This summer, Urban Meyer walked by Emmanuel Moody in the weight room and succinctly told him, "Boy, I hope you're really good."
And that was after a spring where the sophomore transfer running back didn't understand UF's offense and even had a goal-line fumble in the Orange and Blue scrimmage.
Now, Meyer has more than hope. Moody is starting to give him some results.
The former Southern Cal back holds on to the ball and might soon find himself atop the Gators depth chart.
"I would put Emmanuel real close to great," Meyer said. "He is a completely different player than he was last spring, and he is ready to go out there and play college football."
Moody will not only play, but he'll contribute heavily to a group Meyer has gotten nearly giddy about.
It wasn't an easy path, though, as it's not easy to learn a playbook that resembles an encyclopedia. Basically, Moody had to learn Urban Meyer Philosophy 101 quickly.
"More repetitions, the more practice you get, the more plays you get, the more comfortable you get with what you're doing," Moody said about what's changed since the spring.
One of the biggest parts of Moody's UF education came with learning to hold the ball tighter and higher up on his chest. Now he's apparently taken care of that.
"That's the only problem he had," fellow running back Chris Rainey said. "He's really good (now)."
He's on target with everything that happens off the field as well.
"It takes a little bit to get used to me," running backs coach Kenny Carter said. "He had to adapt to me, and I had to adapt to him. As a coach, you have to understand all kids are different. So once I figured out exactly what his buttons were, and he realized I wasn't going to change, we were able to get on the same page."
While Moody said he'd rip hair out of his head - if his bald skull had any, that is -trying to defend the litany of weapons the Gators have in the backfield, he could be the first back off the bench.
That apparently includes fullback, too, where Carter said Moody did some work in Monday's practice. Carter said adding Moody's 6-foot and 210-plus frame at the fullback position "takes us to another level."
"The biggest thing that changed is he took the summer to thoroughly immerse himself in our system and learn what his responsibilities are," Carter said. "He's really bought in to understanding all the ins and outs of the position and what we need to do in pass protection and what we need to do in the run game."
