The Florida Gators are set to take the field for the first spring practice of the season this Thursday. That is a full month earlier than spring typically starts.
From the outside looking in, there does not appear to be any real advantage to suiting back up just 50 days since the final game of the 2020 season. But Dan Mullen made a few points on Tuesday as to why the Gators wanted to get a head start this time around.
He started with the fact that the coaching staff simply had the time to get everything prepared for spring ball more quickly this year due to the COVID-19 bans in place on traveling for recruiting. No travel in the month of January meant he and his assistants had more of an opportunity to focus on the film from the season and get ready for evaluations.
Secondly, it might just be his way of flaunting that the Gators are able to get on the field in February. While most of the rest of the country is covered in snow, temperatures will reach the mid-80s at Florida’s first practice.
“We’re in Florida, so we have the option to start spring ball a little bit earlier,” Mullen said. “I did click on the weather channel and saw that I’m very happy we live in the state of Florida right now because it looks awful cold in a lot of other places around the country.”
Another factor that went into the decision was that a large part of the current roster has yet to experience a spring at Florida. Those who did not enroll early in the 2019 class as well as the entire 2020 class missed out on spring a year ago.
The Gators are excited to experience this time they lost due to the pandemic.
Most likely the biggest reason behind it all, Mullen mentioned that Florida plans to implement some schematic changes to both the offense and defense, and he wants to give the players as much time as possible to learn everything.
“The guys are much more attentive when they’re watching themselves do it and you’re correcting them and they’re seeing themselves perform within the offensive or defensive or special teams scheme,” he said. “So by having the spring ball earlier, we’ll be able to start watching the spring cut-ups earlier with the players of guys that maybe haven’t played a lot, that have not had that experience, and they get to watch themselves running our offense and our defense.”
As for the lack of a spring game, Mullen said there were pros and cons. He said that the spring game is a great day in Gainesville for fans to get excited about next season’s team and for younger players to gain experience on a bigger stage.
While the team will miss the celebration that comes with the spring game, Mullen thinks there will be more technical advantages without one.
“There’s a big benefit in just having another, adding another scrimmage at the end of spring,” Mullen said. “There’s going to be a big plus to that of getting some more things accomplished in that scrimmage than you normally would in a spring game, which is kind of a little bit more of an exhibition showcase.”
Athletic Director Scott Stricklin added to the reasoning in a message to Florida fans via Twitter.
Thank you for your patience and understanding, Gators! #GoGators pic.twitter.com/c2sgUjzIZQ
— Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) February 16, 2021
Though Florida continues to host a limited number of fans for athletic events, Stricklin noted that it would be unwise to open Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to fans right now. The stadium is currently being used as a COVID testing and vaccination site.
Plans are also in the works to provide as much access as possible for fans through social media and television. The plans are not fully clear yet, but Stricklin wrote that SEC Network will dedicate a window to showcase the Gators in a similar way to the spring game.
A return to normalcy still feels distant, but Florida still gets to take the field for 15 practices over the next month, and that is a small step in the right direction.