There Are Reasons To Be Optimistic About Florida Gators Football In 2021
Updated: Jun 12, 2021
“Do not focus on your failings, for you will only encourage them. If you keep beating yourself over the head over these, you will only reinforce them” – Stephen Richards
My grandmother, the sage and intuitive Ivey Van Sickle, used to say, “Once you squeeze it you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. You can’t re-live yesterday. There aren’t any do-overs in life.”
As much as every Gator fan would love to have a do-over because of what could have been in the 2020 football season, it’s time to put it in the rearview. There are lessons to be learned from last year’s woulda, coulda, shoulda season but other than glean a few helpful hints about what needs to change moving forward, dwelling on the past serves no good purpose.
So, here is my final statement about Florida’s 2020 football season: This was the weirdest football season I can remember and I’m glad I don’t have to re-live it. The toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube so it’s time to extract whatever good came out of 2020 for the Gators and move on. Instead of dwelling on a defense that invented new ways of shooting itself in the foot; instead of dwelling on the fumble at Texas A&M, the shoe toss against LSU or those three stupid penalties that cost the Gators the SEC Championship against Alabama; I’m going to fondly remember Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney. I’m going to remember how much fun it was to see great offense instead of the dull, unimaginative play calling that we saw from 2011-17 under Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain.
That’s it. The rest is his-to-ry.
And with that, it’s time to look ahead to 2021. I don’t know about you, but the more I study Florida football for 2021, the more I’m convinced Florida isn’t going to backslide. I am optimistic that the Gators are going to be very good, for reasons which I’ll outline for you.
The pundits have all but doomed the Gators to 8-4 or maybe 9-3. Those fine folks at Athlon and Lindy’s are convinced the Gators will be (a) clobbered by Big Bad Bama on September 18; (b) roadkill against LSU in Baton Rouge on October 16; and (c) drawn and quartered by Georgia on October 30. That is three losses right there. They figure another loss is possible whether it’s in the regular season or the bowl game.
Athlon has the Gators ranked 12th in its preseason magazine, Lindy’s 11th. Yahoo Sports ranked the Gators 12th, CBS 13th and ESPN put the Gators at No. 16. The only place the Gators are getting any respect is at Sporting News, where they are No. 8, but even Sporting News thinks the Gators are goners against Alabama and Georgia.
Please take into consideration these are the same folks who last year thought Georgia could win the national championship because Jamie Newman had transferred in from Wake Forest. How did that work out? Newman not only opted out for the entire season but went undrafted despite Mel Kiper claiming he had second round talent. The Philadelphia Eagles waived him after a couple of workouts in their mini-camp. Newman was simply last year’s reason for the pundits to hype Georgia. There is a new reason this year, but then again, there is always going to be a new reason to hype Georgia. For some reason, these same pundits find fewer reasons to get on the Florida bandwagon but that might not be a bad thing.
We will only know for sure when games are played for real on the field in the fall if the pundits had it right or if they were wrong, but do know this: Dan Mullen is probably finding it difficult to contain his glee that Florida is – in his opinion – being disrespected in a big way. When he gets into his quiet space, he’s probably giggling.
Why?
For one thing, despite losing Trask, Pitts and Toney, who will be playing for pay on Sundays at an NFL stadium near you, Mullen has the most talented roster top to bottom that he’s had since he arrived at the University of Florida in December of 2017. There is strength, speed, skill and next-man-up type of depth. Mullen knows what he has and because of that, you can bet the farm that he will be doing a rather nifty Bobby Bowden impersonation, which is to say he will be touting everyone on the Florida schedule as the greatest team since our primitive ancestors got the idea that it’s a good thing to band together for group hunts thousands of years ago. These are, after all, impressionable 18-to-22 year-old kids who tend to buy in completely when a coach sells compelling arguments. Mullen, it turns out, is really good at this and you would be amazed at how well the disrespect card plays with kids that age.
