Written by Bob Redman, aka “Hollywood Bob”
The Florida Gators held their final scrimmage of the spring on Saturday and in The Swamp for the first time this year. It was a quick audition for the spring game that happens Thursday night. It’s a free outing meant to entice the whole family to attend and will also be streamed on SEC Network+. The scrimmage had its ups and downs, but wasn’t a clean affair as told by head coach Billy Napier when he talked to the media afterward. Here’s what I gleaned from my sources.
Napier’s biggest issue in the scrimmage was the number of penalties. He said he couldn’t count how many they had in the scrimmage and contrasted the number to the two penalties that the Gators had nine days earlier in their first scrimmage of the spring. We’ll talk more on this further down.
As I have done most of the time this spring, I will start with the quarterbacks. Again, the information I got from sources was about Anthony Richardson (RSo) and Jack Miller (RSo.). These two seem to get the most reps with the first two groups and there probably isn’t much of a third group in most position rooms, especially in spring.
Richardson is what we should probably expect given the situation he approached spring with. He really has an elite arm, but he isn’t quite as consistent throwing the ball as anyone would like. Remember he didn’t throw the ball much in the offseason as he healed from surgery. That shows at times. But, he did throw a few nice passes including a 20+ yard corner route to slot receiver Daejon Reynolds (RFr) for a touchdown. Richardson did lead the offense on a couple of long scoring drives and he showed good management skills in doing so, but there weren’t multiple long completions like we have heard some of this spring. I didn’t hear much from Miller in this category either, just that he was running with the first and second teams. I was told that the quarterbacks were just inconsistent all day. Outside of Reynolds, I don’t have anything on receivers other than walk-on Justin Curtis (RSr) had a couple of longer receptions in the scrimmage.
Lorenzo Lingard (RSr) continues to impress the staff, but there weren’t any really long runs in the scrimmage, the kind of long run that would stand out to observers. I do believe Lingard and Montrell Johnson (So) did perform well in the long drives but we didn’t see the really big plays. Johnson did have one play at the goal line where he leveled Trey Dean and scored on the play. That one drew a lot of noise from both sidelines and the people watching the scrimmage.
Tight end Dante Zanders (RSr) seemed to have the best day of the guys at that position. He caught a couple of balls and was able to do something with them. Zanders has been a bit of a lifesaver for tight end coach William Peagler as he has seen his room decimated with injuries and one player who left the team. Zanders continues to look good since his move from defensive end after the first couple of practices this spring.
The players went through some 1-on-1 drills on Saturday and I did get a few notes from some of the linemen. In the first time I have heard his name all spring, Jake Slaughter (RFr) looked good in team and 1-on-1’s. I was told that Slaughter is very strong and was able to show that when going up against some of the better guys on defense. Most of the other highlights in 1-on-1s came on the defensive side. DT Desmond Watson (SO) really dominated offensive tackle Kamryn Waites (RFr). In the battle of the opposite physical builds, you have Watkins who is a bit wider and able to get low, against the 6-foot-8 Waites who is very strong, but probably has to get lower when battling. One particular stone job by Watson drew loud cheers from teammates watching. I also heard that defensive end Tyreak Sapp (RFr) and defensive tackle Gervon Dexter (Jr) were pretty dominant in the reps on Saturday. In another first, I heard that OLB/ JACK Lloyd Summerall had a very good day. (A quick reminder that my sources can’t see everything at every practice, so Summerall and others may have had other good days that went unnoticed). I was told by a couple of people that the excitement that OLB Chief Borders (RFr) displays on the field and the way he runs around seemed contagious to the other guys on defense.
The only player in the secondary that had an interception according to sources was cornerback Devin Moore (Fr). He and ILB Amari Burney (RSr) both finished the scrimmage with pick-sixes. They were consecutive scores against quarterbacks Richardson and Miller on the last two plays of the day. I’m not sure which order they were in or who intercepted who, but I do know that it was enough to have Napier sound the horn to end the scrimmage and the entire defensive sideline ran the length of the field with one coach doing the ‘worm’ on the field and all the defensive guys going nuts about it. Ending it there seemed like a signal that the defense pretty much won the scrimmage on the day.
I don’t think it really mattered who won the scrimmage. Napier was frustrated by what he watched. He let the media know right afterwards which was mentioned above. But before he left the field he let his team have it pretty good as I got from several that were in attendance. They had to run a bit and when they didn’t complete the first lap like he wanted, he added two more. This was pretty out of character for the spring and really for anyone that has watched Napier this spring in Gainesville. I took it more as he wants to put on some kind of show on Thursday night and the team seemed to go backwards on the day.