GAINESVILLE — Louis Oliver knows just how Percy Harvin feels this month.
Like Harvin, Oliver was a star at the University of Florida and was the subject of rumors about a failed drug test in 1989 that sent his draft stock plummeting.
Oliver, expected to be a top-10 pick, wound up going at No. 25 to the Dolphins.
"I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do anything. I was like, 'You've got to be kidding,' " said Oliver, a safety from Glades Central High School. "But it's out of your control. There's nothing you can really do about it."
Twenty years later, the rumors are swirling around another Gators' star and there's nothing Harvin can do about it.
First there was the reported score of 12 out of 50 on Harvin's Wonderlic test in February, which measures quick thinking and basic problem solving. Then
NFLDraftBible.com reported 10 days ago that Harvin and three other players tested positive for marijuana at February's NFL Combine in Indianapolis, though no other outlet has confirmed the report.
"He's as talented as anyone in the draft this year," said Gil Brandt, the longtime general manager of Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys and now a draft analyst for
NFL.com. "But he has those off-field problems, and that's going to knock him down a little bit."
Oliver, expected to be a top-10 pick, wound up going at No. 25 to the Dolphins.
"I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do anything. I was like, 'You've got to be kidding,' " said Oliver, a safety from Glades Central High School. "But it's out of your control. There's nothing you can really do about it."
Twenty years later, the rumors are swirling around another Gators' star and there's nothing Harvin can do about it.
"Percy knows what he's done and what he hasn't done," Oliver said. "But once he gets with a team, and if he just does as best as he can for as long as he can, somebody's going to be real happy with him."
