Urban's Drug Test Claims May Be Inaccurate

In his first public comments on Aaron Hernandez Saturday, Urban Meyer emphatically denied Florida ever covered up a drug test, and Hernandez himself admitted in pre-draft interviews he was suspended for the 2008 season opener against Hawai'i for failing a drug test. However, a 2010 Orlando Sentinel story said Meyer claimed Hernandez "wasn't ready to play." And a 2012 Sporting News story on new coach Will Muschamp's rebuilding of the Florida program revealed Hernandez and two other players were reported as "injured:"

In the season opener against Hawaii, Meyer said a few elite players (including wideout Percy Harvin, linebacker Brandon Spikes and tight end Aaron Hernandez) would miss the game with injuries. According to multiple sources, the three players—all critical factors in Florida’s rise under Meyer—failed drug tests for marijuana and were sitting out as part of standard university punishment...

“They were running with us on the first team all week in practice,” one former player said. “The next thing you know, they’re on the sidelines with a (walking) boot for the season opener like they were injured.” 

The Sporting News article also mentions Muschamp let go three players for marijuana offenses, including thrice-arrested Janoris Jenkins, who told the Orlando Sentinel, "If (Meyer) was still the coach at Florida, I’d still be there."
The weeding out of troubled players meant Muschamp had to play fifteen true freshman, and he was 12 players under the NCAA's 85 scholarship limit during Florida's 2011 season.
Read more at the Orlando Sentinel and Sporting News.