Florida coach Urban Meyer described Vikings first-round pick Percy Harvin as an extreme competitor who ”doesn’t take losing well.” Meyer, speaking to the Twin Cities media on a conference call this morning, also called Harvin the best counter runner he has ever seen.

While there have been plenty of concerns raised about Harvin’s character, Meyer tried to put those to rest and said the Vikings did an outstanding job of doing their due diligence. ”It’s like us recruiting a player without getting to know the coaching staff where [a player] just spent four years,” Meyer said. “We just spent three years with Percy. Coach [Brad] Childress came down and Rick Spielman came down and they could not have done a more thorough job. We had a great discussion and they asked a lot of in-depth questions.”

Meyer said he and his coaching staff did the same type of checking into Harvin’s background when Harvin came out of high school in Virginia. “We recruit a little bit like Minnesota drafts,” Meyer said. “When we recruited Percy out of high school we were made aware of some issues. He’s a very competitive guy and his temper can get the best of him. It certainly did in high school. … But we did our research and it showed he had to harness his energies through staying focused on getting better. … Everything is very controllable with Percy.”

Meyer vouched that Harvin could be an oustanding return man in the NFL but said there was no reason for Florida to use him in that role because the Gators already had an outstanding returner in Brandon James. Nonetheless, Harvin did get a chance in practice to return punts.  

“Our offense revolved around [quarterback Tim] Tebow and Harvin,” Meyer said. “One of our leading rushers and the best runner we had. Twice a week we’d have him catch punts in practice. He has good ball skills and is very good at [returning]. I came close a few times to putting him back there with Brandon James but we made the decision he was too valuable for our offense and we already had a tremendous returner.”

Meyer said that last July he gave serious thought to moving Harvin to running back but he decided to keep receiver as his primary position. “He has got the best first step I have ever seen,” Meyer said. “I keep hearing Reggie Bush. I never coached against Reggie Bush, but I have watched highlights. [Percy is just] a phenomenal player. He’s very unique.”

So how would Meyer like to have an offense that featured Harvin and running back Adrian Peterson? “Our game planning sessions would be a lot of fun to have two players like that,” he said. “If you can put an offensive line together and be very functional at wide receiver with those two cats carrying the ball, those guys [the Vikings coaches] are going to have a lot of fun in those staff rooms.”

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