McElwain shares thoughts on Florida’s first spring practice, quarterbacks
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The Gators wrapped up their first spring practice Tuesday afternoon, one where the team practiced without pads, and overall Florida head coach Jim McElwain was pleased with the effort.
"First off, it was great to get back out,” McElwain said. “It was great to see the carry over from a lot of young guys. Again, as you look roster wise, we are relatively young in age and yet we've got some experience. And you can see that a lot of the guys really carried through on that, and I was really excited about the tempo in which they practiced, the way they attacked it and really the way they helped each other get better -- the competition part was fantastic. And that's exciting to see."
Although the Gators have plenty of underclassmen on the roster, for many of the players who have experienced three off-seasons in the McElwain era, Tuesday’s practice wasn’t a difficult adjustment.
"I would say me personally, it feels a lot slower, like the game slowed down a lot to me,” running back Jordan Scarlett said. “I think as a team we're looking pretty sharp for the first day. We didn't have many mistakes. I didn't see any false starts. Probably had a couple holes but you know, it's great getting back out there. And I liked the way we looked though."
According to McElwain, the quarterbacks “threw it to our guys most of the time, occasionally threw it to the other guys.” He added that redshirt senior safety Marcell Harris notched an interception on a naked route in practice, although he didn’t reveal which quarterback was responsible.
“He did a great job reading his keys so I was excited to see that,” McElwain said of Harris. “But overall those guys (the quartebacks) handled what we had in good, and we were actually able to be a little ahead in install. So that was a good thing as well. We were able to show a bunch of different formational things and yet run the base attack. That shows me they had a really good offseason and really an understanding coming from last fall into this spring, which was good."
Redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks received the first snap with the first-team offense in 11-on-11 fastball Tuesday during the open viewing portion of practice, memorably throwing a pretty touchdown pass to sophomore wideout Tyrie Cleveland in the drill. Meanwhile, redshirt freshman signal-caller Kyle Trask worked with the 2’s in fastball.
“Yeah, those guys aren’t afraid to throw the ball down the field, no doubt about it,” McElwain said. “We’ve got a couple guys that can chase it down. That’s’ fun to see expect it’s not fun to see that your safety didn’t have depth and we were able to get over the top. With that being said, obviously, I think we’ve got a chance to really push the ball down the field.”
Added senior slot receiver Brandon Powell: "You can tell they both studied the playbook. They both took time out of their days to get better and practice throwing. They knew where to go with the ball fast. That was a good thing to see today. I hope they can keep it up for the rest of spring."
After getting a glimpse of both Franks and Trask on day one of spring ball, McElwain is looking for both quarterbacks to continue showing improvement.
“I think probably the biggest thing is structurally he (Franks) and Kyle get locked in a little bit instead of getting off into their reaction to their number three,” McElwain said. “Right now they’re still zoning in on one too much. We’ll keep working on it and I thought we did some good stuff with the RPO stuff today in the pass game. We’ll see how that kind of helps them too.”
As compared to two years ago, when Florida had just six scholarship offensive linemen available for spring practices, McElwain calls it “night and day.”
“Here's what was good, is the energy in which they went to the line of scrimmage, they communicated, they played fast, they got in between plays and, you know, it was good to see,” explained McElwain. “And I think part of that has to do with, even their age, they've grown up and had to grow up fast and understand the expectation of what we want. So operations and all that kind of stuff, it was fun to go practice, it was fun to see them out there."
A handful of players who weren’t listed on the original spring injury report were not available for Tuesday’s practice. Offensive lineman Kavaris Harkless and wide receiver Rick Wells were both out with leg injuries, while linebacker Jeremiah Moon (sickness) was also sidelined Tuesday.
“Just a lesson to everybody, he was one guy who didn't take his flu shot,” McElwain said of Moon, “so there we go right there. So there's the lesson, the lesson to be learned."
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