From the outside, this feels like a make-or-break year for the Gators’ offensive line. They ranked 96th in the country in rushing last year after ranking 107th the year prior. Even third-and-1 was far from a given when Dan Mullen opted to run the ball.
However, the offensive line had a pretty good built-in excuse. They threw the ball 58.7 percent of the time in 2020 if you count sacks as passing plays. And to their credit, they generally protected Kyle Trask well and allowed Trask, Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and co. to shatter school and conference records.
Run-blocking is as much about attitude and rhythm as it is pure talent. You’ve got to want to blast somebody off of the ball like the entire fate of your season depends on it. And, of course, the more you do it in games, the better you’re going to get at it. The Gators simply weren’t dependent on their running game enough over the past two seasons for the linemen to gain any meaningful experience at doing it.
That excuse will be gone this year. Mullen is likely going to run the ball a majority of the time this year. At least, that’s the plan. So, this season will provide a clear view as to whether the offensive line struggled to run block because of a lack of opportunities or if there are more concerning, longer-term issues that need to be addressed.
While the offensive line acknowledges that they’ll shoulder a larger burden this year, the players refuse to call this a make-or-break season. They just want to be prepared to execute whatever Mullen asks them to do on a given play.
“We don’t really look at that,” left tackle Richard Gouraige said. “We just look every day at practice trying to get better, trying to increase our game and how we can be better individuals and hold each other to a higher standard. That’s it, really. We just try to help each other the best way we can, but we can’t look down the future too much.”
However, while this might not be a defining year for the unit as a whole, offensive line coach John Hevesy said this is a prove-it season for a large portion of his roster as individuals.
Hevesy expects true freshmen to soak in as much knowledge as they can, refine their techniques and rework their bodies. Any game action is a happy bonus. As redshirt freshmen, he expects them to make a jump and be ready to go into games if needed. Finally, from their redshirt sophomore years and beyond, the expectation is for them to compete for starting jobs.
“At that time, your physical body is ready; your mental body is ready,” Hevesy said. “So, at that point, you really look at, in a five-year window, you get him as a three-year starter. And they’re playing with confidence; that’s the biggest thing. You can throw guys in there without confidence, and you can look and say, ‘Oh, he’s supposed to do this.’ Well, he’s not confident in what he’s doing.
“So, to me, obviously, a little later is better just because they’re confident to play and they’re not shelled-in. You go into Alabama, at LSU, some of those places, and they get shell-shocked, and, all of a sudden, it’s going to take a little bit longer to bring your confidence back to playing when they get beaten, something stupid happens to them.”
So, anybody who is in their third year and isn’t contending for a starting spot is behind in their development. The Gators have five third-year linemen on the roster: Riley Simonds, Kingsley Eguakun, Michael Tarquin, Will Harrod and Ethan White. Eguakun and White are the only probable starters among the group.
By Hevesy’s standards, this is a prove-it year for the other three, who will be counted on to provide depth. He feels confident in eight guys right now, which is the minimum he wants to enter a game with. That group presumably includes Gouraige, White, Eguakun, Stewart Reese, Jean Delance, Josh Braun, Tarquin and Harrod.
The next step for Hevesy is to get Tarquin and Harrod to push for starting spots and to get those ninth, 10th and 11th players to join the mix. He likes the talent the younger guys have shown, and he thinks they just need to gain some experience in games to become the players he believes they can be.
“Practice is one thing,” he said. “The scrimmage in the stadium helped, but I think once we get into the season, getting those live game reps in the stadium back with a full crowd is going to be a little different for those guys because their redshirt freshman year with Kingsley and Michael, those guys’ redshirt freshman year, [there] was a crowd, but they weren’t involved. Last year, there was no crowd. So, I think the biggest thing for those guys, the redshirt freshmen and down, the sophomores down, is getting to play those live reps in games.”
While the depth is still a work in progress, Hevesy likes what he’s seen from the starters in fall camp. In particular, he likes having a combined 664 pounds of humanity at the two guard spots in White and Reese. He thinks their size and Eguakun’s leadership from the center position will allow them to run the ball better this season.
“One thing, offensively, we look for running the ball and doing things is having big guards,” Hevesy said. “It’s having big guards that can knock back, especially in this league. You have two-techniques and three-techniques that are there that you want big guys to set them, to double-team and set those double-teams so the inside guys can go and move those guys.
“So, when you have the ability to do that, and again, you look at the [four] guys that really run around that in … Stewart, Josh, Ethan and Will, I think the lightest is probably 330 and the heaviest is 355. So, they’re not small guys. So, to me, it gives you the ability to move Kingsley inside to control them.”
White said that size isn’t the only thing the interior offensive line has going for it. He likes the chemistry and communication that they’ve developed. He also believes that going up against a revamped defensive tackle group that includes a pair of transfers is making them better.
“We get after it every day in practice,” White said. “Running the ball on those guys is not easy because they’re obviously big and stout, but I feel like that competition is going to work well for us in the season. We’re trying to run it against a great front-7, and they’re trying to stop the run against our O-Line, which is big and physical and can move. I feel like it’s making both sides of the ball better.”
That would be huge news if it’s true. This Gators team won’t be able to out-finesse opponents like they did the past two years. They’re going to have to run through people to keep this offense operating at an elite level.
While the results on the ground the past two seasons were abysmal, the Gators are excited for the challenge that lies ahead.
“Coach [Mullen] really instilled in us that we need to run the ball more and stuff like that,” Gouraige said. “And so, every day of camp, we’ve been pounding that rock, really.
“That’s what we came to Florida for is to pound the rock down the defense, and that’s what we’re just really here for, just to get in that end zone.”