim bit of hope that Moore could play.

“He’s on call,” he said. “If he gets better (he could play). He’s still not practicing, but the stakes are fairly high right now.”

Redshirt freshman cornerback Jeremy Brown has also missed this season and all of last year with a back injury, but Meyer said he’s faring better than Moore. There was no word if Brown would play at any point this year.

Nicked ankles

Annoying ankle injuries struck the Gators this week as Meyer said offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey, receiver Brandon James, and defensive ends Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham have been hobbled by rolled ankles.

Each are expected to make a full recovery by week’s end and should be cleared to play in full against the Gamecocks.

He said what?

Meyer on what it felt like to write a $30,000 check to the SEC for his comments made toward officials following the Georgia game: “You’d have to ask my wife. She’s doing it. She handles all that stuff.”