Will the Gators Ever Be Good at Anything Again

abril 06, 2022 Publicar un comentario

FLORIDA

Florida football: 5 things that will define the Gators offensively in 2021

Florida wrapped its spring practice earlier the calendar turned to April, the primeval finish to Gators' spring brawl in recent retention. Florida is also just one of two SEC programs that elected not hold a spring game. The Gators did hold airtight door scrimmages, including one to finish spring practice in late March, but the lack of the traditional spring game pomp and circumstance certainly has softened the usual post-spring buzz that swirls around SEC programs this time of year.

Florida, of form, is coming off the first division title in the Dan Mullen era, having wrested the East away from Kirby Smart and Georgia in 2020. Florida vicious brusque in the SEC Championship Game simply pushed Alabama for threescore minutes in defeat, leaving plenty of room for optimism in the Florida football building despite closing the season with 3 sequent defeats.

Staying atop the East in 2021 will be difficult. The Gators lost a generational talent in tight end Kyle Pitts, a Heisman finalist in quarterback Kyle Trask and a do-it-all electrical playmaker in Kadarius Toney. Mullen will demand to rebuild one of the all-time Florida offenses in plan history without that star power while also hoping a defense force that ranked amidst the worst in the SEC in several statistical categories improves dramatically.

Mullen, as ever, projected confidence in an end-of-spring call with media. "We're going to be a great squad because, more than than ever, we have a lot of depth."

Florida is deeper at many central positions. They are also unproven. Over the next calendar week, nosotros will look at Florida's offense and defense as they aim to maintain SEC East supremacy.

Coming out of the leap, here are five questions- and potential answers- that could define Florida offensively in 2021.

Emory Jones is set to exist the starting QB, but will Florida be versatile on offense?

Mullen, who then ofttimes keeps his quarterback decision open as long equally possible, was candid nearly Emory Jones existence his starter at the terminate of jump. That'southward a good sign for Gators wondering if the highly touted Jones, in his quaternary yr on campus, was ready for the gig he patiently waited his plow to have.

Mullen is a master at modifying his offense to suit his personnel, every bit anyone who has watched him coach quarterbacks as different as Chris Leak and Kyle Trask to Tim Tebow and Dak Prescott knows. At bottom, withal, Mullen's preferred offensive scheme is a run-beginning spread that has the capacity to be multiple in the manner it attacks opposing defenses.

Jones tin definitely execute the run-first spread pieces of that scheme. According to Pro Football game Focus, no college quarterback who played 50 snaps or more than had a higher success rate in the run game concluding year. Jones is explosive every bit a runner, has bang-up vision, runs with power that is elite for his size and doesn't shy abroad from contact.

Florida is aiming to evolve from being a spread passing squad in 2020 to a power-option, defensive team in 2021. Behold! The transformative power available to flexible coaches in the era of the transfer portal. https://t.co/7rvb1T1vUv pic.twitter.com/WsfSEVz2o5

— Asst to the Government minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) April five, 2021

The question, of form, is whether Jones tin can execute even a watered-down passing game. Playing without Florida's elite laissez passer-catching talent in the Cotton Basin, it did not await like it. Jones missed short to intermediate passes as well frequently and looked uncomfortable sitting in the pocket.

But that ane game sample may be unfair.

Afterward all, everyone that recruited Jones knew he had a big arm- and he'due south shown he can throw a lovely deep brawl (maybe merely Matt Corral in the SEC throws a better 1). Merely can he be consistently accurate enough- specially in the tighter windows required in large games? He was against a great Auburn defense force in 2019, spelling an injured Kyle Trask to aid Florida win 24-13 — but will he be able to practise information technology consistently against defenses that spend all week preparing to exploit his limitations?

That's the biggest question of the Florida offseason—and will be the question at to the lowest degree early in the 2021 season.

Fifty-fifty if Jones is really, really good, will Florida's criminal offence be less prolific?

The answer is yes and again, that's non an indictment of Jones.

