Today’s Take: Quarterbacks played well for the most part today, outside of Emory Jones. Jones consistently looked lost and rarely made a good throw in the scrimmage. The defensive line was all over the offensive line, infuriating O-line coach John Hevesy, and the defense overall looked strong. As defensive coordinator Todd Grantham put it, “You (the defense) got better today.”
Quarterbacks
Quarterbacks
- Feleipe Franks took first team reps and, for the most part, looked pretty solid. He threw an absolute dime to Van Jefferson on tight coverage from CJ Henderson during 1-on-1 WR-DB drills. In the same drill, Franks threw a laser over to thread the needle to Freddie Swain that drew the love of the crowd. He continues to stare down receivers a bit (as evidenced by a pick-six that went right to Brad Stewart), but went through his progressions really well on Saturday.
- Kyle Trask continued to impress on Saturday, especially with the first-string wide receivers. He struggled a bit when the defense applied pressure, but made good decisions and looked great down the field. He had several good connections with Rick Wells, albeit one beautiful pass down the seam was dropped by the receiver.
- Jake Allen didn’t impress or disappoint on Saturday. Didn’t quite look like a starting QB, but had an absolutely sensational pass back-shoulder to Jefferson plus a few other good passes here and there.
- Emory Jones is probably happy to see Saturday’s practice end. He struggled all day, overthrowing receivers, making incorrect reads, and simply looking lost. He came out onto the field after Allen and took most of his reps with the third team. One source of optimism, though, was his legs. Anytime he got out of the pocket, he looked comfortable.
- Welcome back, Jordan Scarlett. The beefy redshirt junior looked like one of the best, if not the best player on the field often on Saturday. Taking first team carries, he took a ball of the right guard to the second level, then absolutely bulldozed Brad Stewart. Scarlett did get a little coaching from RBs coach Greg Knox on two separate occasions, one for being iron-footed, and the other for being lazy. Knox seemed to think something didn’t add up during drills, yelling at Scarlett, “One plus two equals 6?!”
- Dameon Pierce continued his impressive spring campaign, taking third-string reps and looking great. He trucked a defender on a nice pitch to the left side. A few plays later, he torched the defense while taking a run to the house, absolutely burning the secondary trying to catch him. Knox got on him once for lining up as a wide receiver and having his outside foot be his lead foot. “Inside foot up!”
- Adarius Lemons, Lamical Perine, Iverson Clement, and Tyriek Hopkins rounded out the depth chart, as Perine took second-team snaps. Lemons and Hopkins also took kick return reps, in addition to Van Jefferson, Chauncey Gardner-Johsnon, and Kadarius Toney.
- Clement had a fairly rough day. After one atrociously missed block, he got dogged by Knox. On another play, he took a run off the right tackle and got put on his back by Ventrell Miller.
- Also making an appearance in pads was Malik Davis. He didn’t participate in any drills, but still, his presence was good to see.
- Trevon Grimes maintained his solid streak of good practices. His route-running looked incredibly sharp and he beat Gardner on several plays. Gardner and Grimes appeared to be starting a little rivalry, as Gardner was in Grimes’ face on every occasion possible. Grimes, for the most part, took Gardner’s heat and delivered on-the-field results instead. He beat Gardner on several plays, including a one-handed, falling, back-hip catch from Trask just one play after Gardner got in his face. Grimes also got absolutely destroyed on a slant route by Sean Davis and responded, “Damn, why the f**k he gotta hit me that hard?!”
- When asked about his eligibility for next season, Grimes responded with, “I think I’m playing. We’re waiting to get official word, but it looks good!”
- The other transfer, Van Jefferson, has the best route-running on the team, hands down. He consistently beat the top corners on the team, including Marco Wilson and CJ Henderson. He and fellow receiver, Josh Hammond, received some wisdom from WRs coach Billy Gonzales about what to do when two players are motioning at the same time when they shouldn’t be.
- Gonzales is very soft spoken for the most part, but got on his receivers during blocking drills, yelling, “STUFF THE DAMN EDGE!”
- Rick Wells continued his redemption tour after being suspended all of last season. He did have a drop on an absolutely dazzling throw from Trask, but responded a diving catch in the end-zone on a deep pass from Franks. He seemed to have the best chemistry with Trask.
- Kadarius Toney has the best acceleration on the team, no doubt. He also displayed a red, no-contact jersey, so he has an injury of some sort.
- Hammond about ruined Brad Stewart’s ankles on a slant route one time, as Stewart went the complete opposite direction. Hammond also received some coaching from Gonzales after backpedaling on a deep ball.
- Daquon Green had a beautiful catch on a pass that was way overthrown by Jones.
- Reshirt freshman Joshua Tse got absolutely SENT by Nick Smith, who has about 50 pounds on Tse. Tse took a jet sweep and literally got sent airborne by Smith.
- Freddie Swain took first team reps and looked really good on deep comeback routes. Outside of them, he caught a beautiful pass from Franks down the left seam and dropped a nice pass from Jones.
- Moral Stephens got lambasted by a strength and conditioning coach after he missed a block. “MAKE A F**KING PLAY!” the coach screamed.
- C’yontai Lewis is the vocal leader of the offense, but he got dogged by TEs coach Larry Scott after missing a block. “HE’S OUTSIDE OF YOU, C’MON!” was Scott’s reaction. Lewis and Brad Stewart got into it after one play was over. Lewis also destroyed Gardner on a block and was very vocal about it to the offense after.
- The entire offense dislikes Gardner’s vocal trash-talking.
- Lewis had some love for Kemore Gamble after Gamble had a beautiful sliding catch on a throw from Trask.
- Tyrie Cleveland was also in pads, which was a nice sight. He seemed very eager to get on the field, getting involved with every first-team huddle and was very vocal. He pulled his hamstring recently, keeping him off the field.
- The offensive line as a whole got overrun by the defensive line, much to the chagrin of OL coach John Hevesy. Hevesy was moved to screaming several times, most notably when he busted out with, “I’M TIRED OF SACKS! MENTALLY WEAK! MOVE YOUR ASSES!”
- Kavaris Harkless got clowned by Hevesy once, as Hevesy shrieked, “BLOCK THE WHITE JERSEYS!”
- Jawaan Taylor and Martez Ivey probably had the best day of the offensive lineman, but really, no lineman played very well. Taylor had a nice block on a screen to the right side and Ivey was consistently decent on pass plays.
- Several alumni were on-campus for Junior Day at UF today, including Keanu Neal and Major Wright. Wright gave a post-practice speech, which included statements like, “The game will be easy cause you out here practicing,” and “You gotta lean on your brothers!”
- The kicking game was notably bad. Freshman recruit Evan Mcpherson can’t come soon enough.
- The defense sang happy birthday to defensive end Elijah Conliffe after practice, led by coordinator Todd Grantham.
- The defense consistently taunted the offense with dances from the popular game of “Fortnite”.
