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Harvin Primed And Ready For Vols

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 16, 2008

GAINESVILLE - "That's a talented guy - the best first step in college football," Florida coach Urban Meyer said Monday, relishing the full-speed addition of playmaker Percy Harvin into the Gators' offensive game plan.

"That's a hell of a toy."

New batteries included.

After a long and tedious recover from surgery in April to shave off part of the bone in his left heel, Harvin has been judged fit and ready for the long run when the Gators visit Tennessee on Saturday in Knoxville.

This is an intriguing addition to Florida's offensive arsenal because Harvin last year accounted for 1,622 offensive yards (858 receiving and 764 rushing) and insists it was accomplished at far less than full speed.

"My 10th grade year in high school," Harvin answered when asked for the last time he ran without pain. "It's been nagging me since high school just because I did long jumping and triple jumping and played basketball, I ran track. All those years it kind of was tearing at the bone at my heel. That caused other injuries but we've got it all figured out."

Harvin called it a "stabbing pain" in the back of his foot. Trying to play through it, his body made involuntary adjustments, causing more ills.

"It got to a point where I couldn't bend, so sometimes in the weight room I couldn't squat all the way down," he said. "It was causing bad tendinitis in my knees, and my hips were going crazy because I was overplanting on my other foot."

But even after the surgery performed by Robert Anderson in Charlotte, N.C., Harvin had issues.

He was limited in preseason practice mostly to conditioning drills. Any hard workouts left him limping. Adding to the intrigue, he declined to talk, speaking only once - for only a few minutes - since the surgery.

Considering the subject matter, no wonder Harvin preferred to keep quiet.

"Yeah, I started running too early because the spring I was supposed to be kind of oozing a long and I kind of got out there and was trying to cut and do some of the stuff like I was never injured and I paid for that during the two-a-day practice," he said.

Harvin sat out Florida's season opener against Hawaii, and then saw some limited action against Miami, running five times for 27 yards and a TD and catching one pass for 12 yards.

"I pretty much knew what I could do, but I think the six touches was to see if I still had my explosiveness, was it going to ache after the game and things like that," Harvin said. "It didn't do none of those so I think I'm pretty good to go."

Even better for Florida, he expects to be harder to stop.

With limited mobility during the months of recovery time, Harvin all but locked himself in the weight room. He added 15 pounds of muscle to his now 200-pound frame and says he is benching 420.

He also has a good memory.

Although Harvin had four catches for 120 yards and nine carries for 75 and one TD in last year's 59-20 win against UT, he remembers the 2006 game at Knoxville.

"I got hurt the first series in the second quarter," Harvin remembered. "That's the first thing Coach had said to me when the week had started. I'm just looking forward to getting back on the field, not just that but just being out there and able to play again is a blessing."

NOTES: The Gators' Sept. 27 game against Ole Miss at The Swamp will be televised on WTTA, Channel 38, with a 12:30 p.m. kickoff. ... OL Jim Tartt, who battles a chronic shoulder problem, is expected to see his first action of the season against Tennessee. "Jim Tartt has great news," Meyer said. "Jim looks like he's ready to roll."

UF SHORTS

•Florida's Sarah Chapman is the SEC Freshman Soccer Player of the Week. It's the third straight week UF has won the honor after Tahnai Annis took the previous two. Chapman's first collegiate goal turned out to be the game-winner, as UF defeated No. 18 Illinois 2-0 on Friday.

•SEC coaches picked UF's women's cross country team to finish second in the league and the men to finish fourth. Arkansas was picked to finish first on the women's side with nine first-place votes. The Razorbacks were followed by UF, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky. Alabama was chose as the top finisher for the men with seven first-place votes. Arkansas, Auburn, UF and Tennessee followed.

•This week's Associated Press poll has five SEC teams in the top 10 - including Georgia No. 3 and Florida No. 4. This is the first time in SEC history that five teams from the league have been ranked in the same AP Top 10 poll.

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