Florida is losing generational talent at playmaker positions, and they are starting a new, "run-first" quarterback. Mullen will work and scheme his rear off to max out Florida from an efficiency standpoint in the passing game, merely the Gators are going to naturally be less explosive in 2021 than 2020. Some of this is simply a product from shifting from a pass-first spread to a power-run spread. You can expect Florida's quarterbacks (Jones and backup Anthony Richardson) to carry the ball anywhere from 160-213 times — the precise range of Dak Prescott and Tim Tebow as juniors and seniors at Miss State and Florida, respectively. That they will do so behind the biggest offensive line in Mullen's tenure (the starters, leaving the spring, boilerplate 330) only heightens that expectation.

Couple that expectation with the fact 3 of the best playmakers on the roster — sophomore Nay'Quan Wright, senior Malik Davis and transfer Demarkcus Bowman — all play running back and you go an law-breaking that could still be explosive and non eat up yardage equally apace every bit the 2020 offense did.

The Gators could be plenty good on offense in 2021. It just won't look the same. The key is whether Mullen gets enough in the pass game to be multiple in big contest. If he does — maybe there's less of a drib off.

Speaking of Malik Davis: Will he exist a receiver or a running dorsum offset?

Before the bound, a Florida staffer candidly told me that Davis is a guy "they intend to line up all over the place — he's also good to not do that and is i of the guys where we have to get the football in his easily."

Florida'southward running back room is loaded — and information technology is versatile. Dameon Pierce is a power back with a bellcow mentality who was among the SEC's best afterward contact in 2020. Bowman is the 5-star transfer come home to do big things — he has every tool necessary to exist the next groovy Florida running back. Lorenzo Lingard, another five-star transfer, offers speed and elusiveness. Nay'Quan Wright has elite vision and is a terrific pass catcher. Davis had 377 yards receiving in 2020 to only 310 rushing, and with Florida looking to maximize the talent in its running back room, Davis could exist a slot guy or flex choice and widen that disparity even more in 2021.

Tight cease, Twelvemonth 1 AKP (Afterward Kyle Pitts)

It's not just the SDS Florida J-Schoolhouse alumni who thinks Kyle Pitts was a generational talent. It is opposing coaches (who fabricated him 1 of but 2 unanimous All-SEC first team selections (DeVonta Smith). Information technology is also NFL scouts and front office executives, including an AFC playoff-squad GM who told me "Pitts is the best college tight end I've seen since Jeremy Shockey." Shockey, of course, played at the U a generation agone.

How will Florida supersede him?

They won't — so the idea will be to "Moneyball" his product.

To practise that, they will look to a tight end room full of blue chips even without 5-star transfer Arik Gilbert, who committed to UF this winter but re-entered the transfer portal.

The talents are iv-star Keon Zipperer, who chose Florida over Alabama, 4-star Kemore Gamble, and a host of freshman led past Nick Elksnis, a 3-star out of Jacksonville who had a 5-star offer sheet (Ohio State, Michigan, Miami and FSU all aggressively pursued the young man). Elksnis is a classic Tim Brewster tight end — vi-vi, 225 and growing, rangy, great hands, deceptively fast (or at least much faster in pads than he is in training camp). Ambitious Gators fans believe he'south the heir apparent to Pitts. He may be the side by side great Florida tight end — just to me he profiles a flake more like another Brewster guy — FSU All-American Nick O'Leary. That's a nice upside, but like Pitts, who had only 3 catches equally a freshman, Elksnis will need a yr to learn and grow, especially from a forcefulness standpoint.

The room is Zipperer and Gamble's for now, and that's a good room. It's but not a Kyle Pitts room.

Breakout star? Give me Jacob Copeland

Phone call me a glutton for punishment, but at that place's merely too much physicality and speed and forcefulness for this kid non to bust out eventually, right?

Copeland was better in 2020 than he was as a redshirt freshman in 2019. Sure, he only caught 2 more passes, but he averaged well-nigh 6 more yards per reception, caught 1 more touchdown and showed comeback equally a route-runner.

Copeland all the same drops also many passes, and at 6-0, 205, he actually should exist more than physical in tight coverage. Only Copeland is the virtually seasoned pass-catcher non named Malik Davis back on this roster, and the former high 4-star talent will put information technology all together with the NFL watching in 2021.

TRENDING

fourteen,296 READS

fourteen,290 READS

12,758 READS

Mangum Pless1948