Aside from the four ex-players who were drafted last week, the main storyline hanging over the Florida football team lately has been marijuana use.
Three players — CB Janoris Jenkins, LB/DE Chris Martin and LB Kedric Johnson — totaled four marijuana-related misdemeanor arrests this year. Jenkins was arrested twice, and Muschamp subsequently dismissed him from the team.
Muschamp was in Orlando tonight to speak to the Central Florida Gator Club at the Orlando Science Center and addressed reporters beforehand. Among other things, he said does not believe marijuana use is a widespread problem in his program.
“No, I certainly don’t,” he said. “I think it’s all isolated situations. We’ve got a good situation going. We’ve got some good kids on our football team. Some guys made poor choices and decisions; that shouldn’t reflect on the whole team.”
Muschamp also said he has not addressed the marijuana issue with his entire team.
“Not specifically, but we’re constantly in the mental conditioning stage with our football team of making good choices and decisions,” he said. “It’s a constant effort. When you’re dealing with young people, that’s every day.
“It’s not going to change. We could have no incidents for 10 years, but we’re still going to be doing it. When you’re dealing with young people — I’m a parent. My kids aren’t as old as the kids I’m coaching, but when you’re dealing with young people, you’re always in that developmental stage of making good choices.”
Here are some other notes:
–Jenkins’ departure is unlikely to change Florida’s other personnel. Several months ago, Muschamp briefly mentioned that WR Robert Clark, from Dwyer, has the ability to play corner, but that probably won’t happen.
“I don’t think so, not at this point,” he said tonight. “I feel comfortable with where we are. Bobby does a nice job in the return game for us on special teams and at wideout and I feel very comfortable with where we are at corner.”
Jeremy Brown and Moses Jenkins currently hold the two starting jobs, with Cody Riggs and Jaylen Watkins as the back-ups. True freshman De’Ante Saunders, an early enrollee, also will get a shot.
– Muschamp declined to speak much about kicking out Jenkins, saying only, “It’s not easy. We presented some options and it just didn’t work out. That’s just the way it went.”
– Regarding QB John Brantley’s poor showing in the spring game, Muschamp said, “Everybody wants to bellyache about the spring game, but you’ve got to play better around him. We didn’t play well at wideout in the spring game and we didn’t protect well.”
– A somewhat surprising revelation — to me, at least: Muschamp and his assistants communicate via Skype when not in the office.
“We need to talk face-to-face,” he said. “They miss me.”
