GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap what we’ve seen and learned from the Florida Gators’ first five spring practices that have taken place.
Andrew Spivey and Seth Varnadore breakdown how the new coaches are doing with the team and what we’ve seen from those guys.
Andrew and Seth also breakdown what guys have looked good in practice so far as well.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:What’s up, Gator Country? Your man Andrew Spivey here with Seth. Seth, we’re back. We’re five practices down for spring football. I noticed Clemson’s getting underway as well. Some teams trying to get out early on it and make sure they get a spring practice. Some good stuff from the Gators. They’re doing some Instagram, showing us a little bit. Not a ton, but every little bit counts, and I’m cool for it. I’m excited to see the new coaching staff. What’s your thoughts? You like watching a little practice? For me, I’m cool with watching drills. I don’t need to watch the team every day.
Seth:No. I love watching drills and just seeing how they set up practice. The only thing I’m upset about is that the Gators made me download Instagram. I was trying to hold off forever, and I had to break just so I could watch these practices. It’s been fun to see the drills and how they set up practice and going through different things. I wish we could see a little bit more, but that’s their prerogative. They don’t want to show everything. I’ve had a good time being able to watch a bunch of different positions go through, so I’ve enjoyed it.
Andrew:Obviously, you and I are talking from a position of being there, but coaches are judged on what happens on game day as well, but the drills are what makes the game day. I know everybody wants to see seven on seven, and everybody wants to see team drills. So do I. At the end of the day, you can be the best route runner in drills and be the best tackler in drill, but can you do it when the lights are on and the action’s there?
It is interesting to see how the drills are set up, and you and I were talking about this before. The defensive staff is really going back to the basics with their tackling circuit. When I say tackling circuit, every coach has a different drill to focus on tackling. Jules is doing the on the knee kind of wrap up, and they’re doing different tackling drills. It seems so Little League, but when you tackle like Little Leaguers did last year, and it seemed like Florida did, you have to go back to it.
I’ve been able to see spring practices in the past a little bit, and I can say that this year is a definite emphasis on tackling. I don’t know if that was a Mullen thing, a McGriff thing, a Grantham thing. I don’t know who it is, but if these guys don’t tackle next year, it ain’t on the coaching staff.
Seth:No. It’s interesting. You could kind of see a difference. First of all, like we’re seeing it being implemented in practice, but the way Mullen spoke about the defense during the season and kind of post Cotton Bowl, right after the game. Then the way he talked about it in his initial spring press conference before spring practice, where he’s like, we got to fix this, this, and this. This was a problem. Stuff he wouldn’t admit during the season was a problem that we could all see, like communication, tackling. You’re seeing them kind of implement steps to fix those problems from last year.
We talked about this during the season. It is hard to kind of fix some of this stuff in season, because you get so limited amount of practice time. It’s not like NFL or high school, where you may get a little bit more practice time, more leniency. There’s a strict hour rule in college. Sometimes during the season you’re kind of stuck with what you got. You see them trying to fix those problems now, and that’s good to see that they actually saw that when doing their offseason study.
Andrew:Again, you look at some of these guys. Kaiir Elam, for instance, he’s a junior this year. Never had a spring practice.
Seth:That’s crazy.
Andrew:It is crazy. Spring practice is where you learn. That’s just what it is. Fall camp is where you learn, but spring practice is where you get better on the little things. That’s where you define your abilities, and that’s what you’ve got to do. I’m liking what I see so far from the new staff. I’m liking what I’m seeing from the quarterback coach in Garrett McGee. Again, how much will develop into the season? I don’t know, but I do like that they’re taking it back to the basics.
One thing that you continue to hear from this new staff is communicate. Communicate, communicate, communicate. That was the #1 problem last year on defense was guys did not communicate. Veteran guys did not communicate. How many times did we see Marco Wilson and Brad Stewart look at each other like, who’s got it? If you’d communicated, you’d have known that.
Seth:Even into the final game of the year, Cotton Bowl. You have a safety that’s looking around and just leaving a guy uncovered, and he just waltzes in for an easy touchdown, I believe. It’s not difficult. But it could have been communication, it could have been we got to change some of our verbiage, because Saban and Kirby and all those guys that had these long plays, they’ve had to change all that to react to the no huddle stuff. Maybe Florida or Grantham hadn’t had to do that before.
