"We lost some really, really good players," Meyer said. "But I'm real excited about the freshmen. I'm as excited as I've ever been for June 24 when the freshmen roll in here. We feel very good about our freshman class. The kids on our defensive line are going to play. Matt Elam is going to play. He had a heck of a spring, and he's a heck of a kid. We don't redshirt here at Florida. That's why we recruited them and that's why they're here - to play."
Meyer said the key to a successful recruiting class is simple.
"Our best recruiters are our players," he said. "The fact that I didn't even go on the road the last three weeks . . . The fact that we have the facilities in place, we have the players in place and we have an excellent coaching staff. I don't won't to say it recruits itself because it doesn't, but the best salesman you have are the people that are involved in your team."
Meyer didn't hesitate when I asked him if John Brantley is his starting QB.
"Yeah, he's it. He's having a great summer. He's really gained strength. The biggest thing is the leadership issue, and he really did a good job in spring practice. There's no question he's our quarterback, and there's no question we have a lot of confidence in him."
Meyer also said he would change his offense that would best fit his personnel.
"We'll change it a little bit like we didin 2006 with Chris Leak as our quarterback. We adapt to our personnel. The biggest thing you look at is production. We're going to have to find someone to get those 800 yards rushing because we still want to be the top rushing team in the SEC.
"John is an excellent passer so we're always going to have that component. The biggest thing is someone is going to have to produce in the running game -- and I like our running backs a lot. That doesn't mean we're not going to have that single-wing package to keep teams honest. We kind of had the same offense for three or fours years with Tim Tebow. Now we've adapted it."
