Although short-handed, wide receivers relishing opportunities this spring
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During his time with the Gators, Florida head coach Jim McElwain has made an effort to revamp Florida's wide receiver position.
After bringing in Antonio Callaway during the 2015 cycle, adding five 2016 four-star signees at the position - Tyrie Cleveland, Joshua Hammond, Dre Massey, Freddie Swain and Rick Wells - and then landing two more four-star recruits (Daquon Green, James Robinson) in the 2017 class, Florida's foundation at receiver moving forward features plenty of talent.
However, not all of it will be on full display this spring. Swain is sidelined for spring practices with a shoulder injury, while Massey has been non-contact coming back from a torn ACL. On Tuesday, Wells missed practice with what McElwain described as a leg injury. Green and Robinson don't arrive until the summer.
That left Florida with just four scholarship receivers fully available for practice Tuesday afternoon.
"You’d like to have them all out, obviously," McElwain said. "You feel horrible for Rick because he was having a great offseason. And really had, at the end of the year scrimmage, had the best scrimmage of all those guys. He’ll be back. We’ll get him back. Freddie, you know he’s biting at it to try and get out there. Obviously he won’t have a spring but those guys will come back ready to go.”
Oddly enough, the only wide receiver fully available this spring who has previously gone through a full spring in Gainesville is Hammond, who enrolled at Florida early for the 2016 spring semester. Callaway, a 2015 summer enrollee, missed last spring while serving an indefinite suspension in the wake of a Title IX investigation. Cleveland and Wells are both 2016 summer enrollees.
Meanwhile, this could be Powell's first true set of spring practices as a Gator - if he stays healthy throughout - after he dealt with a chronic foot injury that dated back to his high school days. Although he enrolled early at UF in January of 2014, Powell had foot surgery that spring. In 2015, Powell was shut down mid-spring after doctors found a "hot spot" where a screw was inserted in his foot. After the Citrus Bowl against Michigan, Powell underwent foot surgery once again and was non-contact for 2016 spring practices.
"It feels great - this is my first and last spring ball. I'm just happy to get back out on the field," Powell said. "I like competing, so it's good to get back out on the field with my teammates and compete and go out with my teammates. We talk trash, but that's what we do here. It makes us better."
As for Callaway, McElwain is excited to see what type of difference having a full offseason with the program will make for him.
"It was interesting, you look at his body now, even just having the offseason that he's been able to have has been really, really good," explained McElwain. "This is his first spring ball, and to see how he attacked it out there, just having him out there is kind of that security blanket a little bit when you take him and a guy like Powell and then where Tyrie is right now and you throw in Josh Hammond and it was really good to see Dre Massey.
"There's some guys out there that, you know, we were pressing the field pretty good and they were getting up the field. That's good to see. We've got Florida speed out there."
Once Florida should have its full count of players available this fall at the wide receiver position, it will be interesting to see what type of strides that group as a whole makes in year three of the McElwain era. Although Florida's production at the position wasn't consistent, outside of Callaway, players like Cleveland, Powell, Hammond and Swain all flashed in spurts. That's not even including Massey, who was sidelined for the season with his injury but was expected to play a key role in the slot in 2016.
There's certainly talent to work with at receiver, no doubt.
"Everybody played last year," Powell said. "We see ourselves as the best group in the country. We just come out to compete every day. Little talking. Just come out to work. That's something you'll see at practice. The receivers are always going to work."
Added Hammond: "We'll be a lot better. We've got a lot more guys that are teammates in the system. Everybody knows what they're doing. It'll be a lot less brain farts and we'll be able to play a lot faster than we did last year."
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