It’s a little easier when you got those veteran guys, like you had David Reese there, where he could make all the calls and get everything done, and you got Jeawon Taylor back there, who you said is a smart guy, that can make all the calls and get it all done quickly. When you don’t got that anymore, you’ve got to adjust. It seems like they’re making that change. Maybe they’ve made that change in how they call plays too. That’s just pure speculations on my part, but that’s something that you’re seeing a lot around the country, having to change the way the plays are called in too.
That’s stuff that you can really iron out in the spring, because you have to know if I call whack, that means these six other words. We’re condensing this call that was six, seven words long into one word, whack.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:But if I don’t have spring, it’s harder to put that kind of stuff in. Hopefully, they’re getting all that kind of stuff ironed out, and then we’ll see that emphasis on communication, getting the stuff in. Because that seemed to be one of the biggest problems last year. There were guys looking around, not getting lined up, every game it seemed like.
Andrew:Again, was it a coaching thing? I don’t know. The thing about it is if the team is bad this year and not being able to line up, it’s a coaching problem. It’s not the same guys out there. Again, focusing on that and focusing on the little details. I heard Wesley McGriff getting on Trey Dean the other day, and he wasn’t getting on him for anything bad, but Trey kind of went through the motions a little bit in flipping his hips. McGriff brought him back again, and he said, “I don’t coach for my health. I coach to make you great.” That’s what you wanted from Wesley McGriff. Someone who was honest, in your face, told you what it was, and has the respect to do it. His resume speaks for itself. He knows what he’s doing.
And I’m not picking on Trey Dean. I think Trey Dean’s had a fabulous spring, and I think he had a good fall, but I’m just saying those habits go to the season. Those habits form. It’s not just Trey Dean. It’s everyone. They all do it. All those guys went through the motions a little bit at times. Those habits form, and if knock them out in practice, you knock them out in the game. You don’t have that problem in the game. You can’t even allow your most veteran guy in Trey Dean at the safety position to do that. I watched McGriff go over it a couple times with Corey Collier as well. Simply how to engage on the block and shed a block. That sounds so simple, but I don’t know that it’s so simple nowadays, and this is something we can talk about.
You don’t get to hit as much in high school ball anymore in practice. You don’t get to go through that stuff anymore, because of the whole safety, health protocol. Listen, I’m all for that, but also tackling was good back in the day, because we learned how to do it in practice.
Seth:It’s good you’re bringing this up. A lot of people don’t realize, and I know it’s happened in the state of Florida, but they limit the amount of time per week you can have full contact periods. It happened a few years ago. Coaches were having to change how they set up their practices, because there used to be a lot more full contact. I could do full 11-on-11 this period, full inside run this period, full tackles. Now you’re having to change that, because you can only have a certain amount of time per week of full tackling, full contact. You are kind of seeing that trickle down.
That’s something that’s even becoming a problem a little bit in the NFL, because they have less contact. It’s something you’ve got to get to used to, and you got to get used to doing it at full speed. The tackling circuit and stuff is great, because you can kind of get your body and get that muscle memory going and this is how I’m supposed to go, but nothing beats the full speed, full contact scrimmage practice, 11-on-11 time. Nothing beats that, and that time is limited now. You’ve got to really focus on those fundamentals and get them how you can, so that you can translate it to the field. That’s the key I think is setting up drills that translate to the field.
Andrew:Right. Exactly. Guys always get angry and upset because they feel like they’re wasting their time. Well, you’re not really wasting your time on learning the small things. Again, it’s spring practice. We’ll move on from that, but again, I just wanted to emphasize that they’re really going through the whole tackling circuit and getting back to basics.
David Turner as well. Again, this is stuff that happens every spring, maybe not to the degree it is. But David Turner’s really working on pad level for his defensive tackles. You and I talked about this a little bit last year. We thought at times pad level for the defensive tackles was terrible, because it was at times. It was terrible. It’s really an emphasis on it, and I tell you a guy who stood out to me is Daquan Newkirk. The rumors were that he just never was healthy. He looks healthy, and that man’s strong. His hands are violent.
