As Florida continues fall camp ahead of its Sept. 4 opener against Wille Taggart’s Florida Atlantic, some of the potential strengths and weaknesses of the 2021 team are coming into focus.
In fairness, though, the big storylines have never been a secret.
Will the defense return to the program standard? Is Emory Jones ready to take over at quarterback as the Gators move on from Heisman finalist Kyle Trask? How will Florida’s offense replace the staggering efficiency and production of first-round NFL Draft picks Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney?
These three questions loom over the program like an albatross as the FAU game approaches, and while a trip to South Florida on Sept. 11 is intriguing, Florida fans likely won’t have any definitive answers until after Alabama visits The Swamp on Sept. 18.
Nonetheless, a week of practice — and a little bit of “best on best” in pads — does offer clues into which way things are trending.
Some of the news is very positive. A deep, versatile running back room is showing out. Dan Mullen loves the defense’s mentality and the accountability in the locker room. Florida’s defensive line looks nasty.
But there are lingering issues, and the recent season-ending injury to starting corner Jaydon Hill was a tough blow for Florida only a week into fall camp. While the Gators have great depth at corner, the Hill injury was a reminder that even the best-laid plans can be altered by a non-contact drill in August camp. Fall camp is about culture and improving as a team; it’s also something to weather, and a place where collective anxiety and concerns are either confronted or compounded.
Here are the 5 areas of biggest concern for the Gators as they approach opening night in The Swamp.
Is Emory Jones ready?
Emory Jones has waited a long time — 4 years, precisely — for this moment: the chance to be QB1 for the Florida Gators on opening night. As fall camp opened, Jones told the media he thinks the wait will be worth it.
“I did not know it was going to take this long. But I was getting better every day and developing, and that’s all he preached to me and we’re here now,” Jones said.
Florida fans hope so. But for now, that’s all it is: hope.
In flashes over his first 3 seasons, Jones has shown the talent that made him one of the nation’s most coveted quarterback recruits. The strike he threw in the Georgia game in 2018 that was a touchdown if not dropped. A great drive against a nasty Auburn defense in 2019 after Kyle Trask had left the game with a knee injury. A number of quality performances in mop-up duty and of course, plenty of highlight reel zone-read and power quarterback runs.
But it’s different when you are the guy. It’s different when defenses scheme around your strengths and weaknesses, as opposed to guessing about the handful of snaps you’ll play in a game.
Jones’ teammates insist he’s not a run-first quarterback. They see him in practice every day and, as Florida running back Dameon Pierce said, they know “everyone in America thought he threw the ball well enough to recruit him hard to play quarterback for them.”
Jones picked Mullen and the Gators. Now, after almost 4 years of Mullen’s tutelage, Jones, who like Kyle Trask decided to be loyal and stay — gets a chance to reward Mullen’s faith.
What’s the offensive line rotation?
With Jones stepping in at quarterback, Mullen is likely to return to the run dominant spread that made him a hot commodity as an offensive coordinator early in his career. Jones, the nation’s best running quarterback a season ago per Pro Football Focus, should draw a spy from most defenses, giving Florida a chance to allow their stable of running backs to work in space.
Of course, that only works if Florida can block, and the Gators must improve as a run-blocking operation from the mediocre run blocking line they fielded in 2020.
Florida has assembled what will be the SEC’s largest pound-for-pound offensive line in 2021. They also return more career starts at offensive line than all but 4 teams in the conference. The experience and extra beef is nice in theory — but will they get a push? That’s been a question Gators fans feel a little too uncomfortable about as the season nears.
Midway through camp, Kingsley Eguakan appears to have separated himself in an open camp competition to start at center. That’s a good sign — because it means Florida feels comfortable enough with a young guy like Eguakan to keep Stewart Reese, a terrific run blocker, at guard. With Reese inside with the beefy and talented Ethan White, the Gators could also move Joshua Braun permanently to tackle — something Florida fans hoped would happen but didn’t expect.
John Hevesy has always preferred to rotate and play 8 or 9 up front — but he’s never had that kind of depth during his second stint in Gainesville. He might not have it this year either — but if Eguakan starts, the Gators may have more flexibility than anticipated — and that’s a good thing.
Time will tell.
The “other corner” opposite Kaiir Elam
Jaydon Hill’s injury removes one of Florida’s only reliable secondary performers in 2020 and opens competition in camp for the right to start.
Elijah Blades, a transfer from Texas A&M, recently enrolled and should challenge for the job, as will Missouri transfer Jadarrius Perkins and 5-star freshman Jason Marshall Jr. One of them will start and all should play.
Florida’s corners, outside Hill and Elam, lost far too many 1-on-1 battles last season, and improvement in the secondary seems inevitable. But combinations and finding the right boundary guy opposite Elam is suddenly a pressing question, and while Gators fans should be pleased with the program’s depth, they still have a right to be concerned about the outcome of that competition.
Is Jacob Copeland ready to take the next step at wide receiver?
Florida has had an abundance of riches at the wide receiver position in the Mullen era. Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain, Tyrie Cleveland and Kadarius Toney were all drafted in the past 2 seasons and 2 other receivers, Trevon Grimes and Joshua Hammond, signed quickly with NFL teams as free agents out of college, with Hammond expected to have a great chance to make the Jaguars this season.
The top recruit in Mullen’s transitional recruiting class in 2018, Copeland has battled the drops and consistency issues since, totaling only 45 receptions for 724 yards and 5 touchdowns in 3 seasons. That those numbers came in a pass-first offense over the past 2 seasons is all the more disconcerting.
But Copeland doesn’t lack in physical tools. He’s fast, physical and strong. He’s also taken the lead of prior underachievers like Toney and Grimes and spent the offseason working relentlessly to assure he has the breakout season he needs to impress NFL scouts.
His moment is essentially now or never. If it is the latter, Florida’s wide receiver situation becomes murky– with far more questions than answers.
College kickers …
Coaches love to talk about competition as a great motivator, but I share the view of the late, great Bobby Bowden who said, “If you have a kicking competition in fall camp, you don’t have a dadgum kicker.”
Florida has a competition at kicker this fall.
The Gators were spoiled by Evan McPherson, the most accurate kicker in the SEC over the past 3 seasons who was drafted in the 5th round of the NFL Draft after leaving school a year early.
Now they have to replace him. The choices, Mississippi State graduate transfer Jace Christmann, who lost his job at MSU a season ago, and walk-on senior Chris Howard, aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring.
With a new starting quarterback, no Pitts to fail-proof the red-zone offense, and questions on the o-line, this would have been a terrific season for Florida to have a kicker as typically automatic as McPherson.
Instead, the position is a question mark, and that’s a concern.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
