Open practice observations 8-14-14

The Florida Gators are in the middle of “fall” football practice just two weeks away from football being played, but the heat during Florida’s final open practice at the Dizney Lacrosse Stadium proved it was still the middle of summer (props to the schedule maker for giving the Gators football team some night games to start the season, the media appreciates you).

This was not the final open practice of fall camp — Florida will host one more open practice to fans in the Swamp on Saturday.

Treon Harris

I’ve long had the stance that the best-case scenario for the Florida Gators would be for Jeff Driskel to play all season injury free, Will Grier to redshirt and Treon Harris to have some packages and play this season.

Early on in camp, Grier was head and shoulders ahead of Harris but the freshman from Booker T. Washington High School has closed that gap significantly. It makes sense that Grier would be ahead of Harris to start camp — he had a 15 practice and a few months in the playbook head start on Harris when he enrolled in the spring.

Now, Harris has a good grasp of the playbook and it’s showing on the field. He has a strong arm and the accuracy issues he had in the beginning of camp seem a thing of the past as he’s been zipping the ball all over the field hitting receivers in stride.

The Gators have a choice to make and time is running out to make it, but Harris is doing everything he can to make that decision as difficult as possible for the Gator coaching staff. Of course, all this bodes well for Florida Gator football.

 Antonio Morrison

Morrison drew a lot of flack from fans last year for his received down season statistically. Morrison looks to have slimmed down a little this fall and he’s been flying around the field all camp. He — along with Mike Taylor — have been running with the first team defense and both players are standing out at the position.

Morrison has made several plays deep in coverage — something he’s struggled with in the past — and he can still bring the pain when he comes down in against the run or when receivers come over the middle.

 

Offensive line

Trip Thurman missed another practice so Trenton Brown worked with the first unit at right guard and Tyler Moore was at left guard. Both players had a good day and the first team offensive line had a good day overall.

D.J. Humphries looked better on Thursday than he has the rest of the week, Chaz Green and Max Garcia continue to put together solid practices.

The biggest change was with the second unit. Cam Dillard was moved to right guard on the second team and JUCO transfer Drew Sarvary slid down to center. Sarvary didn’t have a single issue snapping the ball and did a good job of getting his head up and blocking after the snap.

 

Jeff Driskel

Driskel has really taken a leadership role on the team. He’s stringing together good practices back-to-back-back and he’s becoming more consistent. The most noticeable change in Driskel is how he isn’t forcing passes anymore. There are fewer instances in practice where Driskel is picked off or is throwing into double coverage. He’s more decisive and looks more comfortable than he ever has in Gainesville.

 

Plays of the day

Treon Harris dropped an absolutely beautiful 40-yard touchdown pass into a tight window to fellow freshman C.J. Worton. Harris hit Worton in stride and even though Marcus Maye was in good position, he couldn’t make a play on the ball.

It might have been Harris’ worst pass of the day but Jalen Tabor made an absolutely incredible interception. Harris threw low and behind Chris Thompson and Tabor was able to tip the ball, rotate his body and catch the pass with his hands fully extended over his helmet as he fell to the ground. Leon Orr and Vernon Hargreaves ran over to him immediately to celebrate.

 

Injury updates

  • Trip Thurman continued to work in the pit, off to the side of practice.
  • Duke Dawson did some light running today but spent most of the day in the pit.
  • Adam Lane went through more drills today than he did yesterday but was still no-contact.
  • Matt Rolin was not in a no-contact jersey but he did not do a lot of work with the team.
  • Matt Jones was not at practice for a second-straight day.
  • Daniel McMillian did not practice today.
Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC