My Percy Harvin Blog

The professional football player widely known as Percy Harvin was actually born William Percival Harvin III in May of 1988 and adopted the nickname Percy as short for his middle name Percival at a young age. Harvin went onto garner national attention as a standout player for the University of Florida (UF) Gators football program where he was an offensive weapon that helped the college win two national championships. After being drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in April of 2009 Percy has enjoyed the entirety of his pro football career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Minneapolis based Minnesota Vikings.

Long before becoming one of the favorite receiving targets for future hall of fame quarterback Brett Favre Percy grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia where he excelled in athletics at Landstown High School. In 2004 the Landstown Eagles, his school football team, won a Virginia state championship. Interestingly with a high school state championship in 2004 and college national championships in 2006 and 2008 Harvin nearly won championships at the high school, college, and professional levels in a five year span before the Vikings suffered an overtime loss that resulted in the team being knocked out of the NFL playoffs one game shy of reaching the Super Bowl. A little known fact is that years before even winning a high school football championship Percy was part of a Pop Warner football team at the age of 13 that actually won the Pop Warner National Championship.

At 5'11" Harvin has always been considered a bit undersized and has also always been considered one of the fastest players on the football field. Percy reportedly ran a 40 yard dash in 4.32 seconds as a freshman in high school. A 40 time at that speed would be considered one of the fastest even by NFL combine standards. In February of 2009 at the NFL Combine Harvin was timed in the 40-yard dash with a time of 4.41 seconds.

As a track and field star Percy set five state track and field records and won state championships in the 200 meter dash, triple jump, long jump, 400 meter relay, and 100 meter dash. The success Harvin had on the track was unprecedented as no one in the state of Virginia had ever before won five state championships in a single track meet.

The unrivaled speed that Harvin demonstrated on the grid iron, track, and even the basketball court made him one of the most coveted high school recruits in the nation. In 2005 Percy was nationally recognized by respected football recruiting publications as being the top junior prospect in the country. Ultimately Harvin decided to play college football for the University of Florida over competing scholarship offers from perceived front runner Florida State University as well as the University of Miami, University of Southern California, and the University of Michigan.

Kim, the author of this article, does not know if Percy owns a pair of blue orange UF Gators slippers but considering the $14.5 million contract that he signed with the Minnesota Vikings on August 3, 2009 he can certainly afford a couple of pairs of comfortable University of Florida slippers.

Readers interested in getting their own orange, blue, or green Florida slippers are encouraged check out the links in the previous paragraph.

When on patrol in a war zone and we are suddenly ambushed and outnumbered 10-to-1 and I have my choice of any player on the Florida and Oklahoma football teams, give me Tim Tebow. Any guy who believes in God and fights to his last breath is someone worthy of my trust.

Millions of television viewers found out during the BCS national championship game why Tim Tebow is the first choice of winners in any competition.

Tebow, Percy Harvin and a tenacious Florida Gator defense shut down an Oklahoma team that led the nation in scoring (51+ points a game) and was 3rd in both passing offense (349+ yards per game) and total offense (547+ yards per game) by limiting the Sooners to 14 points in a 24-14 victory for the national title Tuesday (1-8-09).

After a scoreless 1st quarter, Tebow found Louis Murphy for a 20-yard touchdown pass to end a 12-play, 86-yard drive as the 2nd quarter started. Not to be outdone, Oklahoma's quarterback Sam Bradford answered with a 6-yard TD pass to Jermaine Gresham on the Sooners' ensuing possession.

After Tebow was intercepted by Gerald McCoy and Oklahoma started a drive from the Florida 26-yard line, Chris Brown rushed twice for 24 yards, putting the Sooners on the 1-yard line on 3rd down. Then the Gator defense got plain nasty, stopping Brown for no gain and stopping him for a 2-yard loss when the Gators went for pay dirt rather than attempt a field goal.

The Florida goal-line stand with 5:20 left in the 1st half was classic and no mean feat. Brown had rushed for more than 1,100+ yards during the season and is no easy stop.

Oklahoma would launch another attack just before the half, driving 74 yards to the Florida 6-yard line before Bradford was intercepted with 3 seconds left when 3 Gator players would touch the ball in what looked like a tip drill before Major Wright hung on for the pick near the goal line. At the half it was 7-up.

With approximately 10 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Florida put together a 13-play, 74-yard drive that culminated with Percy Harvin scoring on a 2-yard run. Two possessions later, Oklahoma would answer with an 11-yard pass to Gresham, his second scoring catch from Bradford. Florida would answer immediately with a 27-yard field goal by Jonathan Phillips, giving the Gators a 17-14 edge. Bradford would be intercepted on the Sooners' next possession.

Then Tebow and his Florida offensive line would grind out an 11-play, 76-yard drive and take almost 7 minutes off the clock. Tebow was everywhere. He passed for 13 yards, ran for 1, passed for 16, passed for 29, passed for 4, passed for 9, ran for 3 and then charged the line and jump-passed to David Nelson for a 4-yard touchdown.

Oklahoma had the ball and 3 minutes left to erase a 10-point Florida lead. Bradford would throw 3 incompletions, the Gators would take the ball back and the Tebow would punish the Sooners by rushing 6 consecutive times. Oklahoma could not stop Tebow or Florida.

