travisduncan
Gator Fan
The pads were on, the helmets glistening in the April sun, it's the Orange & Blue Debut, aka the Gator Spring game.
QB Battle
Jacoby Brissett started the spring game and completed 9 for 16 passes, a long pass for 52 yards and two touchdowns.
Jeff Driskel completed 12 of 14 passes for 147 yards without a touchdown.
Both were accurate, both showed mobility. But who is the guy?
"You saw both guys take command of our football, both guys made vertical plays down the field, good decisions where they took the ball," Will Muschamp said.
"You saw what I've been seeing for 14 practices prior to today."
Muschamp refuses to analyze either Brissett or Driskel specifically.
"You have to look at the whole package, we can win both guys."
Running Game
Sophomore Chris Johnson showed some things running the ball 13 times for 40 yards. Senior Mike Gillislee, the starter at the position, showed good speed running to the outside, though we really didn't get a chance to see him pound it up the middle. Gillislee finished with 35 yards on six carries. The coaches know what Mike G. can do, no need to overdue it.
Latroy Pittman
True freshman wide receiver Latroy Pittman, an early enrollee, stole the show with a 43-yard catch down the left sideline in the second quarter on pass from Brissett.
"He's done a nice job," Muschamp said. "He's a hard worker, football is important to him. We liked him at defensive back, he's very talented."
Jabari Gorman
Sophomore Jabari Gorman led all players with 10 tackles (4 solo and 6 assisted) and did a decent job in coverage.
"He really showed up today, making some tackles in space, which you have to do in on the back end. He's a very instinctive young man and a guy who played well on special teams, I think he's going to develop to be a good safety prospect.
Overall perspective from Muschamp
"I'm really pleased at where we are at this point. I feel much better standing here today than I did a year ago as far as where we are as a football team."
"Our physicality, our togetherness of the team, we got the right kind of guys. We need to get better, but we showed somethings we want to do."
"We were a very young football team last year. Defensively if you look at the number of starts coming into the season we were considerably less than anyone in the SEC. Being a line of scrimmage league, you look at our experience on the offensive side of the ball with Jon Halipio, and Xavier Nixon the only ones who had taken considerable snaps going into the season."
"Depth brings competition and that makes everybody better, when someone knows their job can be taken when there is another guy waiting there that can take it."
Starters
Somewhat of an early depth chart....
T 7N Nixon,X.
G 66 Wilson,J.
C 72 Harrison,J.
G 67 Halapio,J.
T 71 Patchan,M
FB 41 Joyer,H.
RB 23 Gillislee,M.
WR 85 Hammond,F.
TE 11 Reed,J.
QB 12 Brissett,J.
WR 1 Dunbar,Q.
DE 73 Floyd,S.
NT 99 Hunter,O.
DT 4J Jacobs,D.
BUCK 7 Powell,R.
CB 15 Purifoy,L.
S 31 Riggs,C.
WILL 3 Jenkins,Je.
MIKE 51 Taylor,M.
CB 14 Watkins,Ja.
S 9 Evans,J.
SAM 49 Kitchens,D
QB Battle
Jacoby Brissett started the spring game and completed 9 for 16 passes, a long pass for 52 yards and two touchdowns.
Jeff Driskel completed 12 of 14 passes for 147 yards without a touchdown.
Both were accurate, both showed mobility. But who is the guy?
"You saw both guys take command of our football, both guys made vertical plays down the field, good decisions where they took the ball," Will Muschamp said.
"You saw what I've been seeing for 14 practices prior to today."
Muschamp refuses to analyze either Brissett or Driskel specifically.
"You have to look at the whole package, we can win both guys."
Running Game
Sophomore Chris Johnson showed some things running the ball 13 times for 40 yards. Senior Mike Gillislee, the starter at the position, showed good speed running to the outside, though we really didn't get a chance to see him pound it up the middle. Gillislee finished with 35 yards on six carries. The coaches know what Mike G. can do, no need to overdue it.
Latroy Pittman
True freshman wide receiver Latroy Pittman, an early enrollee, stole the show with a 43-yard catch down the left sideline in the second quarter on pass from Brissett.
"He's done a nice job," Muschamp said. "He's a hard worker, football is important to him. We liked him at defensive back, he's very talented."
Jabari Gorman
Sophomore Jabari Gorman led all players with 10 tackles (4 solo and 6 assisted) and did a decent job in coverage.
"He really showed up today, making some tackles in space, which you have to do in on the back end. He's a very instinctive young man and a guy who played well on special teams, I think he's going to develop to be a good safety prospect.
Overall perspective from Muschamp
"I'm really pleased at where we are at this point. I feel much better standing here today than I did a year ago as far as where we are as a football team."
"Our physicality, our togetherness of the team, we got the right kind of guys. We need to get better, but we showed somethings we want to do."
"We were a very young football team last year. Defensively if you look at the number of starts coming into the season we were considerably less than anyone in the SEC. Being a line of scrimmage league, you look at our experience on the offensive side of the ball with Jon Halipio, and Xavier Nixon the only ones who had taken considerable snaps going into the season."
"Depth brings competition and that makes everybody better, when someone knows their job can be taken when there is another guy waiting there that can take it."
Starters
Somewhat of an early depth chart....
T 7N Nixon,X.
G 66 Wilson,J.
C 72 Harrison,J.
G 67 Halapio,J.
T 71 Patchan,M
FB 41 Joyer,H.
RB 23 Gillislee,M.
WR 85 Hammond,F.
TE 11 Reed,J.
QB 12 Brissett,J.
WR 1 Dunbar,Q.
DE 73 Floyd,S.
NT 99 Hunter,O.
DT 4J Jacobs,D.
BUCK 7 Powell,R.
CB 15 Purifoy,L.
S 31 Riggs,C.
WILL 3 Jenkins,Je.
MIKE 51 Taylor,M.
CB 14 Watkins,Ja.
S 9 Evans,J.
SAM 49 Kitchens,D
