GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Spring practice can be a quirky thing. Due to factors like time of enrollment and injuries, you can’t always tell how many practices a player has under his belt just by his year of eligibility.

“It feels great. This is my first and last spring ball,” senior WR Brandon Powell said after Tuesday’s practice. “I’m just happy to get back out on the field.”

Injuries have twice sidelined the fourth-year wideout from getting in the 15 spring practices. This year, QB Feleipe Franks will be listed as a freshman on the roster after redshirting last season. For Franks, however, it’s his second spring with the Gators. He enrolled in January 2016 and took part in a spring session that culminated in a rough three-interception Orange and Blue game.

Junior RB Jordan Scarlett sees a different Franks a year later.

“I say from when he first got here, he didn’t want to take care of the ball as much. He didn’t realize college football is a lot faster,” Scarlett said. “But now he’s making more smarter decisions with the football and I like it.”

In the portions of practice available for media viewing, Franks only faced a pass-rush and full defense in the fastball session, which is four no-huddle plays. On the last snap, Franks hit sophomore WR Tyrie Cleveland for a touchdown in the corner of the end zone.

Powell says that the receivers want to be put in that position more often.

“We always just tell the young quarterbacks to just throw the ball. That’s it,” Powell said. “We have athletes that make plays. That’s what (Franks) did. He threw the ball and one of our athletes made a play.”

Third-year coach Jim McElwain hopes that the touchdown strike is a preview of Florida’s vertical passing game.

“Yeah, those guys aren’t afraid to throw the ball down the field, no doubt about it,” McElwain said. “We’ve got a couple guys that can chase it down. That’s fun to see – except it’s not fun to see that your safety didn’t have depth and we were able to get over the top. With that being said, obviously, I think we’ve got a chance to really push the ball down the field.”

The Gators struggled in that area last season, completing just seven passes of 40 or more yards. Only two SEC teams completed fewer. And only Vanderbilt had fewer passing plays of 30 yards or more than the Gators (14).

If Franks or Kyle Trask can get the ball down the field – accurately – the Gators have the playmakers to take it to the house, as Antonio Callaway has demonstrated the past two seasons. Callaway was suspended last spring while the university looked into a student’s sexual assault allegations. He was found not responsible on Aug. 12, 2016 and rejoined the team in fall camp.

McElwain expects a complete offseason to make a big difference for Callaway in 2017.

“It was interesting, you look at his body now, even just having the offseason that he’s been able to have has been really, really good,” McElwain said. “This is his first spring ball, and to see how he attacked it out there, just having him out there is kind of that security blanket a little bit when you take him and a guy like Powell and then where Tyrie is right now and you throw in Josh Hammond and it was really good to see Dre Massey.

“There’s some guys out there that, you know, we were pressing the field pretty good and they were getting up the field. That’s good to see. We’ve got Florida speed out there.”

With all those speedy playmakers, McElwain wants to make sure his quarterbacks see the whole field.

“I think probably the biggest thing is structurally (Franks) and Kyle (Trask) get locked in a little bit instead of getting off into their reaction to their number three,” McElwain said. “Right now they’re still zoning in on one too much. We’ll keep working on it and I thought we did some good stuff with the RPO stuff today in the pass game. We’ll see how that kinda helps them too.”

In Powell’s opinion, the quarterbacks need to worry about one thing: putting the ball in the air. If they do that, the Gators will have a chance to produce a 1,000-yard receiver for the first time since 2002.

“Before the spring, we talked to both of them and just told them to compete. Just let the ball fly,” Powell said. “Don’t even think about it. Just let it fly. You saw that today. They were making plays. That’s what we want to see.”