6 offseason priorities for Florida in 2021
Florida fans are rightly displeased with how the 2020 season ended.
The Gators lost their final 3 games, including an embarrassing 55-20 loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.
Of course, there has been significant progress in the Dan Mullen era.
Three consecutive trips to New Year’s 6 bowls is an impressive accomplishment, one that puts the Gators back in the upper-echelon of the sport, something that could not be said before Mullen returned to Gainesville.
Florida also wrestled the SEC East back from Georgia in 2020, routing the Dawgs in Jacksonville in the process.
And anyone who watched Alabama steamroll through the College Football Playoff had to agree that the best test the Crimson Tide received all season came in the SEC Championship Game against a healthy, full-strength Florida. The Tide won by 6, but the Gators very much belonged on the field with the eventual national champions.
But this is Florida, a place where being encouraged by moral victories and inspired by incremental progress only goes so far. Florida fans want championships, and as Mullen enters what appears to be a transitional fourth season in Gainesville, there’s work to do for Florida to take the last and most difficult step yet: winning a title.
Here are 6 offseason priorities for Florida football in 2021.
1. Can new assistants rebuild DBU?
Mullen elected to keep Todd Grantham, a fascinating decision that may define his tenure at Florida.
Florida surrendered 30.8 points per game, allowed opponents to convert 41% on 3rd down and managed to lose 3 games when its offense produced 34, 38 and 46 points. In Florida’s bowl game, an Oklahoma team that only found balance late in the season ran for 400 yards.
Here’s the thing: Florida’s defense has talent. In fact, per the 247sports.com team talent composite, the Gators had more blue-chip talent on defense than offense in 2020. That will remain the case in 2021, so can Grantham coax the most of that talent?
The place they’ll need to start is in the secondary.
Florida has long been one of three SEC programs with a claim on “DBU,” but those days seem long past. In 2020, Florida finished 96th in pass efficiency defense (behind rival FSU!) and 88th in yards allowed per pass attempt.
Those numbers must change, and it was no surprise that Florida elected to dismiss their secondary coaches following the season and bring in two new faces on the back end. Wesley McGriff, who consistently got more with less at Auburn, and rising star Jules Montinar, who comes from USF but spent time learning his craft under secondary guru’s Kirby Smart and Nick Saban.
They’ll have a talented young corps, but will it be enough to spark a turnaround?
2. Recruit bettter
COVID-19 has made recruiting difficult. Campus visits are voluntary, coaches don’t travel much, and weekend camps have largely been replaced by virtual events. Couple these virus-related changes with the fact Florida has been serving NCAA imposed probation punishments for much of 2 seasons and the question of whether Florida can recruit at a level closer to fellow SEC powers Alabama, LSU and Georgia remains an open one.
Montinar should help.
A young guy with an engaging personality, Montinar served as recruiting coordinator at USF and prior to that was considered one of the Sun Belt’s top recruiters at Texas State, a role that earned him a spot on Kirby Smart’s staff in 2019. Montinar is also a native of Naples, giving the program a young face with many in-state ties, something that this staff needed desperately.
The question now is whether Montinar, coupled with a second year from ace recruiter Tim Brewster, is enough to propel Florida into more high-level national recruiting battles.
Florida closed the talent gap in recent years based on math: They had fewer blue-chip players when Mullen arrived and now have more, meaning the gap between the self-sustaining recruiting behemoths at Georgia and Alabama became tighter. Closing the gap even more will require winning more recruiting battles — something Florida hasn’t done yet.
3. Adjust the passing game for Emory Jones
This is the offseason priority that inspires the most confidence. Mullen is a master at catering his offense to the strengths of his quarterback, and he’s had a long time to think about how to do that for Emory Jones.
Replacing a program great and Heisman finalist at quarterback won’t be easy, but Jones will be in his fourth year on campus in 2021, and Mullen’s history with quarterbacks well-versed in his system is a strong one. Most of Mullen’s greatest quarterbacks had to wait their turn, including Kyle Trask, Tim Tebow and Dak Prescott.
It’s now Jones’ turn. Jones is not going to be as adept at the pocket passing stuff that Florida ran so well with Trask, but because of his elite mobility, he doesn’t have to be.
Jones has a good arm and advanced analytics show that in a small sample size, he’s a good downfield thrower. His issues from an accuracy standpoint have come in the short, precision pass game that Trask ran better than almost anyone in the country.
