Florida head coach Jon Sumrall met with the media Monday morning to recap the Gators’ first scrimmage of fall camp, which took place Saturday.
There were 127 total plays from scrimmage, including 50 with the first team, 43 with the second team and 34 with the third team. Sumrall noted that they are still moving guys up and down the depth chart, so the personnel in each grouping varied from one series to the next.
“Got a lot of good work,” Sumrall said. “I liked the flow of what we did. Some good, some bad, lot to clean up.”
Quarterback play
Florida’s quarterback room threw just one interception during the scrimmage, a third-down pass from Aaron Philo that cornerback Cormani McClain came away with after tight coverage. Sumrall did note his displeasure with other turnover-worthy throws that were dropped by the defense.
“Only had one interception at quarterback, but as a whole, had three or four others that the ball was in jeopardy of being intercepted,” Sumrall said. If our defensive guys had caught the ball a little bit better, we might have had a couple more. We got to do a better job there. The one interception we did have was a really good play by Cormani [McClain} but in a third-down situation. But a lot of good work.”
“In full disclosure, he [Philo] had one other throw and Tramell and had a couple that could have gone bad too,” Sumrall added.
Sumrall was pleased with how Philo responded after throwing the interception, as the quarterback bounced back with a touchdown pass on the following drive to Bailey Stockton.
“That was the most impressive thing to me of his scrimmage,” Sumrall said on Philo. “Bad play, and then followed it up with really good football afterwards, and that’s the quarterback position. You’re going to throw a pick and the whole crowd’s going to boo, and what do you do next? That says a lot about you. When you have a bad play at quarterback you have to respond. It ain’t always going to go good.”
Philo logged the majority of his reps with the first team, while Jones Jr. primarily played with the second team but also took reps with the ones at times.
“They’ve both earned what they are getting,” Sumrall said. “I think Tramell’s grown a ton. The biggest growth he’s got to continue to make is operating from the line of scrimmage, with shifts, motions, those kind of things. We can’t have a motion called and not bring a guy in motion. But he’s making plays. He’s very comfortable in the pocket, he’s got great energy, he’s got good touch on the football. When things are right, they’re right. He’s got a bright future. I’m fired up about him. I really am. I know everybody thinks Philo is the starter because he came with Buster and all this. And yeah he had a head start. Both guys are doing some good things and we need both of them to get ready.”
Interior offensive line ahead of tackles
Sumrall hasn’t shied away from expressing his concerns about the offensive tackle position this offseason. When asked how the offensive line performed during the scrimmage, he said the interior offensive line is ahead of the tackles.
“The interior probably played cleaner and better all training camp, maybe. On the interior O-line, I feel pretty comfortable with who we are and what we are. Tackle is the biggest question,” Sumrall said.
Consistency is an issue for the tackles.
“The challenge there has been consistency,” Sumrall said. “We have to be dialed in, we have to be detailed in assignment, fundamentals, and technique, and then we got to strain all the time, non=negotiable up there. Some guys are getting better.”
It’s important to note that Florida did a lot of rotating, particularly at tackle, on Saturday. Florida’s staff will look to lock down its top eight offensive linemen later this week.
Red-zone miscues
Sumrall discussed Florida’s red-zone miscues on both sides of the ball during Saturday’s scrimmage, including stalled offensive possessions and blown coverages on defense.
“There was a couple of offensive things that stalled, and there was a couple of blown coverages too. You guys were there. Two of the passing touchdowns we gave up on Saturday, we just decided not to cover anybody. I can throw those,” Sumrall said. “It drove me crazy. It’s okay to get beat on a play, it’s not okay to just give them plays. We can’t beat ourselves. So Florida beat Florida on defense a couple times on Saturday, which was really frustrating.”
“It’s an area where I think when I go back and look at teams who are successful, they offensively score touchdowns and defensively keep them out of the end zone,” Sumrall added. “We got to do a better job there. Both sides.”
Short yardage plays need improvement
The Gators struggled to run the ball in short-yardage situations. On the opening drive, Florida’s first-team offense failed to convert a fourth-and-1 opportunity on its own side of the field.
“I think we gotta improve,” Sumrall said on the running game. “If it’s third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, we should never get stopped. We gotta get better there. That first drive, I was absolutely freaking pissed. Like just to be honest. If it’s fourth-and-1, that should be 100% conversion for us. We didn’t get the first drive. That started our ones off negatively.”
“I was frustrated with that. I thought at times we ran it well. I thought our defense did a good job stressing us too,” Sumrall added.
Florida was also without second-year running back Duke Clark, while junior Jadan Baugh was on a pitch count, meaning the Gators were without two of their top running backs for much of the scrimmage.
“I don’t care what’s blocked or ain’t blocked at running back. We gotta go get a yard all the time, everybody. I don’t care who it is, and that’s not Jadan. That’s the whole running back room. Fourth-and-1, whatever’s there, the contact, we gotta run through it and go get a yard. We gotta continue to work on creating movement at the line of scrimmage.”
Sumrall calls tackling ‘decent’
Florida didn’t tackle poorly on Saturday. Sumrall was generally pleased with the performance but noted a few low-effort plays that led to touchdowns.
“For a first scrimmage, not bad. Some space tackling I didn’t love on the perimeter. One of the touchdowns we gave up in the passing game. The effort on tackling was poor with a couple of DBs at times. There was two of them in particular that I was ready to lose my mind on. Not going to name names, but there was two DBs that their effort on the tackles on touchdowns I was really disappointed in. But for the most part, scrimmage one, pretty good…I felt like most of the tackling was decent for a first scrimmage, to be quite honest.”
Only one injury in the scrimmage
Florida escaped the first scrimmage fairly healthy, with the only injury to transfer cornerback Jordy Lowery.
“Jordy Lowery was the only injury in Saturday’s practice. A little soft tissue deal. Played 12 or 13 plays before it happened. Really frustrating because honestly, his arrow was up off a training camp in the spring. He looked like a new guy that transferred and was swimming a little bit at times. And this training camp, he’s been a pleasant surprise. So disappointed for him. It’s not going to be a terribly long-term deal, but a soft tissue deal that we’ll just have to see how he responds.”
Kicker Patrick Durkin and wide receiver Vernell Brown III did not participate in the scrimmage, but both practiced on Monday.
Miscellaneous notes mentioned by Sumrall
– Linebacker Ty Jackson had a forced fumble on the goal line.
– Wide receiver Eric Singleton Jr. had a long catch from Philo on a post route
– Wide receiver Micah Mays dropped a touchdown pass from Philo on a deep post
– Florida had two false starts at wide receiver and three delay of games.
– Kicker Liam Padron was 9-10 on field goals on Saturday. 3-4 in the scrimmage including one 50 yarder. Missed his first one and made the next three.