Notebook: Will Muschamp details Friday’s scrimmage

With 15 days to opening kick the Florida Gators football squad held their 15th practice — a scrimmage — on Friday in The Swamp. The new and improved offense continues to progress and Will Muschamp is pleased with his team overall, on both sides of the ball.

The Gators final open practice of the fall will be held on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, but the team will only practice in helmets after two grueling weeks of physical practices. They will then finish up fall camp on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before they start game week preparations on Thursday.

 

Injury notes

 

  • Freshman offensive tackle David Sharpe suffered a high ankle sprain during the scrimmage today. Will Muschamp doesn’t know how long Sharpe will be out as this type of injury can heal quickly or linger around for weeks.

Those high ankles can be two days, they can be a week. We need to get him back. He’s a really good football player, he’s very athletic, 6-6, 330 pounds, moves his feet extremely well. A guy that’s going to help us this year.

  • Both Trip Thurman and Matt Jones will return to practice tomorrow after missing several practices last week.
  • Bryan Cox Jr. has a AC joint sprain in his shoulder. Cox could have participated in the scrimmage today but was held out as a precaution. He’ll return to the field on Monday.
  • Duke Dawson returned to the field after missing a week of practice.
  • Dante Fowler was non-contact on Thursday but Muschamp said it was precautionary, saying, “He’s pretty good. We just backed off him.”

 

Backup quarterback decisions

 

  • Muschamp and Kurt Roper want to find a backup quarterback and start giving that player the bulk of the second team reps as well as getting him into the first game against Idaho. Both Will Grier and Treon Harris are competing for the job and the player that loses the battle is likely to redshirt.

You’d like to. I mean, we haven’t made any decisions on any of that yet, but we would like to go in and have a guy play and redshirt another guy and move forward. But we’ll see how that plays out.”

  • Muschamp said the young quarterbacks have been thrown into some adverse situations and he’s pleased with the progress that he has seen from them but reiterated that the most productive player will be the one to move forward.

 

Offense progressing

 

  • The first team offense has looked very good this camp but the depth of the offensive line is still concerning to the head coach.

I think the execution has been very good with the first group. We have a huge drop-off because of the line of scrimmage with the second group.”

  • The biggest change in the offense, according to the head coach, is the talent level across the board. Muschamp feels like this is the most talent the Gators have had on offense since he’s been the head coach at Florida.

We’re more talented than we were a year ago at this time. That’s the No. 1 thing. Regardless of what we’re doing schematically, which I really like what we’re doing, we’re better. We’re better at receiver, we’re better at running back, Jeff’s a year better, we’re better on the offensive line, we’re better at tight end. We’re better at every position. That’s what gets you excited as much as anything.”

 

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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