This will force adjustments in the pass game, but given his mobility, those were expected. What Florida’s pass game will look like probably takes shape in the spring — but you can expect this offense to resemble the Prescott Miss State offense more than anything the Gators ran with Feleipe Franks or Kyle Trask.
4. Find answers at the playmaker positions
A season ago, Florida had to replace 4 NFL-bound wide receivers ahead of the season without the benefit of a spring practice. It was a heady task, but at least Kyle Pitts remained on the roster as a security blanket.
We all know how that turned out: Pitts shined, putting together one of the best seasons ever for a college tight end on his way to winning the Mackey Award as the nation’s best at the position. Kadarius Toney put together a sensational senior campaign, tallying over 1,000 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns on his way to being named a finalist for the Paul Hornung Award (he lost to DeVonta Smith). Trevon Grimes also had an outstanding senior campaign, catching 9 touchdown passes, including 2 in Florida’s biggest 2 games (Georgia and Alabama). Simply put, the Gators lost a ton of talent and didn’t miss a beat.
The outlook in 2021 is less rosy.
Florida will enter the season without their top 3 pass-game production pieces, and of their top 5 in that department, only Jacob Copeland returns at receiver. Transfer Justin Shorter had nice moments in 2020 but was quiet in the Cotton Bowl with his more polished teammates opting out. And while Keon Zipperer and Kemore Gamble are nice tight end prospects, it will be nearly impossible to replace Pitts, who is in a small conversation about the best tight end in the history of college football.
Florida desperately needs a spring practice session to sort this out– and will need big leaps from the likes of Shorter and highly-touted recruits Xzavier Henderson and Ja’Quavion Fraziars, both freshmen a season ago.
5. Bolstering the anemic run game
Until 2020, Mullen’s best offenses were offenses predicated on establishing a power running game and then taking shots to electric athletes in the vertical passing game. At Florida (as an offensive coordinator) and at Mississippi State (as a head coach), Mullen led offenses that finished in the top 10 in rushing offense success rate 7 times, more than any other SEC program in that span.
Florida hasn’t had a power run game the past 2 seasons. Florida ranked 56th in rushing success rate in 2020 and 68th in 2019. It’s hard to blame that on running backs. LaMical Perine was one of the SEC’s most bruising and talented runners in 2019, and he finished 2nd in the SEC in yards after contact as a senior. Florida had yet another back (Dameon Pierce) finish in the top 10 in yards after contact in 2020, a sign that the running backs are finding ways to grind out yards on the ground when holes aren’t there.
Will Jones fix the run game by simply providing a different wrinkle offensively? He will help — but as the full-time starter, he can’t be asked to carry the ball 20 times a game constantly.
More likely, offensive line coach John Hevesy and the Florida staff will need better performances up front. The Gators have nice young pieces on the offensive line that appear to be the type of space eaters you need to run the ball in the SEC. Ethan White is a load, Michael Tarquin is a blue-chip whose practice issues were about pass blocking, not run blocking, and the staff is very high on freshman Josh Braun. The return of Miss State transfer Stewart Reese will help, if for no other reason than Reese is familiar with Mullen’s blocking scheme and comfortable in an offense featuring a mobile quarterback.
Things should be better — but we’ve written that before.
6. Special teams questions
A quiet story in the offseason for Florida?
The departure of the program’s 3 key special teams pieces. Punter Jacob Finn is transferring, despite averaging 46.7 yards per punt in 2020. He’s expected to give way to Australian punter Jeremy Crenshaw, but the Aussie didn’t win the job last year, raising at least a yellow flag.
Toney, one of the league’s best return men, is gone. He changed the tenor of a dicey Kentucky game by taking a punt to the house before the half.
https://twitter.com/secnetwork/status/1332756721366831104?lang=en
Finally, Florida loses Evan McPherson, the 3-year starter who was the SEC’s most accurate kicker in that span. McPherson missed only 9 field goal attempts (51-of-60) in his career and while one of those was a 51-yard attempt to tie the LSU game in December, he was a weapon who put Florida in scoring range from anywhere inside the opponent’s 40. Replacing him won’t be easy — a problem compounded by the fact the Gators did not sign a kicker in the Early Signing Period.
