I saw a lot of missing the most important point last week once Dan Mullen causally dropped the news that Kingsley Eguakun had been working at first team center.
There was some amount of immediate fretting about Joshua Braun. If Stewart Reese wasn’t going to play center, does that mean Reese moves to right guard and Braun goes to the bench?
Maybe, maybe not. I don’t completely understand why there’s a vocal segment of the fan base worked up about Braun 24/7. I guess it could be that he’s from Jacksonville, or possibly because he flipped from Georgia. He got some work last year, but he wasn’t that good. He looked like what he was, a true freshman without spring practice or a full offseason workout regimen doing his best (which wasn’t all that great). He has the potential to develop into a good player, but if he doesn’t start this year, it’ll be fine. Really.
Then there was the phase of plotting to use the move to get Jean Delance to the bench. Braun, who was listed as a tackle as a recruit, could play out there according to some theories. Reese could too according to others, given he played right tackle at Mississippi State.
First, Braun’s NFL future is probably at guard according to the people I know who are well-versed in line play and who have taken the time to watch Braun’s tape. He conceivably could be better than Delance on the outside, but it’s probably better to keep him at guard. And, as I just said, Braun didn’t put anything on tape last year that suggests he’s a must-play guy.
As for Reese, I watched a lot of him at right tackle in 2017 while preparing for Mullen’s first year in 2018. In short: you don’t want him playing tackle. He lacks quickness, so you’ll see edge rushers blowing past him just as often as you do with Delance. I am just as ready to see someone else get a crack at that spot on the line as anyone else, but Reese is not the answer. I’m more sure of that than the idea that Braun may not be the answer because I’ve actually seen Reese play RT on the college level.
Then some folks were getting warmer when they noted Eguakun’s possible ascension to starting center was a positive development because it helped create some depth. UF not only has been skating by with underwhelming-at-best lines over the last few seasons, but they’ve been thin there too. The 2019 line was the worst of them all, and it had no one experienced to turn to once Noah Banks was medically DQ’d in the offseason. If one guy going down dooms the entire season’s options, you know it’s dire.
The most important element to the move for me is that someone else from the first two recruiting classes appears to have actually developed into a starting-caliber player. We’ll have to see it to believe it on Eguakun; Mullen and John Hevesy talked up Nick Buchanan at center in the offseason of ’18 and defensive linemen put him on skates more often than a roller derby player for two seasons.
However, Griffin McDowell’s move to the defensive line in fall camp makes it official that only one of four 2018 OL signees actually panned out: Richard Gouraige. Banks, a JUCO transfer, had his medical DQ. Chris Bleich transferred in the middle of the 2019 season after a couple months of poor play, and now McDowell, once the Center of the Future, is on the other side of the ball.
Florida signed seven offensive linemen in 2019. Two didn’t qualify, and to date, only Ethan White has played any appreciable amount of snaps. Eguakun would periodically get the Center of the Future tag before White got a shot in 2020 fall camp and Reese did in spring. Michael Tarquin is perpetually the Next and Only Hope at tackle past Gouriage, but he’s seemingly always an offseason away from being ready. And then, there’s never been any real buzz that Will Harrod or Riley Simonds is pushing for playing time.
So with 11 linemen signed in those first two recruiting classes, Gouraige is the only major contributor. Due in large part to a preseason injury last year, White has only 12 game appearances to his name, most as a reserve. Bleich started two thirds of a season, performed below average for an SEC guard, and bolted. That’s… about it.
The hit rate on those signings is abysmal so far. I recently used the word “glacial” to describe Hevesy’s rate of development, and it’s still apt even if Eguakun gets some starts in the middle this fall. There’s still time for Eguakun, Tarquin, maybe even one of the very behind guys like Harrod to get some snaps before their careers are done. The story isn’t finished, but it’ll be hard to be more than underwhelming.
One of the biggest problems during the McElwain era was a lack of development. If a player didn’t show promise right away, he probably wasn’t ever going to play at a high level. Not until Mullen and company arrived, at any rate.
Offensive line is the only position where that’s been close to true in the Mullen era. Gouraige showed promise as a redshirt freshman, White as a true. No surprise, they’re the only ones to do much. The pattern looked like it might continue with ’20 signee Braun, and not any of the 2019 signees aside from White, getting the call when injuries set in last fall.
So Eguakun would not only be a third offensive lineman from those initial two signing classes to make a good contribution, he would actually be an example of a guy being developed into something good when not beginning his career on the verge of contributing to begin with.
It’s not a small point. By now Hevesy has proven nearly incapable of landing premium offensive line recruits (maybe one a year, maybe), and with UF recently losing a 3-star lineman recruit from Orlando to UCF, nothing about his recruiting prowess is getting better four years in. He needs to show an ability to get these older players on the field to avoid being completely dead weight.
It’s entirely possible that Eguakun could start 2021 as a reserve, or maybe him starting will finally put Delance on the bench and it’ll be morning in Gainesville again. I don’t know. However, any flickers of optimism about Hevesy are a welcome sight when he’s the oldest and closest member of the Mullen mafia that ain’t going anywhere. Greg Knox has at least developed some good backs, and Billy G has been landing some good talent recently on top of reestablishing himself as the best on-field receivers coach in the country. Something, anything out of Hevesy is a welcome sight.