Billy Napier played quarterback at Furman, and he’s spent his coaching career working with quarterbacks and wide receivers. Given that background, you might think that he’d want to spread the field with five receivers and throw it 40 times per game.
However, that hasn’t been the case in his head coaching career, and, if all goes according to plan, it probably won’t be the case at Florida, either.
His 2021 Louisiana team ran the ball on 58.2 percent of their snaps. They had four players log at least 100 carries, including a pair of running backs with more than 150 carries.
Napier’s offensive philosophy is very old-school. He wants to wear defenses down with a physical running game and then hit them with some play-action passes off of those runs.
That’s what makes the 2022 Gators very interesting. The Gators haven’t been good at that style of football in a long time. The 2019 team ranked 107th in the country in rushing. The 2020 squad tied for 96th. After a torrid start to 2021, the Gators’ running game fell on its face down the stretch and finished 23rd, a remarkable turnaround for sure but also a bit of a disappointment given how they started the season.
Don’t get it twisted – the Gators still plan on being a good passing team. According to offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Rob Sale, adaptability will be one of the defining characteristics of this offense.
“We want to put pressure on the defense and make them play the whole field,” Sale said. “If we need to throw the ball 60 times a game, we will. If we need to run the ball to win the game, we will. Multiple offense, where we can change the tempos and make the defense get lined up. We can play at different speeds.”
Still, for the 2022 Gators to be one of the better offenses in the SEC, the running game is probably going to have to take major strides.
The responsibility for that largely falls on Sale and running backs coach Jabbar Juluke.
Sale chose to reunite with Napier after working for him at Louisiana from 2018-20 before leaving for the New York Giants in 2021.
He inherits a group that appears to have some solid top-end talent but underachieved the last two seasons. Richard Gouraige could be one of the better left tackles in the SEC, and center Kingsley Eguakun had some encouraging moments last season. Ethan White and Josh Braun are massive humans at guard, as is Louisiana transfer O’Cyrus Torrence, who is finding his way onto some of those way-too-early preseason All-America teams. Michael Tarquin played in 12 games last year and seems to be the favorite to start at right tackle.
Sale said that Torrence’s familiarity with the offense and the daily routine has allowed him to have a smooth transition to Florida and to serve as a leader for some of the other players whose heads might be spinning a little bit.
“The ceiling is high for him,” he said. “He’s got a lot of snaps, and he’s familiar with the offense. Nothing has really changed. All the drills are the same, and the way we have practice set up is the same. He hit the ground running more than any other player here.
“He was getting courted very hard by a lot of people, but, ultimately, at the end of the day, the relationship I think won. I get off the phone when I talk to Cybo and say, ‘All right, I love you.’ ‘I love you, too, Coach.’ He walks by, and he looks me in the eye, and, legitimately, he loves me, and I love him. It’s like that way with all of our players – coach hard, love them harder. But for him to be able to come to the University of Florida, and he knows the way we practice, he knows what drill is going next, he knows all of the verbiage. So, he’s able to play fast and put good tape out for next year. That was the biggest thing.”
The key for Sale is going to be to develop some depth. Jake Slaughter, Richie Leonard, Will Harrod, Kamryn Waites and Yousef Mugharbil have either played sparingly or not at all in their careers.
Waites, another Louisiana transfer, is someone that Sale is very high on.
[He] was there after I left to go to the Giants, but they found him at a camp,” Sale said. “He was a basketball guy, had a very minimal football background. If you had to cut one out of a cardboard box, that’s the way you want them to look. He’s 6-foot-8 and 360 pounds, and he’s getting better every single snap. I’ve watched a little bit of the stuff they did at UL when I was gone, and he was a little raw because he didn’t have those snaps, but he’s getting better every single day. He has a high ceiling for sure.”
Sale said that they had their best practice as a unit on Saturday. They started off strong on Tuesday and then faded down the stretch and then did the opposite on Thursday. Saturday was a more even performance. They’re still a long way from where they need to be, but he’s pleased with the direction that they’re heading.