Seth:His arms are bigger than some people on the team’s legs. That dude is a big dude.
Andrew:Yes. His hands are violent. When I say violent, a lot of people may not understand what that means. He punches with a force. He’s not just putting hands on you to put hands on you. He’s punching with a force. That’s what you need, and it’s starting to show with guys like Gervon Dexter, Desmond Watson. Chris Thomas has looked really good, and he’s a guy that gets really under the radar a little bit, but that’s a big boy. He’s in shape to be a freshman. Des Watson’s out of shape, but that boy can move for 400 bills.
Seth:I’d take him for five or six plays a game. First of all, you’re not going to be able to move him. Nobody’s going to move that guy. And he can move. You see him in these drills where he’s like working to shed blocks and getting over the top. That dude can move for being that big. It’s crazy. He’s a freak of nature. I wouldn’t be shocked if you see him, especially if he can drop a little bit of weight, if he’s got a little package or something that they get him in the games. He’s got a lot of ability.
Andrew:Short yardage situations, I’m putting his big ass in there. There ain’t no way. He’s taking up two bodies.
Seth:If you put him at nose and tilt him. Don’t line him straight up. Have him kind of tilt. His butt will take up a whole gap by itself, and then he can basically take up three gaps, if you tilt him.
Andrew:You shade him a little bit. Yeah. Ethan White’s a big strong boy, and Des Watson moved Ethan White like he was pancakes.
Seth:He walked him back.
Andrew:Yeah. Again, he’s 420, and he needs to drop down to 350, but at 420 if he can move like that, let me see what he moves like at 350. That boy can move. I know why Dan Mullen had him as his top guy. You saw it in high school, but you really see it now. He ain’t afraid to go at you. He ain’t afraid to run his motor. He plays with good pad level, which is crazy at the amount of weight he is, but he plays at good pad level. His hands are violent. Like I said, he can move. When you think of a defensive tackle, and I go back to this and maybe picking on the big guys, but give me Vince Wilfork every day of the week. You wasn’t moving Vince Wilfork.
Seth:Especially if you’re in the Grantham system, where he likes to do a lot of odd front. There’s your nose right there. If your nose can eat up two blockers, now you’re freeing up your linebackers to go and make plays. That’s the thing. If you’ve got a nose that’s just going to get taken up with one blocker, that’s really not worth too much to you in a 3-4. You got to have a guy, they call them two gappers, a guy that can kind of play two gaps. He can do that. He’s so big, and he’s so agile for his size. It’s crazy.
Andrew:You’ve heard this, but I’m going to say it for the listeners. The best linebacker is the best defensive front. If the defensive front is making things happen up front, your linebackers are going to make plays. Your linebackers are going to tally 15, 20 tackles a game, and you’re going to say, that’s a Butkus Award winner at linebacker. Find me a Butkus Award winner at linebacker, and I’ll find you a defensive lineman that’s had a great year. Every single solitary year.
You think back of Antonio Morrison, when he was here. Was he a good linebacker? Sure, he was. But I guess he was, look at the guys he had in front of him. Dante Fowler, those guys. They were just making things happen. The defensive line demanding double teams allows your linebackers to roam free, make the play, and guess what else happens there? That allows your blitz to get home. That allows your cornerbacks to play a little bit freer in the secondary, because they know they don’t have to cover as long. Guess what happens at the end of the day? Your defense is better. I know it sounds so simple, but if you win up front, you win football games. It happens on the offensive side of the ball, and it happens on the defensive side of the ball.
Seth:It’s crazy. I’m looking. I don’t think you can say they’ve upgraded, because they haven’t played a game yet. But they got a really good amount of bodies inside now, where last year you felt like if one of those two guys went down, they didn’t have much behind them. Newkirk, that dude’s listed as 318. He looks solid as a rock.
Andrew:If he’s 318, I’m a buck fifty.
Seth:That dude is solid for as big as he is. The Shelton coming in. He’s getting a lot of reps with kind of that first group too. He’s looked pretty good. I think they’ve got some depth there.
