COACH McELWAIN: Thanks so much for being here. Got to tell you, this is exciting for all of us as we get ready to kind of find out what the standard is going to be that this team sets.
You know, this is a team that I really like the vibe. If you heard me talk about it, the way they are going about their daily business is something that -- something that I really think is good. And yet, you know, middle of two-a-days, we'll see what happens and see how excited they are, right.
But at the same time, everybody in the country right now feels pretty good about themselves. Everybody's undefeated. They are all wear new tennis shoes. Got new workout jerseys. Everything looks pretty. It's when your laundry staff, about on about practice 13, has washed it so many times, it starts to dull; that's when you see kind of what your team's made up of.
I feel really good about where these guys are. You know, positionally, there's a lot of question marks, and there's a lot of question marks every year when you head into this time of year.
I think the key to our success will be guys competing for playing time at many positions. As you talk about defensively, you know, being able to establish that nine-, ten-man rotation up front is something that's going to be huge, especially with some of the early offenses that we are going to be facing.
When you look at it from a linebacker standpoint, a couple of those young guys that showed up in spring, let's see what they have learned over the summer moving forward to become quality players, not only as every down players, but in the special teams.
Secondary-wise, there's going to be some huge battles there and some guys really scrambling to get some quality playing time as we talk about defense.
Offensively, it all starts up front. You guys know that. I've talked about that from the start. We had some guys kind of learn by fire a little bit last year, and to see what they learned and to see how they piece together, is really going to show where we are going to go offensively.
The young receivers, whoever develops there, there's a lot of playing time to be had at the receiver positions. I think the strongest group on our team, we've got some guys back at the tight end spot, but I really see our running back position being as strong as anything on our football team. We've got some really quality guys there, and that will compete, and I'm looking forward to see how that competition kind of comes out.
And you've heard me talk about the quarterback room, how excited I am that those guys have accepted the responsibility of what it is to play the position, and I'm looking forward to see how they affect the people around them as we go through practice.
A lot of good things, and a lot of exciting things. And it's something all the Gator Nation should be ready for. This is a team that has to understand that what they did a year ago was kind of discover, kind of discovered a little bit maybe what was possible.
And yet, learned some lessons along the way about understanding, never being satisfied. And hopefully, even all the older players understand that they have never made it. In other words, you can't go into coast. You've got to understand that every day, you go out, you've got a chance to enhance your brand and who you are and what you're all about, and to learn how to finish.
Time will tell. And yet, there's some really good leadership on this football team right now, and we'll see where that takes us as we head into this practice and then obviously we head into the season.
You know, as you know, we start our first practice with a split squad practice. There's a little bit due to some of our class schedules, because we still have a couple days left of school, some guys taking finals. So those guys will be altered a little bit, just to fit the practices in.
But generally what we'll do is we'll have the older guys, the guys who have been here. We'll go through the first practice and then we'll bring the younger guys out, where we get an opportunity to teach them our expectations of the way we practice, how fast we practice, and you know, the moving from drill to drill and those type of things.
So that will be that first day, split squad practice. We should finish up with that, oh, around something like around 5:30 or so, so you guys get a chance to go have some lunch. Sorry to make the day long for you tomorrow. But that is one heck of a unit -- Edgar, look at that. Explain that thing to me. I didn't see it on -- the whole pod thing.
That is pretty impressive. I like that. You talk about new gear guys get in the off-season; I like that. We just got better. That's what I'm talking about, right there (laughs).
You know, on the injury front -- where you at, are you going to change on me? So that's the old "Where's Waldo" for me, right? Is that what we're doing.
You know, our guys who had the off-season surgeries seem to be doing really well right now. We're going to limit obviously some of the things that we'll do with Anzalone. Martez Ivey will be limited, but only more both because of precautionary reasons more than anything. A lot like we did a year ago with a couple guys, as you guys were aware, as we went through practice.