Mullen may play the Mr. Humble role publicly, but privately he will sound like the second coming of television preacher Ernest Aingley as he pounds disrespect and us against the world to his team. Mullen knows fully well that he’s got enough talent to win a championship although the moon, stars and planets may have to align for any team not named Alabama or Clemson for that to happen. If he can glue a sizeable chip on the shoulder of each player on his roster, he will get a lot of mileage out of a team that will feel an urgent need to prove themselves every single weekend.
Working in Mullen’s favor is a certain newness to the offense that won’t be throwing from the moment the buses pull up in front of The Swamp and the team begins the Gator Walk on Saturdays. The last couple of years, defensive coordinators could give lip service to the running game while focusing 90 percent of their game planning energies on scheming against a lethal passing game. The passing game is going to once again be good, but there will not be the same dependence on throwing the ball in 2021 as there has been. Third-and-three and third-and-four won’t necessarily be passing downs, not with dual threat quarterbacks like Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson and certainly not with the stable of running backs at Mullen’s disposal.
No one feared Kyle Trask as a runner. He only ran in feets don’t fail me now situations when his protection broke down or else when he could catch defenses by complete surprise. Trask didn’t have concrete feet because he was particularly adept at moving in the pocket to find throwing lanes and could throw accurately on the move, but he was never a threat to turn two yards into 20.
Jones can do that. So can Richardson.
The book on Jones is that he’s a tremendous runner (514 career rushing yards, 5.6 per carry, 6 touchdowns), but Mullen almost giggled during the spring at the notion that Jones has limitations as a passer.
“He has a cannon for an arm,” Mullen said and later in the spring surprised media members when he told them Jones can make throws Trask couldn’t make because “he has a stronger arm.”
Now, Trask was so accurate that Kyle Pitts said he turned what some would call a 50-50 ball into an 80-20 that favored the receivers. Jones has never shown that kind of precision but his opportunities have been limited to 86 attempts in three seasons (55 completions for 613 yards, 7 touchdowns). Figure that the Florida offense is going to more closely resemble what it was back when Mullen was calling plays for Tim Tebow. Tebow never threw lasers but he was such a threat to run the football that it forced defensive backs to make hard – and often bad – decisions to abandon coverage or to let Tebow to get a head of steam and charge into the secondary like a runaway bull. Tebow threw 88 touchdown passes and averaged 9.3 yards per pass attempt during his career while running for 2,947 and 57 more TDs. The stats for Jones might not be as gaudy, but there is every reason to believe he will be highly effective whether it’s throwing or running the football.
Pitts and Toney won’t be around to catch passes from Jones, but the Gators aren’t lacking for talent or speed at the receivers, not with Jacob Copeland, Justin Shorter, Trent Whittemore and Xzavier Henderson returning. They may not have as many passes thrown their way but they may average more yards per catch. Ask Georgia what Malik Davis and Nay’Quan Wright can do with a wheel route. The passing game is going to be just fine.
With Jones and Richardson bringing the element of the option into the offense and a running backs room that is more talented than any Mullen has had in his coaching career, not only will Florida be as improved as any team in the Southeastern Conference when it comes to the ground game, but one of the most explosive, too. Having a healthy Lorenzo Lingard and Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman in the mix along with between the tackles hammer Dameon Pierce and run-catch specialists Davis and Wright gives Mullen any number of ways to create personnel mismatches that will favor the Gators. Lingard and Bowman add that home run ability that has been lacking the last three years.
By adding the option element to the offense, the offensive line doesn’t have to be the mashers that fans would like to see. The option requires three big guys in the middle – Stewart Reese at center (6-6, 354), Ethan White (6-5, 346) and Josh Braun (6-6, 352) at the guards – and mobile tackles who can get to a linebacker since the end/edge guys aren’t blocked. Can Richard Gouraige (6-5, 313) and Jean Delance (6-5, 307) pass block? That’s the real question but with the offense redesigned to fit the talents of Jones and Richardson, the quarterbacks will be spending less time in the pocket.
Translation: Florida’s offensive line is going to be more effective this year even if it isn’t the type to line up and knock people off the blocks.
