Expect More of Moore

The Florida Gators need receivers to step up in 2010 and one you should count on is senior Carl Moore. After missing all of the 2009 season with a back injury, Moore is back for his final go around and ready to go. A little shake up in the spring with some personal demons is behind him and now Moore is focused on team goals which should make him a better player at Florida.

Of utmost importance for Carl Moore this offseason was to get healthy, and that he did. Moore had a bulging disc that would come and go on him and eventually the pain just got to be too much, so he had surgery.

“I was every day just seeing how my back would feel and go from there,” Moore told the Florida media this week. “It was a last minute decision we went for surgery. I had a disc bulge (lower back). It was tough when you train hard and something like that happens when you train so hard.”

It was very hard for Moore to not play a year ago, one he thought would be his last in Gainesville.

“It is frustrating, but I understand that this is the sport I play and we train hard here,” he said. “If you don't treat your body, it will wear down.

The treatment has gone well and now he is ready to have that special senior season he had to wait an extra year for.

“My back is good and 100 percent,” he said. “I stretch every day and try and maintain so I don't have any injuries.”

The spring came for Moore and he was moving along fairly well when he got a little sidetracked. For personal reasons, Moore had to take some time off in the spring. Just a couple of days, but it did set him back a bit.

“I was dealing with some personal issues on my own,” he said. “It was just a couple of days and after that it was (over). I just got through it. You have to play ball, so I just went.”

The year off has Moore ready to make amends and the first thing that comes to mind when asking about his return is to get some team respect.

“I am definitely motivated and more so for team success,” he said. “I want to win a national championship, especially this being my last year.”

Moore says the 2010 group of receivers is working very hard to be as good as they can be. One of the true freshmen has mad a big impression on him this fall.

“Everyone is out there trying to get better,” he said. “We are learning and competing at the same time. We are just going out there every day in practice, because that is how we get good.

“Quinton Dunbar is going hard. Coaches have always preached to go out there and make plays, even if you don't know what you are doing. Dunbar has been doing a lot of that.”

There has been a little bit of transition, even for guys like Moore and Deonte Thompson who have been at Florida for a while. Wide receiver coach Zach Azzanni is new to the team after taking over the position in early December. According to Moore, Azzanni is a stickler for details.

“Everyone is a little all over the place because Coach Z is a new coach and has a little different coaching style, but his style is great,” Moore said. “Everyone is buying into it.

“He stays on top of you. He wants to make sure the little things are what counts. He knows the little things are what are going to get us to the championship.”

The key to the Gators entire 2010 season is probably the success that quarterback John Brantley has with hooking up with his receivers. Moore says, they are all on the same wave length.

“He has a great connection with all of our receivers,” Moore said of Brantley. “We have been throwing all summer trying to get the timing down and it has been going good.”

In the end it is going to take 80 attitudes like Moore's to make the Gator ship run like they want to. If there was ever a selfish thought to Moore's body before, it seems to have disappeared and his teammates would do well to think the same way.

“I just want us to win,” Moore said. “I am just down for us to win and whatever I have to do for us to win, that is what I want to do.”

---

Follow Bob Redman on