re: 2022 Football Discussion Thread General Thoughts & Comments

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With UF’s fall camp now in the rearview, Gervon Dexter Sr. appears to be the only guarantee when it comes to Florida’s starting unit along the defensive line.

After Dexter, the rotation becomes much less clear, as the Gators will have to count on an abundance of players with potential yet lacking significant game experience when the season opens Sept. 3 against No. 8-ranked Utah.

Although, as Florida approaches a week of preparation to face the Utes, UF head coach Billy Napier has seen those around Dexter continue to make the necessary improvements. As a result, Napier is confident Florida has multiple players capable of starting in the trenches despite lacking a wide body of in-game evidence to support the notion.


“That group, that's one of the areas where we have some inexperienced players, and I think they’ve made progress,” Napier said Wednesday. “Those guys needed to make progress. I think they have made progress and I do believe that they're going to continue to improve.”

Earlier in his comments Wednesday, Napier singled out a pair of Gators – Tyreak Sapp and Austin Barber –as players he viewed as capable of starting at their position. Regardless of their actual role when kickoff arrives, the participation report ultimately doesn’t reflect their capabilities in the eyes of Napier.

The mention of Barber as a player who’s on the cusp yet is on the outside looking in shouldn’t have come as a surprise, considering Florida returned a majority of its starting offensive line from last season, added O'Cyrus Torrence and has received elevated play from Michael Tarquin at right tackle.

There are proven, experienced players around Barber, and his second-string status is indicative of just that.

The same can’t be said for the defensive line.

Whether it’s Sapp, Justus Boone or Princely Umanmielen, the Gators are poised to start at least one defensive lineman alongside Dexter who will lack significant in-game experience. Umanmielen, widely considered another possible starter, has earned just one start in his UF career and it came in UF’s loss to UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Florida freshman Chris McClellan, who arrived on campus weeks later as an early enrollee, has also worked with the first-team defense at several points during fall camp, as has redshirt junior defensive tackle Jalen Lee. In a hit to Florida’s potential depth, Desmond Watson, who saw the field briefly as a freshman, hasn’t taken as significant of a leap as many hoped he would make in his second season at UF, and the belief is he isn’t in a desirable place from a physical standpoint to see a high amount of consecutive snaps.


Whether Sapp, who didn’t see the field in 2021 as a true freshman, starts or not for the Gators, Napier indicated he will play a sizable role moving forward given UF’s depth in the room.

Not that it’s an indication Sapp has reached his full potential – his second year at UF may be marked by improvement thus far, but the former standout from St. Thomas Aquinas still has much to work on after his second fall camp in Gainesville.

“They're nowhere near where their growth is going. But I think all those guys have improved, Tyreak in particular,” Napier said. “Princely also has really impressed me. But there's a lot of examples. Like, when you look at the participation chart, we got a lot of players that are going to be playing that haven’t played much in games before. Those guys are examples of that.”


The learning process for Sapp and his fellow defensive linemen may have received a boost in the form of Sharrif Floyd’s return to Gainesville. A former standout with the Gators and a first round NFL Draft pick in 2013, Floyd spent the preseason working with the Dallas Cowboys as part of the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship after spending the previous year with the Gators under coach David Turner as a student-assistant. While with the Cowboys, Floyd worked with his position coach at Florida, Dan Quinn, who now serves as the team’s defensive coordinator.

Training camp at the professional level has concluded, which means Floyd is back in Gainesville, enrolled in classes and fully involved in the team’s daily preparation. At Tuesday’s practice session, Floyd was observed working with the defensive line during chute drills, and he didn’t hesitate to offer words of wisdom to several linemen after several repetitions.

It’s a role he’ll continue in moving forward, which should only aid the ongoing development process of current Florida players, including the aforementioned trio of Boone, Umanmielen and Sapp.

Considering the current situation along the defensive line – someone without significant experience is poised to start when the season opens – the unit will seemingly take any bit of help it can get, especially if it comes in the form of credible words of wisdom from a former NFL first-rounder.

“Sharrif's obviously, did an internship with the Cowboys. He’s back. School started today so he's been back the last couple of days. Sharrif's been nothing but first class since I've been here. He’s back earning his degree. Guy’s got a bright future in football and was an exceptional player,” Napier said. “I think he's got character. I think he understands the big picture, takes pride in his role and certainly him being able to coach on the field I think it's an advantage for players. This guy's a first-round pick. He played a number of years in the league and has a good understanding of the fundamentals of that position. So he'll play a critical role in the practice format going forward, starting tomorrow.”

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