Florida coach Jim McElwain said he finds comfort amid the distractions of the past week or two.
Receiver Antonio Callaway's high-profile Title IX hearing and cornerback Jalen Tabor's recent suspension made national headlines for the Gators' best offensive and defensive player.
McElwain is using the troubles of his star players as a way to help his team learn to deal with outside distractions.
"You guys have kind of heard me talk about things in the past and one of the things I enjoy is the chaos," McElwain said Friday. "It's something. ... you can't simulate the chaos that goes on in a game. And yet you can use distractions, uncertainty and use that to help hopefully strengthen you in those times when you're in those games.
"Our guys have handled that I think very well. It's amazing."
The university cleared Callaway last week of sexual assault allegations by a female UF student.
On Tuesday, Tabor and tight end C'yontai Lewis were suspended for a fight during practice. McElwain said both players will return to the team Thursday.
On Friday, though, McElwain said the Gators had two strong practices a day earlier during two-a-days. It told McElwain his players had not lost focus.
"What you hope to see happen is you don't miss a beat," he said. "You go forward and you keep working on what you've got to do to get better. If yesterday is any proof, I think that's a good thing."
McElwain had not spoken to reporters since the Tabor-Lewis fight, but made it clear "these are two really good guys and good teammates ... and they're good people."
But McElwain said he wanted to make it clear to the two players what coaches and their teammates expect from them.
"Our responsibility for everybody in the organization is to help them understand behavior and things that help them later in life when football is well over," he said. "When we came here and wherever we've been, that's been the biggest piece. The amount of guys that you get over the years that you've touched their lives and things that have occurred, and yet they go back and say, 'Boy, I'm glad. I'm glad I was able to experience some of the things that they've experienced to help them when the game of football's gone.'
"This is a game that no one plays forever. And yet the real game that happens is when football's done."
The suspensions drove home McElwain's message.
"Told us that definitely Coach Mac is serious," defensive end CeCe Jefferson said. "You just have to do what's right. That's what he preaches every day. That's the message we got from him."
But Jefferson was quick to point out the Tabor-Lewis fight is not a reflection of the two players as teammates.
"Things like that happen in the family, man," Jefferson said. "It's 100 (degrees) ... it was hot that night. Everybody is just out there competing, man, and it's just a little family thing, you know what I'm saying?
"But Coach Mac handled it the way he thought it was the proper way to handle it. We're fully here, myself and the team are fully here to support those guys, just can't wait to have them back."