“Fundamentals, I think they’re not far off,” he said. “[Offensive line] play, you never perfect it. You’re always fighting to get your hands inside. You’re always trying to have positions, and you’re saying those things. I think the verbiage is a bit different, but having the knowledge of what you’re supposed to do and where your eyes are supposed to be versus edge pressure, those things, they can have anticipation when we communicate from the quarterback to the offensive line if we’re getting edge pressure.
“Knowledge is power. So, if you know what to do, you can go play fast.”
While the offensive line is a major concern, the same cannot be said about the running backs, which could be one of the best positions on the team. Former five-star prospect Demarkcus Bowman seems primed for a breakout year, and fellow five-star Lorenzo Lingard still has an exciting skillset.
“I’m impressed,” Juluke said. “I think those guys are very talented young men that have some ability. They’re different in their own right. I’ve just got to get them to practice the right way. Having ability and practicing wrong doesn’t help us, so we’ve got to make sure that we’re practicing the right way and maximizing our ability. You’ve got to go out there and do things the right way and be consistent at doing it, but they have a unique skillset. I’m excited about working with them.”
The Gators’ most physically imposing back is Montrell Johnson, who rushed for 838 yards and 12 touchdowns as a freshman at Louisiana last year.
“Having been in the offense, it helps him,” Juluke said. “But you’ve got to remember, he’s a freshman. He’s still got some growing pains that he has to work out. It’s his first spring football as a college football player. It’s a little different than being in the fall, and it’s a different level of competition as well. He’s working extremely hard. I’m proud of him.
“He’s big. He’s faster than you think he is. He has very good patience, balance, has a good lower half that gives him opportunity to make cuts and explode through the hole. I think that his football IQ has helped him to have success as well. That’s why he was able to come in and play as a freshman, and now the game is slowing down for him a little bit. I’m anxious to see how much he’s going to continue to grow because he has a long way to go now.”
Then there’s the most experienced of them all, Nay’Quan Wright, who is still recovering from a broken leg that he suffered against Florida State last year.
“He’s a guy that wants to get out there and do things, and he’s very smart,” Juluke said. “I’m talking about high IQ football. He’s able to pick up on the offense pretty quick, and he’s able to help those guys, to tell them ‘Hey man, you’ve got this coming up’ or ‘You should have did this,’ and that’s good in his leadership role, and he has to stay engaged. So, that’s why we want to make sure he’s doing those things.
“He’s leading in the meetings. I put a lot of pressure on him. He has the most experience of the group. He can’t play, but you still have got to be able to make an impact on the team, and we want to make sure he continues to do that.”
Juluke said that he’s a believer in playing multiple running backs to keep everyone fresh, but everything will be based on practice performances. If only two guys earn the right to play, then only those two will play. If four players prove that they can be counted on, then they’ll play four of them. The players will ultimately decide playing time.
“We want to play multiple guys and make sure that we have competition every day,” he said. “No one’s going to be given anything. You’ve got to go out there and work for it on a daily basis, and we want to make sure that you’re playing at a high level.
“We talk about having great habits and going out there and competing, but the best thing that we’re going to do as a running back unit? We’re going to cheer for one another. We’re going to support each other. We’re out there making sure that we’re doing things. Even though we’re having friendly competition, we still want to be supportive of each other while we’re out there.”
Juluke is no stranger to coaching a deep running back corps. In 2016, he coached two All-SEC First Team performers in Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice at LSU. Fournette was drafted fifth overall, and Guice was selected in the second round the following year. The No. 3 back on that team, Darrel Williams, recently finished his fourth season with the Kansas City Chiefs.
When he has crowded backfields like he figures to at UF this season, Juluke tries to take a less-is-more approach. He doesn’t want to hinder them from playing to the best of their abilities.
“I try to not to mess guys up,” he said. “If they weren’t good enough, they wouldn’t be here. So, it’s my job to figure out which buttons to push to make them better.”
The Gators have the backs to field a dynamic rushing attack; now they just need to open up some holes for them.
It’s very early, but Juluke is confident that Sale and fellow offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton will get the offensive line to play well.
“I think that we have two of the best offensive line coaches in America,” Juluke said.” I think that’s one of our advantages. Our first day in pads, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We had some bright spots [Saturday], and we had some bad spots. We’ll go watch the practice film to find out what we did, and we’ve got a long way to go.”