Good News/Bad News? McWilliams out for season with torn achilles....

Finch FYI CJ was making progress in practices and was really determined to better, I know of other CBs in Gator history who were bashed as frosh/soph but maturwed to be leaders in jr/sr years....it happens.

Hate it for the young man.

Dean was perfectly serviceable at corner and can easily move back to the position. I'd rather have someone new playing STAR than at corner for the entire year if something bad did happen.

fricked is harsh, because McWilliams replacing someone really doesn't mean we're going to see little dropoff. The guy was consistently burnt toast all year and I don't know if he would have done anything different this year.

Probably better to get some experience for the freshmen who are going to take over when Wilson and Henderson invariably leave next season.

Basically this means all 3 freshman CBs - Elam, Hill, and Kimbrough, will see tons of snaps this year.

If the starters stay relatively healthy, UF should be in good shape.

Anyone gets injured though... Yikes.

And now Huggins is gone.

Total disaster in the secondary.

Uhhh, Kaiir Elam is better than McWilliams -- in fact, both Chester and Elam were taking snaps ahead of McWilliams on the Depth Chart. At STAR we'll probably put one of the backup safeties and almost all of them are in their junior year.

I'm not even sunshine pumping -- Trey Dean was fine last year.

If we lose two corner backs any year we're going to be fricked, generally. Florida doesn't get 4 year CBs.

We're going to eat shite sandwiches no matter what if we lose both corners and our nickel -- regardless of McWilliams or Huggins were on the team. Neither of them are even remotely close to being DBs at Florida to start.

I would much rather that Chester and Kaiir get the snaps early and often if someone does go down because their futures in the sport actually matter.

frick a Huggins and McWilliams.

I feel like this is one of those attempts to get more board activity, because we're worried about backups who weren't getting reps before our freshmen.

McWilliams is and will always have been an "okay" DB, but losing him doesn't hurt even an iota.

Huggins I'll give you, he is quality depth, but I have faith that if Trey could get it done as a true freshman, Kaiir or Chester can do the same if someone goes down.

If it's a CB, you move Trey out to CB like he played all year last year, move up a backup safety to STAR or one of the freshman guys and let them play. shite, we could even just move a very versatile LB like Burney who played safety at one point and is an extremely mobile LB who did well in coverage for the Michigan game.

I'm seriously not worried unless we lose both of our starting corners again. It may not look like it, but there's actually a ton more depth this year than we had last year since it was McWilliams and a True Freshman and that was about it.

Straws you are being rough on McWilliams and I know he was awful last year. But you fail to understand that players can and do improve.

During Spurrier years we had a CB Anthone Lott who nicknamed toast by many and when he had a few years under his belt...he was a bonafide CB. Players do progress and I feel for McWilliams and the hard work he put in this spring/summer.

Maybe you need to have a torn achilles to appreciate the pain and then learn your season is over. He is just a student athlete.

I will say this to be positive:

In 2006, Urban Meyer had no depth. A grad transfer came in and started right away at corner (Ryan Smith), and a converted WR did his best on the other side of the field (Reggie Lewis). Tony Joiner was the SS, and as much as I liked him he was not much better than any safety on the current roster. Coming into the season, the only All SEC player in the secondary was Reggie Nelson. The depth behind those guys? Tremaine McCollum, (does anyone even remember that name) and Wondy Pierre-Louis were the back up corners, and thankfully neither had to play much because the 4 starters stayed healthy all season. Kyle Jackson was the back up safety. That poor kid. When they did go 5 DBs another back up safety, Dorian Munroe was the nickel. That secondary was held together by tape and prayers, and thankfully they stayed healthy all season long.

I would actually argue, that outside of Reggie Nelson, The UF starters in 2019 are better at every position in the secondary even with Jaewon Taylor hurt, Huggins gone, and Edwards and Steele transferred. CJ and Marco have way more top end talent than Reggie Lewis or Ryan Smith. Trey Dean is a much more versatile nickel than Dorian Munroe, and Shawn Davis has more speed and play making ability than Tony Joiner, and Stiner is just as good if not better against the run than Joiner. And Lenton off the bench is better than anyone UF had at the time, and when Stewart comes back, he has the talent to be a good SEC safety.

The key is - NO INJURIES OF ANY KIND.

If UF can stay healthy, and the freshmen can contribute on special teams (like Wondy did, and the McCollum twins in the dime formation) then UF will be fine.

But if any of the starters get hurt, that ends any playoff dreams.

Just think had UF had injuries to Ryan Smith or Reggie Nelson in 2006 lol. Game over, especially in all of those close games. UF really was lucky that year.