Rebuilding a special teams unit that ranked 5th nationally in S&P+ special teams in 2020 will be a big challenge for Florida, and a priority for a team that figures to have a smaller margin for error in 2021.
Copeland, Shorter, Henderson, Gamble, Zip and Whittemore all had plenty of snaps and we should be fine with them.
Excited to see the new look offense with Emory
T R j, I’m also excited to see the “new look offense with Emory”.
It’s something the Dawg’s defense should be able to contain.
Of course Timmy, after all UGA must have the best defense in the world with all that 5 star talent Kirby gets. Although I’m pretty sure the best D in the world narrative was last pre season. Just like the one pre season before it was the best O line in the Universe. This year is the best QB in the SEC (not as good as the world or universe but good enough),already a Heisman pre season winner, coupled with the best WR room in the conference. Get your narrative straight bro
LOL…excited to see the new look offense with Emory…as in 8 for 16 for 86 yards zero tds … yeah me too…delusional lizards, you guys best hope Richardson is your man. Emory sux.
Delusional is owned by the pups
R j, That’s a lot to unpack. Although, none of it has anything to do with my comment…
I think the best rushing defense (two year running) with what they return, likely the best rushing defense again, should be able to handle a run first 56% passer QB.
But feel free to wander out into the weeds and add whatever else you want to that, and call it my narrative…
How many National Titles has Georgia one in a row?? They are so superior that most head coaches are just dieing to be an assistant at GA… GA is so amazing! (lol)… Oh wait… what is that? Georgia has not won a National Title in 41 years? The way these trolls speak… you would think they were Alabama…
You do know the difference between one and won, yes? No child left behind is an abysmal failure…
UGA: where 5-stars turn into 3-stars.
Always the excuses about how we need this piece or that piece or how we just need one more “playmaker” at this spot… and yet, the product on the field has just gotten worse. Went from choking a national championship to choking an SEC championship to choking against the Gators and not going to Atlanta. Y’all got some talent at QB this year, but that’s never stopped you all from underperforming LOL.
10-3, 11-2…9-4
Great point…
14-9-9…12
Better point…
1906 to 2020…ZERO
Best point…
Write an article about offensive potential and basically skip over a stable of running backs that give all kinds of options.
We could have the best backfield in the SEC and we certainly have the talent.
Lol, G8rMarsh My brother of a different mother, I do worry about you, my friend. Please feel free to share the following information with mee palley Cojones as well…
Delusion Medications: The primary medications used to attempt to treat delusional disorder are called anti-psychotics. Medications include the following:
Conventional antipsychotics, also called neuroleptics, have been used to treat mental disorders since the mid-1950s. These medicines work by blocking dopamine receptors in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter believed to be involved in the development of delusions. Conventional antipsychotics include chlorpromazine (Thorazine®), fluphenazine (Prolixin®), haloperidol (Haldol®), thiothixene (Navane®), trifluoperazine (Stelazine®), perphenazine (Trilafon®) and thioridazine (Mellaril®).
Newer medications — called atypical antipsychotic drugs — appear to be more effective in treating the symptoms of delusional disorder. These medications work by blocking dopamine and serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is another neurotransmitter believed to be involved in delusional disorder. These drugs include risperidone (Risperdal®), clozapine (Clozaril®), quetiapine (Seroquel®), ziprasidone (Geodon®) and olanzapine (Zyprexa®).
I’d highly suggest you post this on every puppy article. That way you could be an all time friend to your fellow delusional humpers
Neil I’m kind’ve confused by the Chris Leak had to wait his turn comment. He was a 4 year starter and was in his 3rd year starting when Mullen got there.
Joe- meant to write “Tebow” there and wrote Leak, I think.
I logged in just to make this comment. It’s surprising how many puff pieces I see by the UF media that will have something like this.
A guy starting as a true freshman waited his turn…um…think he waited less games than Lawrence did behind Bryant and I don’t think anyone would say Lawrence waited his turn.
This is all about trying to give Little Timmy credit for Chris Leak’s championship. I always see UF fans saying the Tebow won two NCs. One of those was Leak’s.
You don’t understand the meaning of team.
Little Timmy? You’re trying to belittle the wrong guy there bro.
Which goes to show what a Moron you are
Agreed – Leak started his first game as a true Freshman vs San Jose State in 2003 and Tebow played in his first game vs Southern Miss in 2006. Tebow did have to wait to become the fulltime starter, but neither Leak or Tebow had to wait to play.
