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re: 2022 Football Discussion Thread General Thoughts & Comments
Posted on 8/25/22 at 4:56 pm to Partha
Posted on 8/25/22 at 4:56 pm to Partha
Rest of running back preview:
quote:
BIGGEST QUESTIONS
This is a unit that has the potential to be among the team's strongest if its players perform to their potential, especially within Napier's run-heavy offense. With fall camp behind them, it appears the Gators could truly go with a four-player mix at the position at least at the outset of the season. But as Florida gets deeper into its campaign, will one back emerge as the clear leader of the unit? If not, how will carries be distributed? Who takes the first carry on Sept. 3 when Florida hosts Utah to usher in the Billy Napier Era?
The biggest storyline out of fall camp as it relates to Florida's running backs is where Etienne fits in the picture. By all accounts, it sounds like the freshman was as good as anyone on the team over the course of the last month and there is little question about whether or not he will contribute right away. That was answered in the affirmative. However, how big will Eitenne's role truly be out the gate? Will he return kicks, punts, both or neither? And as the season progresses, can Etienne earn the majority of the workload out of Florida's backfield?
Similar questions can be asked about Lingard, though he is hardly in his first season at the college level. The former five-star prospect emerged as a clear favorite to earn the starting job in the spring but has since seemingly slipped back into what should be a four-man rotation at the outset of the Gators' season. Can he break away from the group?
PROJECTED DEPTH CHART
Florida's running back room has no shortage of talent entering the 2022 season. Wright seems to be in a prime position to open the campaign as the team's No. 1 back but Johnson, Etienne and Lingard are also expected to contribute in Napier's run-heavy offensive scheme which produced three 600-plus-yard rushers in 2021 at Louisiana, including Johnson. There could be very little separation of workload between Florida's backs, though it remains entirely unclear how the program plans to divide out reps.
Running back - Nay'Quan Wright / Montrell Johnson OR Trevor Etienne / Lorenzo Lingard
1
Posted on 8/26/22 at 12:17 pm to Partha
Saw this posted on a random Gator message forum FWIW:
quote:
CollinGator
11 hrs
Most of this is probably not news, but I thought I would share what was said at this event. It may serve as news, validation, or redundancy. Sean Kelley opened up for questions and several were asked. Take in mind that he has full visibility to practices (I asked him personally after to get an understanding if his responses were based on his own viewing.) Apologize for the random order of notes below - I had a few and am trying to recall everything.
- Expect to see 60/40 ratio of 11/12 personnel. I think we've discussed this at length here that we'll be TE heavy, but he confirmed that we'll just about always have a TE on the field and have 2 on the field more than most teams in the country.
- I asked him about our base formation - to piggyback off of a thread earlier today where I chimed in. He confirmed a lot of nickel and that will probably be our "base". He noted that it's the most predominant scheme in today's NFL as crazy at that seems.
- He did, though, mention that we should be very multiple and move into a 4-3 fairly frequently. Asking for clarification of "very", I provided the reference of Grantham and asked him if he would be as multiple. He basically said nowhere close. Thank God.
- He seems really impressed with ETN as we've all heard from practice reports. He glowed and said "he's just like his brother".
- Referred to Montrell Johnson as RB2, but didn't note who he though RB1 was though I think we can assume who that is. All in all, he thinks our RB room is "sneaky good". No surprise there.
- Pearsall is our blow the top off guy.
- Wasn't really glowing on the rest of the WR group, but did mention Fraziars and Reynolds as depth guys. Didn't hear Burke or Whittemore mentioned which was probably more of an indictment of how steady they are. He seemed to think Shorter had really grown over the offseason.
- Didn't answer me with a direct answer on who could be the DT next to Dexter. Seemed to think Sapp's name being thrown around had merit though.
- He really believes in our secondary.
- Thinks Burney sliding inside will be better for him.
- He wouldn't talk about recruiting, but I did ask him as he was leaving about Billy's approach. I specifically ask if Billy timed commitment announcements to control the narrative. It's something much of the board (even myself at times) has bought into. He completely dispelled that notion. Said there is not chatter about that. I tend to trust him there because why else would he downplay our belief in Billy being this mastermind behind the narrative? I tend to think the truth lies somewhere in between.
- You could really tell how pumped Sean is to be here. He mentioned that he had zero intention of ever leaving ESPN, but when Florida came calling he couldn't turn down the opportunity to be the voice of such a big program.
- He seemed to think a 1-1 start would be "good". He really buys Utah. Definitely seemed like he feared Utah more than Kentucky.
- Phil Pharr actually gave credit to Dan Mullen for the new standalone facility being open to all athletes. Noted that most comparable facilities are exclusive to the football team, but Dan told them he wanted his players to be around champions in other sports.
- Kelley mentioned how large the staff was. Said part of the psychology there aside from having staff members to fulfill more specialized roles is having all different types of people on staff so players have someone to relate to. Basically, the more guys you have on staff, the more likely you're able to find people to connect with recruits and players. Players are more likely to find someone from the same area, was raised the same way, has common interests, or looks the same way. I had never heard that rationale for having such a large staff, but damn does it make me feel even more convicted on how thoughtful Billy is about everything he does.
- Someone asked him if he had an Southern (Kelley is a Midwesterner) play by play guy he looked up to or modeled his style after. He didn't have one, but he did bring up a story about Miss State's guy (name is escaping me) and his known ability to be funny and ad lib. Expect off the cuff but professional antics to bring laughter to the audience. He said that if he's not having fun, the listeners aren't having fun. I thought that was a great perspective.
- As I believe was stated a few weeks, he doesn't have a catch phrase and seems to have no desire to establish one.
- Joked about how big of shoes he has to fill and proceed to slap some size 20's that were worn by Isaiah Stokes on the podium. Pretty funny.
Any other posters in attendance, feel free to chime in with any helpful notes you think I missed.
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