For a change, the Gators have adequate depth

Billy Napier talks things over with freshman quarterback DJ Lagway (UAA Photo)

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

Having endured two seasons in which the Gators lacked sufficient depth, Billy Napier and his coaching staff find themselves trying to figure out what to do with adequate numbers at every position. That’s what Napier and his coaches were doing over the weekend following Florida’s first scrimmage.

“I think we come out of that scrimmage and we kind of reboot the computer and organize them in a way for this week, then we'll scrimmage again next week, and I think ultimately that's where we'll start paring it down,” Napier said. “Even this week, we have to continue to work contingency plans. If this guy goes down, how do we shuffle the deck?”

The deck this week has to be shuffled at the nose tackle position where Jamari Lyons is done for the year. Lyons suffered a fractured ankle Saturday and that changes the dynamic of the entire defensive line. There is experience at nose tackle where Cam Jackson, Caleb Banks and Desmond Watson can step in, but Lyons’ flexibility made him seriously valuable.

Napier peeled off the names of several Gators who might find themselves playing both inside or outside of the D-line.

"I think the biggest thing was Jamari could play nose and end; he had some position flex,” Napier said. “You're going to see Michai Boirea more, Kelby Collins more, and then we've got some guys that can develop there: Brien Taylor, D'Antre (Robinson), Tarvorise (Brown). That's an area where we've got some players. There’s some depth there but I think those roles will be a little bit different. There will be some adjustment, but the biggest thing was Jamari can play nose and end. That's where we're going to have to shuffle the deck a little bit. We can also move (Tyreak) Sapp over there. He's played some end before in the past."

There are options which is different from the previous two seasons. In addition to having more players with real game experience at his disposal, Napier has players capable of adjusting to a new position on the fly.

“The reality is you only get to put 11 out there at once, right?” Napier said. “We're going to get 11 every play this year. We get to put 11 out, and right now it's challenging to say who gets to play? We're going to have a lot of rotation of players, and I would imagine that week to week it will be competitive based off performance and what we observe each week. That's a good thing, it's a good problem to have. We've had the other problems before, I'd much rather have these.”

Depth at wide receiver showed up at the scrimmage where freshman Tank Hawkins who caught a pair of touchdown passes, one on a bomb from freshman quarterback DJ Lagway. A burner with serious vertical field-stretching speed, Hawkins split the middle of a cover two.

Napier said Lagway “threaded the needle there” but he went on to ask rhetorically “the first question you ask is who was the middle runner in cover two?”

That is one of those questions that will have to be answered in the next couple of weeks, but overall Napier was pleased with what he saw of a secondary whose moving parts kept being shuffled. The Gators were out there for 122 plays so the coaches got to get a good look at everybody.

“… we put play counts on some guys, so we played a mixture of players,” Napier said. “That's the challenging thing about scrimmages. You’re trying to spread out the workload, so the combination of players sometimes is not as pretty as you'd like it to be, so you're trying to evaluate the individual players. No concern there, just need to do a little bit better.”

Napier on how helmet communication is helping freshman QB DJ Lagway: “Ultimately, I've just seen it impact DJ Lagway as a young player. You eliminate a language that he has to learn basically. It's like hey, not only do you have to learn this verbal language, you've gotta learn sign language too. I think it's sped up his development.”

Napier on running back Ja’Kobi Jackson: “So Ja'Kobi is 220 pounds. He's got great instincts, great vision, good patience, he sees it well, he's decisive, he's a good practice player, has a good attitude. He's definitely a guy is not a lot of stars, but I think a very capable player.”

Napier on Washington transfer safety Asa Turner: “He definitely has rubbed off on the group just in terms of self-discipline. I mean, this guy, he's in the building as much as I am. Sometimes I come over here on the weekend and there's Asa. I think he has a very professional attitude … He's definitely brought that to our team and I think that's been beneficial for our group.”

Napier on the offense: “We moved the ball really well. We were very consistent. We scored a lot of points. But I'm just saying, we know that explosive plays are a significant piece of winning. So we were a little short of our goal, and that's an area where we're trying to put an emphasis this week.”

