Florida’s Oliver Has His Own Schedule : He Adjusts Credits So He Can Play One More Season for Gators

The last of the rain had fallen just before the University of Florida football team began its practice at Aloha Stadium Monday, making the warm morning air stifling and steamy. A long practice ended with wind sprints on the slippery artificial turf, so the Gators were heading for the showers exhausted and dripping with sweat.

A couple of the players were asked to stop to talk to a small group of reporters. No time for chit-chat or life stories. Just highlights for the upcoming game.

Florida free safety Louis Oliver was asked about his class schedule for next semester.

He wasn’t surprised.

Still trying to catch his breath after all that running, Oliver assured reporters that he was taking only 12 credits next semester and saving three credits for fall.

Gator fans will be glad to hear that.

Oliver, officially a junior after redshirting the year that he walked-on at Gainesville, is 15 credits away from graduating. If he chose to get those 15 credits next semester, he could make himself available for the National Football League draft.

The Aloha Bowl game against UCLA on Christmas could be Oliver’s last game for the Gators.

But Louis Oliver is not a short-sighted, impatient person. If he were, he would be working in the sugar-cane fields surrounding his hometown of Belle Glade, Fla.

No, Louis Oliver had a plan for escaping the cane fields by becoming a first-round pick in the NFL draft; and from what he hears, if he went for the money now, he would be picked late in the second round or early in the third. Almost is not good enough for this guy.

So he is going to play this out according to his master plan.

This journey began long ago, when his parents kept telling him he would need his grades to get a college scholarship. When only Alcorn State and Central Florida offered athletic scholarships to the scrawny kid, who, it was then said, wasn’t a hitter, he went to Florida on a partial academic scholarship and walked on to the football team.

Why not go for the sure full ride?

“Because I knew I could play with those guys at Florida,” he said. “I guess it was something of a gamble, but I’ve always had a lot of confidence in myself. When I set out to do something, I do it.”

He started beating out scholarship athletes; and by the next year, he was on a full athletic scholarship.

Oliver currently has a 3.36 grade-point average (on a 4-point scale) and is studying criminal justice.

Why not take the pro contract now instead of assuming that he’ll stay healthy and play better next season? For the same reasons that he didn’t take a full ride at Central Florida.

His plan was to play at Florida, get his degree and be a first-round draft pick. That is what he intends to do.

He was a starter last season as a sophomore and this season was named to the All-Southeastern Conference team. Going into the Aloha Bowl, he is second on the team in tackles with 72 (strong safety Jarvis Williams has 77), and he leads the team in interceptions with 5 and deflections with 19.

His specialty is saving touchdowns. But he’s going to need another “better” season to become a first-round pick.

He will have a chance to play against a quarterback projected to be a first-round selection when the Gators play UCLA on national TV.

“Troy Aikman is maybe the best quarterback we’ve faced all season,” Oliver said. “Everybody says he may be the best in the nation; and from watching the films, I’d put him there.

You’d be a fool if you didn’t have respect for that quarterback and his receivers.”

Oliver is nobody’s fool.

He knew that he was too small when he arrived as a 198-pound freshman. He also needed better than 4.61-second speed in the 40-yard dash. He solved both of those problems in the weight room, working himself so hard that the coaches sometimes had to lock the door to keep him out.

Now he is at 218 pounds of lean muscle, and his time in the 40 is 4.31.

He has been even bigger, but he doesn’t want to size himself out of this position that he likes so much.

Louisiana State Coach Mike Archer has called Oliver a linebacker playing free safety.

Along with showing receivers that he can really hit, Oliver was able to squelch the nasty rumors that he didn’t like contact by telling, over and over, the story of how youths hunt rabbits in Belle Glade.

The really quick kids run down the rabbits and the smarter ones, like Oliver, wait until they burn the cane fields and then nab them on the way out. The method? The kids knock the rabbits on the head with “a big ol’ stick.”

In the suburbs, youths get bunnies from the pet store and just keep them in a cage.

Life is tougher in Belle Glade.

That’s why Oliver is now running down receivers with serious determination.

Aloha Bowl Notes

Florida cornerback Ricky Mulberry twisted his left ankle in practice Monday morning and is being listed by Coach Galen Hall as questionable for Friday’s game. Strong safety Jarvis Williams will play some at Mulberry’s spot. . . . UCLA defensive tackle Jeff Glaser came down with mononucleosis last week and is not expected to play. . . . Tailback Gaston Green pulled a thigh muscle in practice last week, but he expects to be ready. . . . During the cold and wet weather last week in the Southland, the UCLA team donned sneakers and practiced in Pauley Pavilion.