McElwain eager to utilize young talent

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The Florida Gators took the field for their first practice of Fall camp on Thursday afternoon. For the second time in Jim McElwain’s tenure at Florida, the Gators held split practices between the newcomers and the veterans.

After most of the 2017 recruiting class stepped foot on campus for the Summer B semester, McElwain couldn’t wait to see the young talent in orange and blue.

“Yeah, it’s actually a little bit, believe it or not, you know when you’re like a kid at Christmas and you kind of sneak out of your bedroom and maybe look at a couple presents and wonder what they are? I guess kind of going back to the split squad thing, it kind of lets you go and take a look and say the places that we need to build our roster based on numbers through attrition, whatever that is. Seeing those guys for the first time it is a little bit like Christmas. No, I didn’t get a lump of coal in my stocking either,” explained McElwain on the newcomers.

One position group that stood out during the newcomers portion of practice was the defensive backs.

New defensive backs coach Corey Bell and defensive coordinator Randy Shannon worked with the unit and went through basic drills and positioning players to fill voids in the secondary.

Freshman Marco Wilson worked in the nickel position and Brad Stewart took reps at safety.

"But with that, start with that younger group. I, you know what, we did pretty darned good in recruiting, guys,” explained McElwain. “I really feel without naming guys that it was really a good-looking crew. I like the way that they hustled. I liked the way that they didn't get affected by the chaos that's created in our practice plan. And I think, you know, if I were to kind of single out a group, those defensive backs look like they belong. We've got a lot of camp left, but as far as walking off the bus, those guys are going to be OK. That's a good thing, now we've got to teach them what to do and get them comfortable in everything that we throw at them.

With how the practice was split between the two groups, Chauncey Gardner took reps at safety with the veteran group, but McElwain said it was from a numbers standpoint and there’s not much to look into with that move right now, as the staff are looking to keep him at cornerback.

Defensive linemen Tedarrell Slaton and Elijah Conliffe were two freshman that showed up on the first day of practice looking like they are physically ready to take the field for the Gators. McElwain told the media that Slaton will remain inside along the defensive line.

Overall, McElwain loves the size that this class brings to the table and he gave his thoughts the freshman that the staff recruited to the University of Florida.

“I would expect somebody that we recruit at the University of Florida to have that competitive fire to say, ‘you know what, I’m here to go play.’ I like that, and yes, we’ve never said, ‘yes you’re starting.’ If somebody’s wooed by that, I don’t know how any coach could tell someone that. You don’t know. You just don’t know. And yet, the flip-side is we talked a little bit yesterday about competition breeding excellence. If they know they have an opportunity they’re going to push just that much harder.”

--McElwain’s on Malik Zaire during his first practice: "You know what, he does really have some good feet. He's got some real good pocket awareness. When it did break down, or I shouldn't say as much break down as when the defense was not in their pass rush lanes, he actually made them pay a little bit."

--Plans with how the quarterbacks will take reps: "Sure. Well, one thing, that's a good thing in the way we practice in the two- and three-spot stuff. The cumulative rep count with each guy is actually a lot,” explained McElwain. “I think that's good. And now you're able to grade every single one of them and see the production they're in. It doesn't matter what the drill is. Like with today's practice, other than the end of the day two-minute which we had today and which we'll have basically every day, other than that, there were always two- and three-spot drills going on. At one point, there might be only one guy who's not physically taking a rep and it's good. It actually, what it does in turn is help develop the other parts of the team because they've got good guys sort of running those segments. You could see that that was good today."

--DeAndre Goolsby on having a new mindset and confidence heading into the season: “Yeah. Here’s kind of the good thing, too,” expressed McElwain. “We had to kind of upsize his jersey. I think he realizes this is kind of his opportunity to jump and go, and I think he and C’yontai are really, really a good duo. And I’ll be excited to see if he stays consistent, but just in the interactions and the things you see around the facility I’ve been really proud in his personal growth.”

The Gators will hold their second split practice between the two groups on Friday afternoon.

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