For all the pain, tears, and group therapy Gator nation endured to reconcile the losses of Kyle Pitts, Kyle Trask and Kadarious Toney, Florida’s equally accomplished departures from the special teams unit have flown under the radar.
While Trask and company didn’t give punter Jacob Finn too many opportunities to flip the field last season, the Jacksonville native excelled in limited action. Finn led the Florida punting unit to finish third in net punting average, and the influence of his right cleat against LSU was only outshone by Marco Wilson, as he launched three 50-yard punts versus the Tigers.
Meanwhile, kicker Evan McPherson graduated as the most accurate kicker in SEC History and was the first kicker selected in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Both players opted to leave Gainesville at the end of last season, — McPherson will suit up for the Cincinnati Bengals this fall and Finn opted to play his final season for Virginia — leaving coach Dan Mullen with his most inexperienced kicking corps since arriving in Gainesville.
Mullen has emphasized the importance of special teams play throughout his head coaching career, and he’s fostered a fierce competition in training camp for the two slots.
“I think they've embraced that with the special teams, which is so critical,” Mullen said. “It's so much about special teams and guy's roles on special teams. And if you're not on special teams, I don't know how you're going to get on the bus and dress.”
Florida’s field goal options have likely narrowed to a pair of players that Mullen has extensive personal experience with Jace Christmann and Chris Howard.
Mullen recruited Christmann to Mississippi State in 2016, and the Houston-born kicker converted 12 of 14 field goals during Mullen’s final season in Starkville. Since then, Christmann has gone 20/26 on field goals, including a career-long of 51 against Kentucky, and missed just one extra point.
Chris Howard stands as a less seasoned option, as the redshirt senior has attempted just two field goals, but Howard earned a five-star ranking from the Kohl’s kicking school out of high school and has never missed an extra point or field goal attempt for the Gators.
“It’ll be good little competition between those two guys,” Mullen said. “Chris has been with the program since I've been here and I've seen unbelievable improvement from him. With Jace, I mean he scored the points the last time we were in a stadium and I was just on the opposite sideline. He has experience and a background and so a good little battle for those two guys.”
Florida’s staff has worked to replicate the high-pressure situations caked into the SEC schedule for the UF kickers. The Gators conclude each practice with kicking drills, and the players scream, stomp and holler in an attempt to rattle the team’s senior kickers.
But perhaps the greatest pressure placed on Florida’s kickers is the ire of UF’s hog mollies after a missed field goal.
“We’re putting pressure on them daily,” special teams coach Greg Knox said. “We make it a competition thing where if one guy misses – the defense has a kicker – and the whole defense has to run. If the offensive kicker misses, all right, then the whole offense has to run.”
Mullen is also conducting a four-man punting competition between John Brady, Tyler Waxman, Jeremy Crawshaw and Christmann. Crawshaw launched a pair of impressive 49-yard punts against Oklahoma last season, and is the only returning Gator to record a punt.
However, Mullen highlighted the punters’ success during Sunday’s scrimmage and expressed confidence in the unit for the upcoming season.
“I thought all the punters punted really well yesterday,” Mullen said. “That was a really good, positive thing I would say. Any time there was a punt situation, instead of the drive ending and you flip sides of the field, you actually punted. Every punter that came on the field -- we had three different punters come on the field -- all of them did a good job of flipping field position.”
