Gators taking steps to improve line play

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Gators’ offensive line was a point of weakness this season, but now Dan Mullen & Co. are making moves to change that.

On early signing day, Florida acquired four new guys for the line that include four-star offensive tackle Joshua Braun, four-star offensive tackle Issiah Walker Jr., three-star offensive tackle Gerald Mincey and three-star offensive guard Richard Leonard.

“I think that was huge for us,” said Dan Mullen. “You look, obviously you've going to be great at the line of scrimmage. I think this is the second year we've addressed the future with the offensive line, which I'm happy with how we're building it for the future.”

Leonard and Braun have already had the opportunity to practice and coaches and players were impressed with their performances.

“They stick their face in there, they competed, they competed in one-on-ones, they competed in the plays they got put in there in team situations,” said offensive line coach John Hevesy. “Then again you have to tell them where to go because they have no concept of what’s going on, but that’s part of the deal for them. You just watch them compete and go hit people and see the speed of the game for them.”

“Josh is huge, and Richie’s an aggressive guy,” added offensive lineman Brett Heggie. “I think they’re both really coachable, so I think they’re doing really well so far, fresh out of high school especially.”

These new guys are being added onto a line that is already young and inexperienced. That’ll give Hevesy the chance to turn them into a cohesive unit and build a line that is up to the Gator standard.

“You want to be a great team, you want to compete for championships, you've got to be able to control the line of scrimmage,” said Mullen.

After losing the centerpiece of Florida’s o-line, Nick Buchanan, it’s time for the Gators to regroup and restructure the line.

“I’m going to miss him,” Hevesy said on Buchanan. “He’s the general out there. He aligns everyone and gets everyone set. He did a great job this year obviously with four new starters in there with keeping everyone calm and making sure they’re going in the right place. Just doing an unbelievable job with communication.”

Now, Hevesy will have to move guys around and find the best fit for each position on the line. That was something that they struggled with this past year. With injuries and other circumstances plaguing the line, guys were moving around all the time which caused uncertainty and ultimately led to some big mistakes.

“Brett Heggie’s played center before, so it’s an opportunity in those developmental practices and same thing going in the offseason,” said Hevesy. “You can never have enough guys that can snap. You can put guys at guard and tackle, but you can’t have too many centers. For me, it’s about teaching them all the skills that they’re all going to learn the rest of the offseason.”

The development of the line will include getting some of those younger guys involved, which Hevesy started late in the season by calling on true freshman Ethan White. After Chris Bleich announced that he was transferring, White became the next man up, and Hevesy has been impressed with his progress.

“All compliments to him because everything we’ve asked him to do since he’s gotten here, he’s done,” said Hevesy. “He saw what he had to do and said ok, where are my deficiencies, am I learning what I had to learn. I think the technique and fundamentals and you watch and grade him, he had a faster progression than a lot of kids. But you knew right from the beginning when he started dropping the weight and the things we asked of him, he’s going to pay attention and listen. He’s taken every coachable point and that’s a great quality.”

The Gators also have four guys on the line who redshirted this year who are ready to be worked into the system, and now they’re focusing on improving themselves in these practices leading up to the bowl game.

“Got a chance to focus just on their game and not really have to worry about either being a scout-team player or focusing on playing another team,” said Heggie. “It was really just focusing on just our team, in general, this past week, and I think that helped them out a little bit. So, it took that worry away from them so that they could just go out and worry about getting better for themselves.”