Andrew:Gervon Dexter is going to play.
Seth:Yeah. So, they’ve turned that around. We talked about before like what’s the transfer portal for. It’s for finding those guys that you can kind of fill in where maybe your recruiting was lax, and that’s kind of where their recruiting has been lax. As of right now, it looks like you’ve got some quality guys to rotate in there. I feel like they’ve really helped themselves at that position, where it looked like that was going to be a weakness coming in.
Andrew:When you think of Newkirk, Shelton, or Valentine he’s calling himself now.
Seth:Valentino.
Andrew:Valentino. Gervon Dexter and the two freshmen in Watson and Chris Thomas. You got five bodies up there that are big boys. Gervon Dexter is going to play. Gervon Dexter looks like a million bucks. The thing people forget is Gervon Dexter is still very young in football terms. This is only his fourth year of playing the game. For a defensive tackle, that’s tough.
Dante Lang has transformed his body too. I don’t know how much that’s going to transform to the field, but he’s transformed his body a little bit. Zach Carter still looks like he’s a guy who understands I wasn’t going to get drafted high, I had to come back to school, I didn’t want to come back to school, but if I’m coming back I’m going to make it worth my time.
Seth:There’s a lot of guys, I think Ethan has mentioned on the board for a few of these guys, a lot of these guys look like they put on some good weight. Some of these freshmen coming in are just freaks. They’re big dudes. You look at like the bucksand that group. There’s a lot of good-looking athletes in that group.
Andrew:Khris Bogle looks really good. Khris Bogle’s going to play. Again, I say this, and I don’t mean this as disrespect to Brenton Cox. Brenton Cox better step his game up. He’s got some dudes behind him that are going to push for some PT.
Seth:We know for sure he ain’t going to be returning punts after seeing that footage yesterday.
Andrew:Zach Carter may.
Seth:Put him back there.
Andrew:Put him back there. Yeah. You need a couple chunk yards, put Zach Carter back there. He can go down there easy. Put Des Watson back there.
Seth:I guarantee he would have caught it.
Andrew:Goal line. Give me some Des Watson, and tell me you going to stop that big boy.
Seth:I guarantee if they put him back there and said, Des, if you catch this, no sprints today, he would have done everything in his being to catch that football.
Andrew:I tell you though, you put him up there in front of Dameon Pierce, and you say, Des, you hit the first thing that shows. You’re going to have a hole to the endzone for Dameon Pierce.
Seth:You’ll be all right.
Andrew:You’ll be all right. Let’s go to the offensive side of the ball. Nick Elksnis at tight end is looking really good. Obviously, Eric Gilbert’s not here yet. Elksnis has looked good to me. Some people were wondering how he would, if he was fast enough, everything else. Find me a tight end that can make the dirty yards and get the chunk yards on the plays when it’s three, and you get me seven. I take it all day. Elksnis is a guy who I thought looked really good so far at that tight end spot.
Seth:Big body. He’s listed at 6’6”, 237. He doesn’t look like it. He carries that weight well. He doesn’t look like he’s 237. He’s a big body out there. He’s having a good spring so far. I thought a couple guys, I thought Zipperer did pretty good, when they showed the blocking drills they’ve gone through, like the Oklahoma style drills they went through. I thought he did well blocking. So, I think you’re going to have some definite skill there at the tight end position. You’ve got those guys coming back, and then you’re going to add in Eric Gilbert, it looks like. You’re going to have a really versatile group that can do a lot of different things, which I think is what they want. They want that guy that can be in line, and then want that guy that can be off the line, kind of more like an H back type guy. They’ve got some talent at that position. That’s for sure.
Andrew:The thing for that position is you’re looking for multiple guys to fill the void Kyle Pitts left. Nobody’s filling Kyle Pitts’s shoes. Let’s just forget it. Eric Gilbert may come close. Kyle Pitts is a once in a generation tight end. Let’s just say what it is.
Seth:Eric Gilbert. I got something. I think it’s going to be out this week. Eric Gilbert, he’s a dude too. He’s not Kyle Pitts, but if you add him into this mix, he can do a lot of things. Then you add some of these other guys around him that kind of complement him. You have a really good group, probably one of the better ones in the country, I’d imagine.