Lots of talent being recruited on defense. But my concern is not enough meat on the D line. Too many hybrid/tweener guys with no true primary position on that side of the ball.
They got two DL transfers to help from penn state and auburn.
Love the SEC Shorts 2020 about Florida receiving the post season grades. The shoe joke will last a long time
Love watching Jimbo give you false hope.
I hear that LSU has the shoe bronzed in their trophy case under best win of the 2020 season.
Looking forward to Jimbo bringing down you’re program. It’s just a matter of time until you wake up one morning to the news that Jimbo is leaving for more money.
nobody is paying Jimbo any more than he is making
This is put up or shut up time for Hevesy. He needs to motivate this line to run block, and if he can’t get the job done, stop making excuses and resign.
Offensive lines are not made overnight. Mac left us with nothing. We have good players now with great upside. Tarquin is a beast and White is a monster. Braun and Reese will be the road graters we’ve needed. With Pierce, Bowman and Lingard we will have a solid running game.
Watching UF this year there was some frustration when RBs constantly seemed to run into the back of a lineman in a pile when either side was seemingly open. Film
study shows that there many times when the lanes were there and properly blocked and the RBs either didn’t see it or trust it, Even Trask on his short yardage was guilty of this at times.
I think this is one of the reasons why Wright got more play deeper in the season as he demonstrated better vision and bought his feet with him,
Linguard has the speed to get around the edge and Bowman has incredible vision in traffic. Lakeland high school coach said Bowman is like Rainey but with better SPEED? I know Mullen honors players longevity in the system and that is part of his development process, but if either of those RBs show they can help establish a rhythm in the run game, especially some kind of read option for either QB, it’ll be hard to keep them off the field.
Mullen will attempt to get these guys the ball in space, probably similar to what he did when he had Demps AND Rainey.
Honestly, I think the backs didn’t trust the hole. Great observation
Good point. I have seen that as well and wondered about their vision. They do run into our own players a lot.
This is year four. No more blaming the lack of effort on the former coaching staff. It’s time for Hevesy to earn his pay or head on down the road.
2 things. First, Christian Robinson is no longer leaving. Also, we got a transfer kicker from Mississippi State.
It’s like Neil stopped following Florida news a couple weeks ago. Or he wrote it back then and it’s just getting published now.
It’s about QB play in today’s game. Teams that beat Alabama have had outstanding QB play, whether it was Mayfield or Watson.
Need more QB proof? Put Brady on the Bucs roster and they’re in the super bowl when previously couldn’t sniff the playoffs for a decade.
You are correct Sir. Most of the time the best QB wins.
Quarterbacks are everything now. I’m very optimistic about Jones and more so about Richardson. The kid can make the deep ball effortless.
As an alumni and former Lakeland Dreadnaught I can’t believe they made no mention of Demarcus Bowman. Stand by folks, In Mullens offense he will be the second coming of C.J. Spiller, but this time in Gainesville.
Remember the Gatornaughts during the Meyer years, it’s comings again
Dan has to get WAY better on the recruiting trail for that to happen. Hopefully some of this staff we just got will help with that some. You have to have top 5 classes consistently to win in the SEC. That’s just reality.
Some of the best recruiters aren’t great coaches. Alabama is the one that put it all together.
CDM is bringing in coaches that can recruit now. I’m interested to see what Grantham does now with much more talent than he’s had.
I think the Defense will be better. Not great and maybe not good, but better. The lack of preseason prep time probably hurt a Todd Grantham defense more than most as they tend to be complex schemes. As has been pointed out, they do have plenty of talent and I think the prep time will be key.
If you couple that with last season’s offense I think they are a playoff team. Of course that isn’t the case.
There is talent on the other side of the ball, but it isn’t the known quantity that was their last season. Their are question marks at all of the positions that were key to last year’s production. That isn’t to say that there isn’t talent, but new players and a likely new scheme to support the strengths of a new QB combined with the already existing questions on defense mean they really need a ton to go right. Honestly it reminds me of UGA at the start of last season. Florida is likely better at the QB position but they had fewer questions on defense.
I expect a similar result. I don’t think they implode by any stretch and I would not be surprised if record wise they were better than the 2020 team, but that is more because I don’t see how that team dropped 4 games. 2-3 losses would be my guess.
