Linebacker Dee Finley had his first appearance before a judge on Tuesday morning after he was arrested Monday on charges of driving on a suspended license and resisting arrest with violence, a third-degree felony.
The State Attorney reduced Finley’s felony charge to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence.
Attorney Huntley Johnson is representing Finley.
“The State Attorney reviewed the case and decided to treat it as a misdemeanor,” Johnson told the Gainesville Sun.
“I did not see resisting with violence in the description in the police report.”
Finley’s status for Saturday’s game against Tennessee is still unknown.
Wenger healthy: After dealing with concerns that he would be medically incapable of playing this season, offensive lineman Dan Wenger has started both games at left guard for Florida.
The Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas graduate said the concussions that kept him out last year and forced his transfer from Notre Dame are a thing of the past.
“When we started hitting and put on pads and everything like that, that was the true test,” he said.
“I was able to withstand workouts going through the summer with [strength] coach [Mickey Marotti] and those guys. The real test was in summer camp. Passed that with flying colors.”
In both wins to start the season, Wenger has earned coach Will Muschamp’s “Scrap Iron Award,” which is given to the best offensive lineman that week.
Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis said Wenger has been instrumental to the line’s early success because of his experience in the offense.
Wenger played under Weis and offensive line coach Frank Verducci at Notre Dame before coming to Florida.
“If he couldn’t play a down, he still would have helped us tremendously,” Weis said. “Even if he couldn’t physically hold up, his intangibles are through the roof.”
Red zone errors: Weis said the offense’s struggles in the red zone against UAB had more to do with miscommunication than mental errors, which leads Weis to believe it should be an easy fix.
“The things that happened in the red zone were very correctable issues,” Weis said.
“It’d be one if you just got whooped or something like that, but they were just things that if we did better it would have been all touchdowns.”
The No. 16 Gators settled for field goals three times in the first half against UAB, and twice the offense’s promising possession fizzled inside the Blazers’ 10-yard line.
Instead of the up-tempo pace of the first half, Weis decided to slow things down and pound the ball in the run game. In the second half, Florida scored two touchdowns on both its possessions inside the UAB 20.
Contact Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
Gators offensive lineman Dan Wenger (56), a sixth-year senior who transferred from Notre Dame during the summer, is no longer worried about the concussions he suffered a year ago. Wenger has experience with offensive line coach Frank Verducci and coordinator Charlie Weis from his time with the Irish.
