Football is in the air. In about a month, the Gators will open fall camp with nobody knowing what to expect from them.
On one hand, the Gators came six points and a thrown shoe away from making their first College Football Playoff appearance in 2020. They improved one of the worst defenses in school history by adding a pair of transfers on the defensive line, hiring two new coaches and signing an excellent recruiting class in the secondary.
On the other hand, the offense carried the 2020 team, and most of the key players from that historically great offense are in the NFL now.
While we won’t know for sure what the 2021 Gators will look like until the opener against Florida Atlantic on Sept. 4, we should start to get some answers in fall camp.
In the first part of our fall camp preview series, we take a look at five storylines to watch for on the offensive side of the ball.
1. Jones’ progression
- Nobody in their right mind expects Emory Jones to be as good of a passer as Kyle Trask. Trask rewrote the school and SEC record books en route to being named a Heisman Trophy finalist last season. He was the type of player who could beat perfect coverage and a good pass rush by placing the ball in the only spot he could for a completion.
Jones isn’t that type of passer, and that’s not a knock on him at all. His biggest strengths are his mobility and his ability to throw the deep ball. Dan Mullen can call designed runs for him, dial up some option plays or roll him out of the pocket. Jones can also improvise and extend plays with his legs in ways that Trask simply couldn’t. The goal is for the improvements made in the running game under Jones to offset the decline in the passing game without Trask.
That being said, the Gators need Jones to be a dependable quarterback who consistently completes the passes that he should. If there’s a receiver wide open on a crossing route 15 yards down the field, Jones needs to hit him in stride.
Jones’ accuracy on the short and intermediate throws was inconsistent in the spring. One day he looked fine, and the next day he looked like a train wreck. That inconsistency won’t cut it in the fall. You can’t just flip a switch and turn on the accuracy against Georgia, LSU and Alabama.
Jones is this team’s unquestioned starting quarterback, but right now it kind of feels like he’s won that title by default, as he’s been groomed as the future of the position for more than three years. He needs to turn in a much more consistent fall camp and leave absolutely no doubt that this is his team.
2. Running back logjam
The running back position was a jumbled mess in the spring in the best way possible.
Dameon Pierce, Nay’Quan Wright and Malik Davis were the top-3 running backs on the 2020 team, and all three of them were productive and generated big plays when the offensive line allowed them to. None of them did anything in the spring that warranted a decrease in playing time.
However, Miami transfer Lorenzo Lingard, a former five-star recruit, seemed to make big strides in his first spring camp with the Gators. His ability to bounce plays outside made him their most effective runner in scrimmages with the interior of the offensive line struggling to get much push.
Then there’s former five-star prospect Demarkcus Bowman, who has taken Gators fans on an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of years. UF was considered his leader for a while before he ultimately signed with Clemson. He transferred to Florida after just two games with the Tigers. He’s the most talented running back on the roster, but he missed a large portion of the spring with an injury.
Having a five-deep backfield with no defined roles is fine in the spring, as spring ball is all about player development and scheme adjustments.
Obviously, though, you can’t split the carries five ways once the season arrives. During fall camp, the coaches need to decide which two or three guys they’re going to rely on and determine how those players should be used.
As it stands now, some combination of Pierce, Wright and Lingard will likely get most of the carries, with Davis seeing some action in the slot and Bowman being brought along slowly. Everything can certainly change during the fall, though.
3. Offensive line play
Honestly, the five spots on the offensive line could’ve been items Nos. 1-5 on this list. This unit has been one of the biggest weaknesses on the team each of the last two seasons, and it somehow looked even worse in the spring.
Despite weighing more than 1,000 pounds combined, guards Ethan White and Josh Braun and center Stewart Reese couldn’t get any push at all in the running game. The result was the running backs having to bounce everything outside to have any chance at gaining more than a yard or two.
Even the pass-protection seemed to take a massive step backward in the spring. In the portions of practice available to watch on Instagram Live, Jones had barely any time to throw with consistent pressure flying at him on both sides.
With the offense expected to be more run-oriented this season, the Gators need the offensive line to at least be average. Jones’ running ability will open things up for the running backs much more than the past two seasons, but the offensive line still needs to meet him halfway.
The development of the offensive line will be the single biggest determinant of how good the Gators will be this season.
4. New weapons needed
Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes combined for 52 percent of the Gators’ receiving yards and 67 percent of their touchdowns in 2020, and all three of them are coming soon to an NFL stadium near you.
UF doesn’t have anybody of Pitts’ or Toney’s caliber on the current roster, but they need three or four receivers to emerge as dependable targets for Jones.
Jacob Copeland’s route-running and catching looked much improved in the spring. He needs to continue that progress during fall camp and become the go-to receiver the way Toney did at times last season.
Xzavier Henderson also performed well in the spring, and he should give Jones somebody he can trust to either go up and get deep balls or at least keep them away from defenders.
Justin Shorter is a similar type of player as Henderson and should have a better grasp of the offense after a majority of his 25 catches last year came on quick-hitters that were designed to get the ball into his hands.
The Gators should feel reasonably confident in Copeland, Henderson and Shorter, but they’d feel a whole lot better if another receiver or two has a strong fall. Trent Whittemore is highly athletic and sure-handed out of the slot, while Ja’Quavion Fraziars, Ja’Markis Weston and Daejon Reynolds look to crack the rotation.
With the status of the running game uncertain due to the offensive line, how the new crop of receivers progress could be a huge factor in how successful the 2021 Gators are.
5.Offensive identity
It’s hard to get a feel for what the offense will look like stylistically this season. They’ll certainly return more to the read-option-based attack that Mullen became famous for as Florida’s offensive coordinator and Mississippi State’s head coach now that they have a dual-threat quarterback and a deep crop of running backs.
However, the passing game was so special the last two years that it’d be a shame if they didn’t continue to incorporate some of those Air Raid type of concepts even with a change in personnel.
Being able to pile up massive yardage at will through the air has become a prerequisite for winning a national championship over the last five years or so, and that is obviously the end goal for Mullen and co.
So, will the offense look like a hybrid of sorts between Mullen’s run-based past and the Air Raid of the past two years?
That question won’t be fully answered until several games into the season, but we’ll hopefully get a better feel for it in fall camp, especially if they open some of their practices to the media and/or the public.