Andrew:That was my point. You’re going to ask those guys as a whole to step up. You’re going to say, Elksnis, you’re going to be our flexed out guy a little more. Jonathan Odom’s going to be your inline guy a little bit more. Zipperer is definitely going to be more of your inline guy at times. You’re going to ask all those guys to do those things. Guess what? It doesn’t matter how you get the production, as long as you get the production. Again, you’ve got a lot of guys that can play. Jonathan Odom’s going to get you those chunk yards inside and be able to if it’s 3rd and 2, he can also line up and block, but you can also put him out in the flats and throw him the ball, and he’s going to get those yards. Same thing with Keon Zipperer. You can do those things.
I’ll say this, and this is what a lot of people forget. You’re going to see some different packages. You’re going to see some different stuff happen with Emory Jones or Anthony Richardson in at quarterback. You might see some of that shovel pass stuff that you used to get with Tebow and Dak Prescott and those guys. Keon Zipperer is that guy, that H back kind of guy.
Again, you say a loaded position. It’s loaded there, and it’s loaded at running back. I’ve said this multiple times. Might have even said it on the podcast. I don’t know. The receiver position has been the loaded position the last few years. I’m not saying it’s not good this year. It’s not as loaded as it has been, but that’s okay. You got your running back spot that’s going to be better. You got your tight end spot who’s still going to be good. Not better, but still going to be good. You’ve got your quarterback position that’s going to do different things. Your offense may be fine. It just may look different.
Seth:It’s interesting. Florida does, they used to do it every year. I think because of the pandemic they kind of held off. They might do it virtually maybe. They had a coach’s clinic a few years back, and I went and watched the quarterback stuff and talked a little bit with Brian Johnson. Kind of was like, do you guys get your game plan and stuff broken down by how they line up to every personnel group? Stuff I’d done in the past when I was coaching at college, and do they do it the same way.
He’s like, no, we run one person. He’s like, we’re basically all 11 personnel, so we don’t really go into that. So, they’re basically all, he’s saying one back, one tight end. I’ll be interested to see if they’re going to more one back, two tight end, two back stuff. It’ll be interesting to see if they get out of that 11 personnel, being so heavy on that 11 personnel look, to where they’re in more two tight ends or two backs or sometimes two tight ends and two backs. It’ll be interesting to see if they go that way.
Andrew:You look back at some of the formations they ran when Tebow was there and Dak Prescott was there. They did run that two tight end, two running back. We talked about it in the last podcast. The old wishbone look. That’s what it looks like. I can see it. You’re telling me you wouldn’t want to have Demarkcus Bowman and Nay’Quan Wright on the field, and then Elksnis and Jonathan Odom or Jonathan Odom and Keon Zipperer, with Emory Jones at quarterback? Good luck.
Seth:Then if you get Gilbert in. What they’ve done at those two positions in particular that could make them really tough, because we all know the college rule is if you don’t sub out you don’t have to wait for the defense to sub guys in. Well, they’ve got a lot of flexibility with a lot of those guys you mentioned. Nay’Quan Wright, Bowman. Those seem like guys you could flex out at receiver. There’s two or three of the tight ends you could flex out at receiver, and then the next play you could bring him in, and now you’re in a two tight end, where the previous play you could be in an empty look, and you don’t have to change personnel.
That’s going to be one thing to watch for in the season is how do they use these multiple guys that they got in the backfield and at tight end? Because you can basically run a bunch of different formations that look totally different to the defense with the same group of players, and that could make you really hard to stop, if you are going to go kind of that no huddle look, because they can’t sub if you keep the same players on.
Andrew:Right. Exactly. You could easily go from that formation to having Nay’Quan in the slot and Keon Zipperer or Kemore Gamble or Eric Gilbert lined up at the X. Easy. You’re not going to be worried about it.
Seth:Then the next play you come back, and you got two tight ends, and now the defense has to line up to seven guys on the line of scrimmage. Then the next play you go out, and it’s empty. There’s nobody. They got to line up to that. It could cause a lot of problems, and that’s, I think, what they’ve been recruiting for is that kind of positional flexibility.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:Especially at tight end. Having those guys that can block, and then also flex out. You saw that with Pitts last year, but they seem to be trying to get more of those guys they can do more of that stuff with.