Well, I’ve been super busy in the real world and haven’t written a comment in over three weeks. Feels longer.
But I see little has changed. Leghumper still hurling his creative insults (and he sure does seem to know an awful lot about anti-psychotic and neuroleptic drugs. Hmmm.) Commenters saying Florida won’t be any good next year because they lost too many receivers to the NFL. And of course, Georgia is favored once again to win it all, or most of it, or at least the East.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
My two cents:
Florida could be better next year because the offensive line should be better, we could see the debut of the next great Florida running back, and the defense absolutely will be better. Different. And better overall.
I did not expect a drop-off at wide receiver from 2019 to 2020 and said so often. Next season, I’m not so sure. We have plenty of talent, but a lot depends upon how much time Copeland and Shorter spend working on hanging on to the ball, and Henderson spends on learning his reads. Whittemore is going to be great. And I’m really excited about Marcus Burke out of Jax; I think he’s seriously underrated.
Emory is an unknown, but I think he can be really good because he gets to come back to Mullen on the sidelines after every series. He has an incredibly quick release and as much arm strength as anyone this side of Feleipe Franks. He throws the same high trajectory deep ball as Daniels. His 56% CMP ratio means nothing because of small sample size. He just hasn’t played much. It was 67% and 75% the two preceding years. Also meaningless.
I expect the defense to be vastly better at every position group next year, possibly with true freshmen starting at one corner, one safety and maybe star. Our young and incoming linebackers are more talented than the guys who have been starting the last three years; they just needed weight room time. And if Gervon Dexter figures out his fundamentals (he’s only played three years of football), watch out. At some point, he’s going to start taking over games.
As for the puppies. No question their receiving corps goes from team weakness to team strength. And they do finally have a quarterback, but I wonder about turnovers. Daniels gave the ball to the other team a lot at USC and a not insignificant amount in his few games to date at Georgia.
Georgia’s defense may be better next year, but it doesn’t look that way on paper. And frankly, their secondary wasn’t all that great last year even when healthy.
If I had to pick right now I’d pick Georgia to win the East this fall. But it is by no means a lock because Florida has a ton of upside.
Nash, I’m not sure I get your comment about Daniels and his “not insignificant” amount of turnovers at UGA. He had a 5 to 1 TD/INT ratio last year – most QBs would kill for that, and you really expect more of the same (or better) with another year working in Monken’s offense on two healthy legs.
Yes, he had 10 INTs to 14 TDs at USC his freshman year, but he was starting at 18 years of age. Good QBs mature and learn, and JT seems to have done that extremely well.
We sometimes are guilty of tunnel vision in SEC country, but you need to remember that JT was the national Gatorade player of the year in arguably the toughest HS region in the country according the guys who watch that for a living. Another year working with these same receivers under Monken and I don’t know that a limit can be placed on what he’s capable of.
I could be wrong here, but if I remember correct Daniels went to some academy school that played in a rather weak division in the state.
Not taking anything away from UGA. I think they’re definitely playoff caliber and the offense is finally in 2021 instead of 2001, but this is a story we’ve read before with Georgia. All the talent in the world to be stopped just short in a big game. I would favor them to win the east next year, but I don’t know about anything be on that.
I’d agree with your assessment. The upside is there, but they need it all to go right. Even then I think it is a 50-50 affair in Jacksonville assuming both teams are healthy.
I do think Arik Gilbert is going to Florida though. He will have a better shot at being “the guy” there which is what he wants. I am a Darnell Washington believer now that they’ve decided to use him some and I think he is going to be great as well…but I do hated to see the Gators get a weapon like Gilbert. That guy will be a huge help to a new QB.
He played for Mater Dei, a private catholic school but competing in Cali’s Division I (highest classification). They were consensus national champs. Mater Dei also produced Matt Leinert, Matt Barkley and other notable QBs – including Bryce Young, who backed up JT.
Gilbert is going back to LSSHOE, otherwise he would have already enrolled somewhere else…Would have reunited with Bailey if not for the dumpster fire on Rocky Top…I think he is holding out his options in case sanctions for indiscriminate sexual misconduct is handed down, no sanctions and he’ll go back to Ed…
Hey Marshgator89 If someone want’s to pay Jimbo more than we did then he would be crazy not to take it. It would be great if coach’s stayed for loyalty to a program but that road goes both ways.
nobody is paying Jimbo anymore than you all are