The Florida Gators are 3/4ths of the way through the 2022 college football season. Florida holds a record of 5-4 with three games left on their schedule.
Gator Country provides part two of our November 10th Florida Football Mailbag, answering all your Gator football questions.
MrB-Gator- Do you think Paul Pasqualoni will be back on staff?
NM: These questions are tough to answer but it’s certainly a possibility. He’s well respected by the current staff and players. I could see Napier being interested in bringing him back in some capacity.
Kcchomp82: Anyway we can play man to man with CB’s the rest of way out? Kimber, Marshall and Hill seem to be the top 3 that can do this. Thoughts??
NM: Patrick Toney is going to continue mixing up the scheme based on matchups and how the game is progressing. Not many teams, if any, play strictly man to man.
*** – Very premature and difficult question but if you had to predict all 22 starters for next season, who would you pick?
NM: This is impossible to answer with the rise of the transfer portal, but I’ll give some predictions. My early prediction for the offensive line is as follows: Austin Barber at LT, Ethan White at LG, Kingsley Eguakun at Center, Richie Leonard at RG, and Michael Tarquin at RT. Ricky Pearsall, Caleb Douglas and a transfer start at the receiver positions. At tight end I’ll go with Zipperer, but I think the staff will go after a transfer as well. The QB spot will depend on what Richardson does. RB will be Montrell Johnson or Trevor Etienne. Defense is where it gets really difficult for me because I think they’ll hit the portal hard. I think you’ll see portal additions for almost every position on defense, and the staff may rely heavily on incoming freshmen as well. I think you’ll see Princely Umanmielen, Shemar James, Chris McClellan, Kamari Wilson, and Devin Moore as starters next year.
Liveoak1: What has brought about the defensive changes the last two second halves ? Is it Toney coming out of his shell or other defensive coaches or head coach making that call ?
NM: Not much changed schematically in the 2nd half of Georgia and TAMU, the team just executed better. Patrick Toney calls the defensive plays for the Gators.
Tpagator1: What ever happened to Chris Thomas Jr?
Thought we might see him in the rotation.
NM: The only game he played in this season was against Eastern Washington. Staff has been moving forward with McClellan, Lee, and Watson at tackle.
NYGator96: Safe to assume that several LBs and DBs that barely play this year with a subpar defense are not long for this program?
NM: I think you’ll see a healthy number of transfer outs in the offseason.
Blackbird68: I am not an x and o’s guy but what happened this weekend with the defense. The first half looked like A&M was playing against air scorning 24 points with little or no resistance and in the second half we held them to zero points and about 180 yards. Was it a change in scheme, different players, just playing better or did the depleted A&M team just get worn down and tired?
NM: You saw defensive execution at a higher level. There was not a big difference in scheme between the two halves. I think part of the success was due to poor QB play by TAMU and their offensive line getting worn down with constant pressure.
thekentuckygator:Part Deux. What do you think of the new S&C staff and more specifically the strength program. I know it hasn’t been very long but still seems like we get pushed around a bit.
NM: I’m a huge fan of Mark Hocke and the staff he has put together at Florida. They are an extremely organized and detail-oriented group. I don’t think Florida’s strength and conditioning has been an issue this season. Oftentimes this season you’ve seen Florida play their best football on both sides of the ball in the 2nd half. I think being “pushed around” has more to do with fundamentals, technique, and positioning than it does overall strength. It’s also only year one in their new program.