Andrew:Exactly. Again, is it going to be throwing for 400 yards a game? No. It’s not. First of all, if you’re asking Emory Jones to do that, you’re doing him a disservice. That’s not what his game’s about. If you’re asking Anthony Richardson to do that, you’re doing him a disservice. You’re not using your players to their potential. Again, it’ll be interesting to see how it lines up.
I’m not saying the receiver position is down. I’ve seen some good things from Ja’Quavion Fraziars. Seen some good things from Xzavier Henderson. Seen a little bit from DaejonReynolds, and that’s a shock for me a little bit to how smooth he looks just now, not even 10 months, maybe 8 months post ACL surgery, and he’s looking really good in the slot. Trent Whittemore has looked really good. Jacob Copeland’s shown the ability to continue to be Wide Receiver 1. I think you will see him do that.
So, you’ve got some players out there. The depth there I don’t think is maybe as good as it was in the past, but again, you’re talking about seven guys who are going to be drafted in the NFL Draft the last two years at the position. That’s tough to replace.
Seth:That’s going to be tough for anybody to replace. I think what you can do, and they’ve done it in the past, Mullen has, is guys have roles. This is my role in the offense. I don’t have to be that guy that can line up everywhere. This is my role. This is where I line up. This is what I do. This is how they use me. I think they’re going to be able to find enough of those guys, and then they have a bunch of big talented guys. It’s kind of interesting to go through and look at. I’m looking at the roster. You’re like, these receivers, there’s not a lot of small dudes out there. They’re all pretty big. Copeland may be one of the smaller ones, and he’s 6’ 200 pounds. There’s a lot of 6’3”, 6’4” out there.
I think they’ve done a pretty good job of finding this is the guy that will fit this role. This is the guy that will fit that role. Then using the other personnel they have at other positions to kind of mix it all up. You’re not going to replace those receivers you lost, but you can kind of get to similar spots by having guys that can fit those roles they did a little bit. Maybe not quite as good, but kind of the same role in the offense.
Andrew:Right. Let’s go to quarterback a little bit here. Obviously, we haven’t been able to see much and learn much from it. First of all, you’re 7,000 yards away from team drills. I’m not complaining. I’m seeing practice. I’m not complaining. I’m just saying it’s tough to see. It’s really tough. You see the ball hit the ground. Instantly you say, that’s the quarterback’s fault. Maybe not. Maybe it’s the receiver’s fault. Maybe it’s pass interference. You never know on this. It’s tough to see.
In some drills I think Emory Jones has done well in intermediate throws, but still struggled a little bit with accuracy. Anthony Richardson, the same thing. I think Anthony Richardson has looked better at times throwing the ball. Kitnahas looked really good, in my opinion, as far as a freshman goes. Is he up to Emory and Richardson’s status? No, not at all. I think he has looked good. He’s definitely a son of a quarterback, a son of a coach, who understands that. You can definitely tell that John’s taught Jalen his arm ability and just how to throw the ball and understand quick release, that kind of stuff. You really see that from him. I thought he’s looked good.
Carlos Del Rio, I think needs to clean up his delivery a little bit. Obviously, he’s still young, and he’s still going through it, and it’s definitely improved, but I think he definitely has to clean it up a little bit.
Seth:The thing watching that group is thinking back to a few years back and how you felt like there was not a ton of depth at the position. They got a lot of guys.
Andrew:Ton of depth? There wasn’t one guy.
Seth:Yeah. That would be their leanest of years. There were years where you’re like, my options are not great. 1A and 1B are both should be C or should be 3A. I feel like you see it, and you got a lot of depth at that position, depth of talent. Now, obviously the young guys need more experience, but I like Emory Jones. I think he can play, but Anthony Richardson, from what we can see, seems to have had a pretty good spring so far. He’s a guy that’s going to be pushing Emory, and that’s what you want to see is that competition there.
