MIAMI - Practice not only ended for the season Tuesday afternoon, it also ended the practice career of UF's seniors.
As has become tradition, the Gators had their senior tackle ceremony at the end of practice, where seniors bring down a tackle dummy, have a player talk on their behalf and end it with their own speeches.
It was especially emotional for UF coach Urban Meyer, as most of this senior class was his first recruiting class when he arrived in Gainesville.
"That was hard," Meyer said. "I've never really gone through from start to finish as a head coach with a player."
Meyer specifically singled out Louis Murphy as a player who left an impact on him. Murphy has gone from bench-rider to senior leader in his time at UF.
"Just love on each other and enjoy the moment," Murphy said he told his teammates.
LOEFFLER NAMED QBs COACH: As has been expected, Meyer officially announced the hiring of Scot Loeffler as the new quarterbacks coach. He will take those duties from Dan Mullen, who has been hired as the new coach at Mississippi State.
"He understands the philosophy of our offense and our football program and has a great relationship with players," Meyer said. "He obviously has been around some great quarterbacks and is very much a quick study. It won't take him any time to get acclimated here."
Some of those great quarterbacks include former Michigan signal callers Chad Henne, Tom Brady and Brian Griese - all NFL quarterbacks. He spent this past season as the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions.
Loeffler's first day of work will be Friday, one day after the National Championship Game.
ETC: Meyer said they were still keeping an eye on Percy Harvin's sprained right ankle, but it should be 100 percent on game day.
