The Florida Gators have hit their midseason bye week, coming off a tough home loss to LSU last Saturday night.

The Gators are 4-3, with 1 great win, over (currently) No. 15 Utah in The Swamp, and 3 respectable losses to LSU, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 19 Kentucky. Florida is 1-3 in SEC play and, with Georgia on tap next, appears set to fall to 1-4 in SEC play through 5 games, which would be the program’s worst SEC start since 1979, when the Gators went 0-10-1.

Florida plays Texas A&M in College Station following the Georgia game as well, which means a 4-5, 1-5 start to the Napier era appears probable, unless Napier can buck the trend of Florida coaches losing to teams coached by Jimbo Fisher.

That doesn’t mean that Year 1 of the Napier era has lacked positives. Florida’s offensive line grades out as the SEC’s best unit, and while the Gators were bizarrely left off the Joe Moore Award (best offensive line) midseason semifinalists list, Florida has at least 2 surefire All-SEC players in that unit in O’Cyrus Torrence at guard and revelatory freshman Austin Barber at tackle.

The Gators have also improved dramatically on special teams, ranking a respectable 61st in SP+ efficiency in that category after finishing 107th in 2021. Punter Jeremy Crawshaw’s 46.14 yards per punt average ranks among national leaders.

Finally, the Gators have depth and quality at corner, with 2 defensive backs (Jason Marshall Jr. and Jalen Kimber) ranking in Pro Football Focus’ top 50 corners in mid-October. A third corner, Avery Helm, slots in the top 150. That’s not bad for a defense that has to leave corners on islands constantly to try and stop the run.

In any event, Year 1 is about foundations, and Florida is building a solid one, on and off the field, under Napier.

Here are midseason report card grades for each Florida position group as the Gators prepare for the second half of their season.

Quarterback: B-

Anthony Richardson’s first season as a starting quarterback has been up and down, a combination of great plays and growing pains. There were the obvious highs, like his astonishing 2-point conversion against Utah in Florida’s opening night upset of the Utes.

Richardson was brilliant in that game, with 274 yards of total offense and 3 rushing touchdowns. He was even better at Tennessee, where in his first road start he went toe to toe on the road with Hendon Hooker, accounting for 515 yards of offense and 4 touchdowns in a tight 38-33 loss.

Richardson has had his share of discouraging moments as well, including his dismal 3-turnover performance against Kentucky, which included this dire decision and interception that gave Kentucky the lead for good.

Some of Richardson’s throws in big Florida wins have been mystifying too, like his triple coverage pick against Eastern Washington.

Richardson, an honors student with what both Napier and Dan Mullen have called a “high football IQ,” needs to stop forcing things with his arm talent and let games come to him. When he does that, as in the LSU game Saturday night, he is an effective starter with an electric ceiling. For now, the Gators are still dealing with the good and the bad as their young quarterback matures and grows each week.

Running back: A

Ole Miss fans will dispute this, but the Gators’ running back room is as good as there is in the SEC. The Gators have a dynamic 1-2 in Trevor Etienne and Montrell Johnson, who rank in the top 6 in the SEC in yards per attempt this season. The third running back, Nay’Quan Wright, and the fourth running back, Lorenzo Lingard, have made highlight-reel runs in 2022. Three running backs have carried the ball 10 or more times in a game (Dameon Pierce was the lone Gator to do that last season, and it did not happen until after Mullen was fired), showing the trust and depth and diversity of the running back room.

Florida ranks 18th nationally in rushing offense and 2nd (Alabama) in yards per rushing attempt, with a 6.38 team average. The Gators also rank 2nd nationally in explosive run plays (Alabama).

The Gators are good prior to contact, as the above statistic notes, and terrific after contact as well, with Johnson and Wright ranking in the top 10 in the SEC in yards after contact. The one thing that the Gators haven’t done enough is get the backs involved in the passing game. This has especially limited Wright, who entered this season leading all returning SEC backs in receptions and receiving yards the past 2 seasons. Wright has just 1 catch in 2022, and has been targeted only 3 times. That number should improve in the second half, but beyond that quibble, this running back room has been tremendous.

Wide receivers: C-

Florida’s improved performance in the LSU game, which featured the team’s first vertical, take-the-top off a defense score against a Power 5 opponent in 2022, bumps this unit up to the “C” zone.

The Gators have plenty of highly rated talent at wide receiver, including Justin Shorter. What they don’t have is a consistent playmaker on the perimeter. Even Ricky Pearsall, the Arizona State transfer who ranks 2nd on the team behind Shorter in receptions, is nothing more than a quality possession receiver.

Too many of Mullen’s receiver recruits were the same player, essentially: tall, physical, capable of winning a 50/50 or catching a ball in tight coverage, but lacking in elite speed. As a result of that and the failure of Xzavier Henderson’s world-class track speed to translate to football speed, Florida finds itself at least 2 recruiting class cycles from being excellent at the wide receiver position again.

South Carolina (13) and Auburn (11) have completed more passes covering 30 yards than the Gators (10). In 2020, the Gators led the SEC in that category with 37 in 12 games.

Great receiver play was a staple of the early Mullen era, but those were Jim McElwain players. Napier has to go get his own, and in between, Florida fans will have to settle for flashes of excellence from their receiving corps, which is what they’ve gotten this season.

Tight end: C-

Keon Zipperer has had a few nice moments, including what may be Florida’s best offensive play of the season to date against Tennessee.

The senior tight end leads Florida’s position group with 13 receptions. Unfortunately for Zipperer and the rest of Florida’s tight end room, consistency has been a huge problem.

Dante Zanders, a converted defensive lineman, is the only other tight end to catch a pass. Higly thought of recruits, such as Nick Elksnis, have not yet seen the field in any meaningful capacity. Kemore Gamble, who transferred to UCF, has just 6 receptions in Orlando, but his presence is missed in the passing game in Gainesville. For a tight end room that had a generational talent only 2 years ago, this unit feels very ordinary. That’s something only recruiting will fix.

Offensive line: A+

It’s difficult to ask an offensive line to do more than this line has done in 2022. Despite the lack of an elite perimeter playmaker or a vertical threat to keep safeties honest, two things that practically guarantee defenses can overwhelm an offensive line from a numbers standpoint, the Gators’ o-line has performed beyond high expectations in 2022. Torrence is as advertised, and leads the nation in PFF ranking for offensive guards. Torrence’s run block grade of 91.8 is the highest at any offensive line position in the country. As a result, he’s on almost every meaningful midseason All-American list (only omitted by ESPN).

Barber has made every midseason Freshman All-American list, and he grades out as the No. 2 tackle in the SEC in 2022 to date, trailing only Georgia’s Broderick Jones. Florida has 5 offensive linemen (all who have started games) in the top 100 of the PFF grade rankings, with the lowest being left tackle Richard Gouraige, who has been consistent, and offered the best fat man moment of the season in the SEC.

Florida’s line faces its two toughest tests of the year coming off the bye, and it will be vital to have Torrence, who missed the LSU game, back for both Georgia and Texas A&M. But this is Florida’s best position group, and one of the nation’s best offensive lines.