Then the young guys have shown, they’ve both flashed. Like you said, they both need to clean some stuff up. I thought Kitna’s shown some good stuff. Then Del Rio-Wilson has shown some good stuff too, I think. But they’re young, they’re some stuff they need to clean up. You can see the talent in those guys, and the depth of talent in that room is so much larger than it’s been in the past, in the recent past even. You got to feel pretty good with that position. Then considering the track record of Mullen, and I think you kind of like what you see from McGee so far in practice. He’s not one that is kind of lax. He seems to be demanding excellence from these guys, and that’s kind of what you want at that quarterback position. I think you got to feel pretty good about that position going forward.
Andrew:I’ve heard Greg Knox get more wordy. When I say wordy, I mean some non PG13 stuff. Just simply getting after it, and it’s different this year, because you’re going to run more of the quarterback trap. When I say quarterback trap, that means your running back is kicking out the tackle, or the quarterback power. You’re going to see more of that, and he’s explaining to the running backs more of when you come, you got to be low impact at that defensive end that you’re going to kick out. You got to be low impact to be able to drive him back to create the hole. Some of the guys were just kind of going through the motion there, and Knox has really been getting on it.
Like you said with McGee, McGee has done a good job of just simply showing the guys different things, different arm slots to throw different balls. Every ball is not shown over the top. Especially in this day and age, where you got the RPOs and everything that goes along with it. Some balls are thrown, you saw Patrick Mahomes throw it underhanded a few times. Balls are thrown every different way.
Again on Emory, Emory is the guy. Anthony Richardson is going to have to do a lot to unseat him. But like you said, it is good to see a push there, and as you’re running the ball more, you do open up the can of worms to roll an ankle or something more often. It’s good to have that guy behind you in Richardson, who’s ready to go.
Seth:I think that’s part of the reason you haven’t seen, not only because it didn’t fit Kyle Trask, it didn’t fit his skillset that much, but I think now you feel more comfortable with either guy, so you feel more comfortable running that quarterback. Like you said, it does open you up to maybe increased chance of a guy getting dinged up. But then if you got a guy you feel pretty comfortable with behind him that can do the same things, then you’re not so hesitant to do it.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:It seems like that quarterback run is going to be coming back in full force, and that makes you a lot harder to defend, if you’ve got that ability.
Andrew:Especially if you can hit the RPO game.
Seth:Yes. Because then you can start adding, if you watch Coastal Carolina, for instance, last year, they’ll do stuff where they’ll get in four wide receiver, and they’ll have the quarterback come like he’s coming downhill, and he’s got an option where he can run it, or he can throw an RPO out there. Or the back looks like he’s going to come up and block, like he always does, and then he slips, and now he’s down the middle of the field with no safeties, because they got to watch the four receivers that are split out. It really opens up a lot of different things for you if you have that quarterback run game going.
Andrew:Again, go back to the tight ends a little bit. Tight ends are important in RPO game. Huge part. Play action stuff, that’s where they’re important even more so than when they’re split out wide.
To hit on a couple more things here, while you’re not seeing a ton of practice, and while you don’t see a ton of the team stuff, you do see more energy. You do see more energy from this staff. Like I said, Wesley McGriff has, in my opinion, been huge. I love to see Wesley McGriff coach and go through the fine details. You can tell he’s done it before. He’s seen everything. It is the littlest details of you’re walking back to the drill. He’s been on them.
Seth, I know you were taught this the same way when I was. My coach used to tell us all the time, our head coach, if your guys are walking across the field, that’s an indictment on you. Wesley McGriff was probably told that same thing by Dan Mullen. Your guys walk, that’s an indictment on you. You don’t walk on the football field. You walk outside the white lines.
Seth:It seems to be a concerted effort from the staff. Now I haven’t seen practice in the past, but there seems to be a concerted effort to be vocal, to be energetic, to kind of get the tempo going in practice a little bit, and that’s what you want, especially when you have younger guys. They’ve talked about defense. They feel like they’ve got a lot of younger guys. Then you know on offense you’ve got younger guys that haven’t played a ton. Sometimes you got to get that tempo going a little bit, get it heightened up, get a little bit more vocal with those guys, where with more veteran teams you can be a little bit more laid back, because you know these guys know the drill. It seems to be a concerted effort from the staff, and it’s good to see the new guys like McGriff coming in and really taking hold of that.