Now we get to defense, a painful subject in 2020 when the Gators practically invented ways to turn games into white knuckles shootouts. The defense will be better. It has to be better. It cannot and will not be worse.
Todd Grantham survived last season and lives to coach another year in Gainesville. If there is a repeat of last year, he won’t be Florida’s defensive coordinator in 2022 and may have a very difficult time getting a coordinator’s job anywhere. There are only so many excuses that can be made for a defense that tails off the way Florida’s did last year. Come back with a great season and the 2020 season will be viewed as an aberration.
There are all sorts of theories why Florida’s defense under-performed last year, far too many to list. There are also several good theories why Florida’s defense will be vastly improved in 2021, the best of which are spring football and offseason on-campus workouts. There was no spring practice and there were no offseason on-campus workouts last year and it showed the way the defense performed. There was spring football this year. There will be offseason on-campus workouts. That alone speaks to improvement.
Improvement will begin in the middle of the defensive line where Auburn transfer Daquan Newkirk and Penn State transfer Antonio Shelton bring experience, toughness against the run and the ability to collapse the pocket from the inside. The Gators couldn’t stop the run last year and rarely got pressure up the gut. Having Newkirk and Shelton gives Grantham the ability to play manchild Gervon Dexter both inside and outside. If he ever figures out that he’s a human mismatch no matter where he lines up, he will become a very dangerous defensive lineman.
Pressure up the gut also means less help blocking Zachary Carter and Brenton Cox Jr. off the edge and it also gives Grantham more latitude in blitzing Ventrell Miller and Mohamoud Diabate up the middle. It gives Grantham flexibility with Jeremiah Moon, whose surgically repaired foot should allow him to play up to his potential whether in space or coming off the edge. Florida has few on the roster with Moon’s athleticism. Grantham also has an X-factor in transfer Diwun Black, the nation’s top-rated juco defender. He can play inside linebacker, off the edge, in space or even in the secondary. He’s that good.
What pressure also means is the secondary doesn’t have to cover for extended periods of time. Ask any defensive coordinator and he will tell you that even the most talented guys in the secondary can’t blanket receivers forever. Nothing improves pass defense quite like pressure from the front seven.
When Black’s juco teammate Jadarrius Perkins transferred in, it completed Florida’s secondary. Kaiir Elam and Tyron Hopper are the likely corners but Perkins can line up as the nickel or even play safety. Like Black, he’s going to be on the field. Former 5-star corner Jason Marshall didn’t come to Florida to sit.
Safety has been a question mark, but new assistant Wesley McGriff instilled a new, more aggressive attitude in the spring. Trey Dean III is going to start at one safety and the other is likely to be true freshman Donovan McMillon, who might be the best head-hunting safety the Gators have had since the days of Keanu Neal and before him Major Wright. Marshall’s high school teammate, Corey Collier, a 4-star recruit, also didn’t come to UF to sit.
So, what can you conclude from this exercise? Above all, a Florida team that will be better than the pundits are willing to admit. If you buy into their projections, then the Gators stand very little chance of repeating as SEC East champs because Georgia has recruited all those 5-star guys and because it’s Nick Saban and his usual band of 5-star suspects, no reason whatsoever to think UF could hang with Alabama.
Maybe the pundits are right, but games are played on the field and not in the magazines or online. If they were played in the magazines, then Georgia would play Alabama for the national championship every year. Alabama, at least, almost always lives up to the hype.
There isn’t much hype going for the Gators but don’t be too concerned with the lack of confidence shown by the media. If anything, embrace it. Get a chip on your shoulder that’s every bit as big as the one Mullen is going to put on the shoulders of this 2021 edition of the Florida Gators. Mullen is going to instill into the Gators the attitude that there is plenty to prove this year. Teams that play with a chip on their shoulder, convinced they are disrespected and determined that they are going to prove all the disbelievers wrong are very, very dangerous.
Very dangerous indeed.
I like this Florida team. I think you should, too.
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