GEORGIA GETS NO. 1 RANKING FROM ASSOCIATED PRESSAP top 25: 1. Georgia; 2. Ohio State; 3. Oregon; 4. Texas; 5. Alabama; 6. Ole Miss; 7. Notre Dame; 8. Penn State; 9. Michigan; 10. Florida State; 11. Missouri; 12. Utah; 13. LSU; 14. Clemson; 15. Tennessee; 16. Oklahoma; 17. Oklahoma State; 18. Kansas State; 19. Miami; 20. Texas A&M; 21. Arizona; 22. Kansas; 23. Southern California; 24. North Carolina State; 25. Iowa

SEC FOOTBALL

No. 5 Alabama: Under new defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, the Crimson Tide is abandoning the 3-4 it ran for 17 years under Nick Saban in favor of a 4-2-5 ... Four of the five DBs seem set: Malachi Moore (S), who started 13 games for Bama last year; Michigan transfer Keon Sabb (S); Southern Cal transfer Domani Jones (CB) and Wake Forest transfer DaShawn Jones (CB) … C Parker Brailsford and kicker Graham Nicholson were Bama’s first team preseason USA Today All-Americans. Making the second team were guard Tyler Booker and LB Deontae Lawson.

Arkansas: Running back Rodney Hill says he was forced to leave Florida State because his parents got a bad agent, who started texting other schools and word got back to FSU HBC Mike Norvell.

Auburn: QB Payton Thorne believes the Tigers will be much better on offense this year because Auburn has better personnel.

No. 1 Georgia: Quarterback Carson Beck, safety Malaki Starks and guard Tate Ratledge were all named to USA Today’s first team preseason All-America. Pass rusher Mykel Williams made second team.

Kentucky: DT Deone Walker and all-purpose Barrion Brown were named second team USA Today preseason All-Americans.

No. 13 LSU: OT Will Campbell and LB Harold Perkins were named USA Today first team preseason All-America … Running back John Emery suffered a knee injury during Monday practice, the extent of which is to be determined.

Mississippi State: The Bulldogs will have a brand new starter at every offensive position when the season kicks off.

No. 11 Missouri: Wide receiver Luther Burden III was named to the USA Today preseason All-America team.

No. 16 Oklahoma: QB Jackson Arnold’s progress has been handicapped by a new offensive coordinator and a completely new offensive line.

No. 6 Ole Miss: WR Juice Wells, who is expected to be a starter when the season begins, was in a non-contact jersey when the Rebels scrimmaged.

South Carolina: Walkon linebacker Ronnie Porter and walkon running back Bradley Dunn were awarded scholarships by HBC Shane Beamer Monday.

No. 15 Tennessee: DE James Pearce was named first team and C Cooper Mays was named second team USA Today preseason All-America.

No. 4 Texas: OT Kelvin Banks was named first team USA Today preseason All-America.

No. 20 Texas A&M: DE Nic Scourton was named second team USA Today preseason All-America.

Vanderbilt: DE Linus Zunk, a native of Germany, was one of the defensive standouts of Vanderbilt’s Saturday evening scrimmage.

Of interest to UF fans:

No. 19 Miami: PK Andrew Borregales was named second team USA Today preseason All-America … Washington transfer Meesh Powell has made the move from nickel to safety.

UCF: HBC Gus Malzahn has turned the emphasis to defense this training camp.

No. 10 Florida State: Nickel Kevin Knowles II has had three interceptions in the last two practices.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Paris Olympics were well on their way to a happy conclusion when the International Olympic Committee found itself embroiled in a dispute involving the third place medal awarded to American gymnast Jordan Chiles but reallocated to Romania’s Ana Barbosu.

After Chiles finished her routine, the scores went up declaring Barbosu winner of the bronze. Team USA filed a protest claiming that Chiles was not rewarded for degree of difficulty. When her score was recalibrated, Chiles moved up from fifth to third. That was hearbreaking for Barbosu who had seen her name on the final score as the third place finisher.

The Romanian team petitioned the IOC’s Court of Arbitration, which claimed Team USA coach Cecile Landi filed her protest one minute and four seconds after the scores went up, four seconds too late. Team USA presented video evidence that Landi filed her protest after only 47 seconds – a full 13 seconds within the window. But the Court of Arbitration rejected the appeal.

The Romanians asked for both Chiles and Barbosu to both be awarded bronze medals but the court rejected that appeal.

The Romanians were right. That is what the Court of Arbitration should have done. The International Olympic Committee should have stepped in, overruled the court and awarded Chiles and Barbosu medals. That is the only fair thing and it’s shocking that it wasn’t done.

Fair is fair and this is not fair. How difficult would it be for the Court of Arbitration to do the right thing and if they weren’t willing, then for the IOC to step in? Instead there is one broken hearted gymnast and another who, while a hero back in Romania, will always have her bronze medal viewed in controversy.