Football is a game of strict routines and schedules. Everything is rigidly scheduled, from practice times to weightlifting sessions to lunch times to what time the players arrive at the facility to get their ankles taped.
Spring practice typically begins in mid-March and ends in mid-April. The mandatory offseason strength and conditioning program begins in May. Fall camp begins in early August, with the first game scheduled for the following month.
For years, that’s been the schedule that the Gators football program has followed.
And then COVID-19 happened. In 2020, the Gators didn’t get a single spring practice, and the players spent their summer doing workouts on their own with Director of Strength and Conditioning Nick Savage instructing them from afar. The players didn’t get to hang out with each other or visit their coaches’ homes to build chemistry.
At this point last year, they had only been on campus for voluntary workouts for about a month and didn’t know if the 10-game conference-only schedule would ever come to fruition.
All of that is what makes the beginning of fall camp on Friday even more special than normal. This will feel way more normal than anything they experienced last year. They got all 15 spring practices in. They went through the rigors of Savage’s program. And now they’re going to begin fall camp knowing their opponents and when they’re going to play. Virus protocols have been somewhat loosened.
Coach Dan Mullen is eager to put the weirdness of 2020 behind him.
“The mental and emotional stress and the toll it took on you was very hard,” Mullen said. “You don’t know if you’re playing a game or who is playing until Friday night or Saturday morning, just from week to week with offseason preparation being thrown out.
“I think one thing you look at is a lot of football players and football programs, you’re used to a very scheduled, regimented approach on how you prepare and how you do things, how you get ready and how you go through a game week. When all of that is interrupted by massive amounts of uncertainty, that’s really hard. I think our guys, you can’t complain. You’ve kind of had a regimented offseason leading into training camp right now for us.”
Perhaps the position group that was affected the most by the nonexistent offseason program last year was the offensive line. There’s a very fine line that the players have to walk between being big enough to block 300-pound defensive linemen and being too large that they can’t move quickly enough.
Center Stewart Reese said not having his teammates there to hold him accountable contributed to him being overweight last season. He enrolled at UF weighing 367 pounds but added an additional 17 pounds during a contact-tracing quarantine.
“We’re the biggest group, and we struggle the most with trying to maintain weight,” Reese said. “We all kind of lean on each other to work on losing the weight, maintaining the weight and cutting down on fat and eating better. It’s not fun. It’s not fun at all. I would rather be able to go to McDonald’s at 2 in the morning and get a Big Mac meal. But I know I can’t do it if I want to move forward with my life with what I want to do and help the team move forward and compete at a high level.
“I have to be disciplined not to do that type of stuff. Discipline, eating right and being able to work out were my big three things. Having my teammates to lean on really helped me lean up this offseason.”
Reese took advantage of the more normal offseason by shedding 10-15 pounds. He’s now listed at 345 pounds.
“For me, spring and summer [are] really important because that’s the time for me to lean up,” he said. “Not having that period really affected me negatively. So, getting to have a spring and a summer training session should really help this year for me to get back into the type of shape that I’m used to being in, especially for the season. It’s a really big part of this year.”
But the offensive linemen weren’t the only ones who were negatively impacted by the restrictions in place last season. Coaches often talk about how championships are won over the summer. The coaches aren’t allowed to be around the players, which means the teams that put in the most work in player-run practices are better positioned for success than teams that sit around and play video games.
Last year, the players weren’t around each other for most of the offseason. It can be very hard to stay motivated if you’re working out by yourself, and the quality of the reps won’t be as good if you’re working out with somebody that you won’t be playing with in the fall. With the full offseason this time around, the players were able to push each other in ways that they couldn’t over a Zoom call.
“I definitely missed everybody during quarantine,” defensive end/linebacker Jeremiah Moon said. “I know we couldn’t really be together, but I would say both mentally and physically [not having a normal offseason] played a big role. Obviously, the mental part, you have your guys pushing you every rep. Then the physical part, I know everybody went off and did what they wanted to do, but I know Coach Savage is the best strength coach in the country. That would have helped.”
Now the goal is to have a normal season as well. To put it bluntly, that looks less likely now than it did a month ago. UF will practice behind closed doors, and all media sessions will be conducted virtually with the exception of Thursday’s media day. Masking and distancing protocols will continue to be implemented in the team facilities and in the hotel.
Mullen sounded cautiously optimistic that the season will go off without a hitch and that fans will be able to pack the Swamp to the rafters on Sept. 4. He said that they are “probably over” the 85 percent threshold that the SEC has established. If that’s the case, they’ll enjoy fewer restrictions and a decreased chance of having to forfeit a game.
“I’m very confident,” he said. “I’m very confident with our medical staff. I think [head athletic trainer] Paul Silvestri has done an awesome job. His whole medical staff has done an amazing job within their preparation, within their knowledge, of keeping everybody within the setup of where we need to be within training camp.”
After completing a normal offseason, Mullen looks forward to welcoming fans back to the Swamp for a normal season opener against Florida Atlantic.
“I really like the attitude where everybody’s at as we get ready to kick it off, and I know they can’t wait until a couple of weeks from now to kick off the season here in the Swamp,” Mullen said. “I hope we’re able to get the stadium where we want it to be and get the excitement back in the stadium and that feeling the energy and feeling the noise of the Gator Nation on the field. Not just hear it, but you can feel it. That’s what’s special in that environment of playing here.”