Advertisement
football Edit

Notebook: Gators getting ready for first spring scrimmage

First scrimmage Saturday 

The Gators will be back on the field Saturday night in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The scrimmage will be closed to media and fans. The scrimmage is the first real test for a lot of younger players in how they can handle playing under the lights in real, live, game situations. You can go live periods at times in practice, which Florida typically does at the end of spring practices, but to get into the stadium, under the lights, 11-on-11 changes the mood instantly.

"I'm looking to see who could perform under pressure. You know, we've done some live periods of competition periods at the end of practice," linebackers coach Christian Robinson said. "Well, sometimes you get young guys and they know that 'Oh, something's on the line. Oh, we got sprints after practice. Oh, you know, someone's gonna talk to me if I mess up on the other side of the offense or defense.' It's, you see those guys in competition learning to deal with those emotions in the moment, you know, learning to deal with how I feel when there's thousands of people in the Swamp. That, that is something that you have to learn. That's why practice is so important."

Advertisement
If you can't do it in practice, you're not gonna do it in the game when your mom and your daddy are there, and you got everybody you know, and everybody yelling at you. These are moments where we prepare for the bigger ones.
— Gators LB coach Christian Robinson

Mohamoud Diabate 

The junior linebacker has made the move from Buck to inside linebacker. There was a transition, but now with the opportunity to have a full spring camp, he feels like he's getting the necessary reps and opportunities to play at a high level. Diabate made the move last year without ever having played middle linebacker, so he was trying to learn on the fly against real opponents, rather than now, where he can really focus in on himself and what he needs to do.

"I didn't have the spring or anything so what a lot of people don't realize is I played D-end my whole life. So I ain’t ever had to backpedal with nobody. And then we come back from quarantine and I have to do that. The beginning of the season was really a feeling out process," he said. "Then midway I felt like the two weeks we got off for COVID, I felt like that was big. I wasn’t positive, so I was able to get a lot of work in during those two weeks. Once that week passed I started getting better and better every week. This year having the opportunity to have spring, having the time where I can get taught and developed and really learn the things of the position that I’ve never been able to learn. I’m really excited for that and I feel like it’s going to have a great effect on the season.”

Figuring out the offensive line

The Gators are replacing two starters, and senior veterans on the offensive line in Stone Forsythe and Brett Heggie. Right now Richard Gouraige is working at left tackle to replace Forsythe, and John Hevesy is comfortable with the redshirt junior protecting Emory Jones' blindside.

"Richard played a lot in fall camp, mostly all of fall camp last fall camp at tackle and then towards the end of camp started moving back in towards guard, so he’s got a lot of reps at left tackle. He’s done a great job so far, a very knowledgeable kid. To me, just very meticulous about his work ethic. Everything he does, he’s studying film, he’s constantly on it. I feel very comfortable. He’s had a year, close to year and a half of playing time."

At center, things are more fluid. Heading into 2020 Ethan White was projected and on the way to earning the starting job before a knee injury sidelined him for most of the season. White will get his opportunity but Hevesy is looking for some depth at center.

When asked how many people he would like to be comfortable with at center the veteran offensive line coach blurted out, "25."

Well, what about a realistic number?

“Three obviously but I think four is enough. Four is a number I feel comfortable with. And right now to me I look at it as Ethan (White) has played center and not doing much right now and probably the second half of spring we're gonna put him back in, put him back doing it but again I felt comfortable with him going into last season doing so, and see where he is maturity-wise and understanding things but to be honest I don’t think he needs it," Heversy said. "Stewart (Reese) is getting a tremendous amount of reps at center right now. Kingsley's (Eguakun) getting a tremendous run at center; Richie Leonard's getting them, Griff McDowell’s getting them, Riley Simond's getting them, so to me there's a lot of guys getting those reps to see really go through spring, okay walking out of this, who are the four that I can feel comfortable with going in there.

Advertisement