Andrew:Again, you want to see that. McGriff and Jules have got some of the DBs walking around with handcuffs on their belt, telling the receivers they’re going to lock them up. It may be cheesy, but if that’s what makes these defensive backs have some cockiness, some swagger, some confidence, if that’s what it takes, I don’t care. I don’t. You want to have confidenceat your position. These guys didn’t have it last year. Now, did they have any reason to be confident? No. They didn’t play good. But at the end of the day, last year is last year. This is a whole new year. You can be the #1 passing defense in the country this year.
Seth:What’s nice is that you’ve got a lot of competition there at those two positions. You’ve got a bunch of guys that are kind of hungry to play that played bits and pieces last year at some of the positions that are trying to come up and put their stamp on that starting spot. Last year you came in with some veteran guys, so you feel like these are the guys you’re going to roll with, especially with no spring practice. It’s hard.
We obviously acknowledged that they didn’t have spring practice last year, but it is tough. When you think, especially for freshmen, there’s a lot of people talking about they only play the older guys. You know Mullen, they’re only going to play the older guys. I think without spring you’re going to lean on that. Just think, why do guys enroll early? The guys that enroll early always have the advantage, because they got to go through spring practice. The guys that come in the summer, you’re always like I don’t know if he’s going to play, he got in late. That’s pretty much everybody last year. They didn’t get to go through spring practice. They got to go through and learn things, but there’s no learning like learning on the field.
Andrew:Right.
Seth:So, this year you don’t have as much seniority back there, and then you’re having this spring practice where guys really get a chance to put themselves out there and put a stamp on it. I think you’re going to have a lot of competition at those positions. Competition typically leads to better results. You got to feel pretty good with those guys. If they need to wear the handcuffs on their shorts, let them wear the handcuffs on their shorts. They got to play like it, but let them earn those handcuffs.
Andrew:Exactly. Whatever it may be. Again, spring is for the little things. Guys got pissed off last year at the little things, myself included. I cannot stand to watch missed tackling and poor tackling. If you’re breaking down, and you’re in position, and the guy just simply runs you over or makes a better play, I’m okay with it, but when you don’t break down in position, I can’t stand it. It makes me frustrated. It makes me scream.
It frustrates me, because tackling is an effort thing. It’s a want to thing. That’s what it is. People always say, he can’t tackle. He can tackle. He just don’t want to tackle. He’s scared of contact or whatever it may be. Communicating, that’s a want to thing. That’s an attitude thing. You can communicate. You might not be the most vocal guy, but you can communicate. To see this happening, I’ll say this. I guarantee you this. The safety position will be the leader on this team, because of Wesley McGriff.
Seth:I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Trey Dean so far. I think he’s going to kind of be that leader, it seems like. The same kind of Oklahoma type drill I mentioned earlier, he was taking two people there and being physical. I think him and a safety group went through, one of the only defensive groups that got off the field and got a stop on it. Those guys were being physical, and he was kind of leading that charge. I think you’re going to see some better play from that group and some guys kind of step out and take some ownership of it.
Andrew:Definitely. Seth, we’re going to hop off of here. We’ll be back next week. We’ll continue to talk about it. Monday, Wednesday, Friday again for practice this week. You and I will be watching it, taking some notes, and bringing you guys the best of what happened again next week. Hopefully we continue to see some good stuff from the team and continue to see a lot of the drills and see how things go from one week to the next week.
Seth, we appreciate it, as always. We’ll be looking forward to your Eric Gilbert story this week. Looking forward to another good week of spring practice.
Seth:Unfortunately, you have to watch it on Instagram, but it’s nice we get to watch it.
Andrew:Florida should start getting some shares out of it.
Seth:I think they’re getting some.
Andrew:Some shares in the stock.
Seth:Get some money? Yeah.
Andrew:Yeah.
Seth:Break them off a little piece.
Andrew:There you go. Maybe up some pays and coaches, because everybody gripes about that, or build something else on the stadium. Seth, we appreciate it. We’ll be back next week, and we’ll talk more spring practice. Thanks, guys.