Gators' Rainey Tops Demps In Secret Speed Showdown

The jawing started during voluntary summer fitness training.

Freshman Jeffrey Demps won last year's Florida high school Class 3A 100-meter dash with a time of 10.37 and later added a 10.25 in the AAU Junior Olympics. That's world-class fast.

But redshirt freshman Chris Rainey from Lakeland, with some quicks of his own, would not concede.

The two were quick to agree on deciding who is the fastest Gator, but strength coach Mickey Marotti refused to allow the race during summer workouts, insisting the showdown wait until practice begins next month.

They couldn't.

In a 40-yard dash held secretly and witnessed only by a collection of teammates, Rainey won.

"We didn't condone it," Florida coach Urban Meyer said. "We have to babysit them every second. Everyone was saying how fast he is so they said, 'Let's go in the back of the dorms, let's figure this thing out.'

"They raced. I guess Chris nudged him out. So we got some speed. I'd like to have watched that. I wasn't there, but I would have liked to. Could have probably sold about 10,000 tickets for that. ESPN "GameDay" probably would have been there as well."

OLD SCHOOL: As the spread offense grows in popularity, even coaches who prefer different schemes are being forced to change their recruiting preferences.

"I like having tight ends and fullbacks. Its part of who we are," Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom said. "You have to recruit a different kind of athlete to run the spread offense. You've got to recruit a different type of athlete to defend the spread offense. You have to have speed in the secondary. You have to have speed at linebacker.

"The days of the 250-, 260-pound middle linebacker, those days are over. The days of 215- or 220-pound safety who runs a 4.7, those days are over."

Croom, however, refuses to be convinced spread formations are the offensive future of college football.

"Defending the spread is just like defenses defending the wishbone," he said. "It all goes in cycles. I think there's no question the defenses are going to catch up with it because they always have and they always will in time."

THEY STUDIED, TOO: LSU won last year's NCAA national championship so Coach Les Miles deserved the opportunity to boast.

But he wasn't talking football.

"Well, first I'm very proud of the '07 team," he said. "It was a tremendous achievement. But the one thing that probably hasn't been said about the '07 team is that minus the five guys that went directly to the NFL, there will be a 100 percent graduation, and I'm pretty proud of that. Every one of them will have their degree by this fall except for those men that pursued the NFL quickly."

Mick Elliott