Freshman Leonard Tears Miniscus; Out 6-8 Weeks

August 10, 2011

The University of Florida football team suffered its first major injury of training camp when head coach Will Muschamp announced Wednesday that freshman tight end A.C. Leonard tore his miniscus and will be out 6-8 weeks.

Muschamp said the injury occurred Saturday and was of the non-contact variety and that a determination would be made at a later date if Leonard would be able to play this season or not.

Florida completed its first practice of training camp in full pads today and Muschamp touched on a variety of subjects after the practice.

  • He is pleased with the play of the quarterbacks who are competing behind starter John Brantley. Muschamp said freshman Jeff Driskel is progressing and that the game is slowing down for him; that Tyler Murphy is doing a nice job of managing the offense and that Jacoby Brissett has a big arm and will be a nice quarterback for the Gators in the future.
  • Muschamp said again that he is very thin on both lines of scrimmage but also said he was pretty pleased with the overall effort at practice today.

**Freshman Clay Burton has been moved to tight end according to Muschamp. He also said wide receiver Omarius Hines would be used in some situations at tight end as well.

  • Kicker Caleb Sturgis, hurt most of last year, is doing fine. He has not kicked off at all but he is kicking field goals and point after kicks and he’s healthy with no injuries so far.
  • Muschamp feels that veterans Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps have “distanced themselves” from fellow running backs Mike Gillislee and Mack Brown at this point, especially since Gillislee and Brown missed significant time in the spring with injuries.
  • There is excellent competition in the secondary. At corner, Muschamp says Moses Jenkins, Jeremy Brown, Gerald Riggs and Pop Saunders have all run with the first unit and at safety, he mentioned good play from guys like Josh Shaw and Matt Elam.

Category: Gators Football