The Sooners' Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy this year (a fact not lost on Tim Tebow who won the Heisman last year), but Tebow outplayed Bradford in the championship game. It was not Bradford's best day and he looked really ineffective compared to Tebow's performance. When it counted, Tebow showed up and Bradford did not.

Percy Harvin was huge for Florida, gaining 122 yards on 9 carries (a 13.5 yard average per carry) that included a 52-yard dash that set up the Gators' go-ahead field goal in the 4th quarter.

The national title was Florida's 2nd in 3 years, giving it 2 BCS championships and making the Gators the only team with 2 BCS titles besides LSU, which won in the 2003 season and again last year. With Florida's 2 wins and LSU's 2 wins, Southeastern Conference teams have won 5 of the first 11 BCS national titles.

Oklahoma, which won the national title in 2000, has now lost its 3rd straight BCS championship game and 5th straight BCS bowl-game. The Sooners' set a modern record for scoring this year with 702 points and put up at least 60 points in its last 5 games, all of which did not mean squat in its face-off with Florida for the title. What do you want, records or titles?

Florida will be remembered forever for its achievement; Texas fans will have to celebrate the Sooners' scoring achievements with a private party.

"In the end, I will be glad to try again next year," said losing Sooner coach Bob Stoops. "If that's the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I'm a pretty lucky guy."

"We're going to enjoy a big win (and a) national championship," said winning Gator coach Urban Meyer. "Let someone else worry about that," continued Meyer, referring to the fact that Utah, Southern California and Texas all thought that they should have played in the national championship game.

Florida finished the season at 13-1 with a national title; Oklahoma was 12-2.

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Read my other detailed, knowledgeable, interesting articles on college football, including:
"2008 Independence Bowl - Louisiana Tech Tops Northern Illinois, Notches 7th Comeback Win of Season"
"2008 Champs Sports Bowl - Florida State Uses an MVP Punter & Heads Up Play to Rout Wisconsin, 42-13"
"2008 Meineke Bowl - Superstar Pat White Leads West Virginia Over North Carolina, 31-30"
"2008 Hawaii Bowl - Charlie Weis Era at Notre Dame Finally Arrives, Irish Speed Past Hawaii, 49-21"
"Final BCS Standings Show Why It's Better to Lose Early Than Late"
"So Who Are the Current Worst Players in Division 1-A Football in the Nation?"

"Famous Quotes by Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz During Football's Annual Bowl Season"

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http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html

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By now, I'm sure all of you have heard that Brett Favre is mulling yet another return to the NFL. It seems like this has become a yearly event, and frankly, I'm sick of hearing about it. But with all the stories about Favre surfacing, it's clear that he still commands a lot of interest and respect from the media and fans.

The latest rumors have the 39-year-old quarterback contemplating a comeback with the Minnesota Vikings, a huge rival of Favre's old team, the Green Bay Packers. I wonder if Favre is just trying to stick it to his old bosses, or if the fire to compete is really there.

Anyway, for Gator fans who like to keep tabs on players who make it to the next level, the question is, would having Favre in a Viking uniform benefit or hurt rookie receiver Percy Harvin? On the surface, it would seem pretty evident that the veteran quarterback's presence could only help Harvin along. Minnesota's quarterback situation is not very rosy right now. The Vikes did pick up Sage Rosenfels, but the nine-year veteran is really nothing more than a journeyman. They also have Gus Frerotte, who, at 37, has to be close to retirement, and Tarvaris Jackson, a young gun who has shown flashes of competent QB play but lacks the consistency at this point to be the man.

Upon further examination, however, I'm not sure how much Favre would help Percy for two main reasons. First, regardless of who is under center, Minnesota is going to be a run-first team. When you have arguably the best running back in the NFL in Adrian Peterson, you're going to give him the rock early and often. In 30 career games, he has carried the ball 601 times. You can bet that number will continue to rise as Peterson begins to reach his prime.

The other thing to consider is Favre himself. If you followed the Jets down the stretch last year, you know that Favre looked like a shell of his former self. In the final five games of the 2008 season, Favre only completed 56 percent of his passes, had nine interceptions to just two touchdowns and never threw for more than 247 yards in a game. New York went 1-4 in that stretch and missed the playoffs, and a good deal of the blame for the collapse falls squarely on Favre's shoulders.

It has been reported that he suffered a torn biceps muscle at some point in the season, and that led to the decline. Doctors recommended he get surgery or try and rest it. He went the rest route, but it's not known how he will come back, if he ultimately decides to come back.

Regardless of who is at quarterback for the Vikings, the team would be well served to get the ball in Harvin's hands as much as possible. I really think that Minnesota can use him in many of the same ways he was used at UF. With his size (5'11", 192 pounds) and injury history, it probably wouldn't be wise to run him up the middle like he was accustomed to doing at Florida. But you could give him the ball on wide receiver sweeps, throw him screens and get him involved in the return game, something the Gators didn't have to do because of Brandon James.

Looking at Minnesota's roster, the most accomplished receiver is Bernard Berrian, who is, for the most part, strictly a deep threat. That means Harvin should get the opportunity to step right in and make an impact. While Favre's presence in Minnesota might make for some drama, I don't think he will have a huge influence on Percy one way or the other.

Dan is a well known writer for florida gator sports. Right now he is writing on how if Brett Favre's returns to the NFL how it would effect Percy Harvin.