Fans hoping to catch a first look at new coach Jim McElwain’s Florida Gators in a game-like setting April 11 will have to settle for a modified scrimmage.
Much like 2013, and like we predicted a few weeks ago, this year’s Orange & Blue game will not feature two teams in a traditional spring game format. The team is too limited at offensive line and linebacker due to injuries.
“We won’t have true teams necessarily,” McElwain said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “We’ll have to do just some offense against defense just because we don’t have enough (players) really to have two teams out there and we’re still kind of working with that.”
Faced with a similar situation two years ago — that Florida team entered the spring game date with just six healthy offensive linemen — the Gators alternated between 11-on-11 and individual drills. Expect something similar one week from Saturday. It will be open to the public at The Swamp.
“We’ll have a lot of competition going on,” McElwain said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
The coach said fans can expect to see quarterbacks Will Grier, Treon Harris and Jacob Guy in some pressure situations as he continues his evaluation. The scrimmage — again, set for April 11 — marks the 15th and final organized practice of the spring.
The coaches are allowed some classroom hours until the end of the semester, but organized football practice won’t take place again until August.
Florida isn’t the only SEC team that won’t divide into two groups and keep score. Kentucky and Texas A&M, citing stadium renovations, will not stage a spring game in 2015.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