We have two guys that won't be on the 105 that are dealing with some injury/surgery things, that will be back kind of when school starts, and it's only because they can't practice. So don't read anything into it. But Kalif Jackson and Case Harrison, they will join us when school starts. But they can't practice right now, anyway, because of their injuries. So we didn't want to use the spots for those in the 105.
And we had a couple guys in Thomas Holley and Andrew Ivie who received medical exemptions by the SEC, so they will continue their education, get their degrees, except they have had obviously injuries that would not allow them to go on anymore.
But other than that, that's kind of where we're at injury-wise. You guys, you good with that? Am I missing anybody? I mean, usually you know more than I do. We good there? Good.
With that, guys, love to take some questions and get rolling.
You know, this is a team that I really like the vibe. If you heard me talk about it, the way they are going about their daily business is something that -- something that I really think is good. And yet, you know, middle of two-a-days, we'll see what happens and see how excited they are, right.
But at the same time, everybody in the country right now feels pretty good about themselves. Everybody's undefeated. They are all wear new tennis shoes. Got new workout jerseys. Everything looks pretty. It's when your laundry staff, about on about practice 13, has washed it so many times, it starts to dull; that's when you see kind of what your team's made up of.
I feel really good about where these guys are. You know, positionally, there's a lot of question marks, and there's a lot of question marks every year when you head into this time of year.
I think the key to our success will be guys competing for playing time at many positions. As you talk about defensively, you know, being able to establish that nine-, ten-man rotation up front is something that's going to be huge, especially with some of the early offenses that we are going to be facing.
When you look at it from a linebacker standpoint, a couple of those young guys that showed up in spring, let's see what they have learned over the summer moving forward to become quality players, not only as every down players, but in the special teams.
Secondary-wise, there's going to be some huge battles there and some guys really scrambling to get some quality playing time as we talk about defense.
Offensively, it all starts up front. You guys know that. I've talked about that from the start. We had some guys kind of learn by fire a little bit last year, and to see what they learned and to see how they piece together, is really going to show where we are going to go offensively.
The young receivers, whoever develops there, there's a lot of playing time to be had at the receiver positions. I think the strongest group on our team, we've got some guys back at the tight end spot, but I really see our running back position being as strong as anything on our football team. We've got some really quality guys there, and that will compete, and I'm looking forward to see how that competition kind of comes out.
And you've heard me talk about the quarterback room, how excited I am that those guys have accepted the responsibility of what it is to play the position, and I'm looking forward to see how they affect the people around them as we go through practice.
A lot of good things, and a lot of exciting things. And it's something all the Gator Nation should be ready for. This is a team that has to understand that what they did a year ago was kind of discover, kind of discovered a little bit maybe what was possible.
And yet, learned some lessons along the way about understanding, never being satisfied. And hopefully, even all the older players understand that they have never made it. In other words, you can't go into coast. You've got to understand that every day, you go out, you've got a chance to enhance your brand and who you are and what you're all about, and to learn how to finish.
Time will tell. And yet, there's some really good leadership on this football team right now, and we'll see where that takes us as we head into this practice and then obviously we head into the season.
You know, as you know, we start our first practice with a split squad practice. There's a little bit due to some of our class schedules, because we still have a couple days left of school, some guys taking finals. So those guys will be altered a little bit, just to fit the practices in.
But generally what we'll do is we'll have the older guys, the guys who have been here. We'll go through the first practice and then we'll bring the younger guys out, where we get an opportunity to teach them our expectations of the way we practice, how fast we practice, and you know, the moving from drill to drill and those type of things.
So that will be that first day, split squad practice. We should finish up with that, oh, around something like around 5:30 or so, so you guys get a chance to go have some lunch. Sorry to make the day long for you tomorrow. But that is one heck of a unit -- Edgar, look at that. Explain that thing to me. I didn't see it on -- the whole pod thing.
That is pretty impressive. I like that. You talk about new gear guys get in the off-season; I like that. We just got better. That's what I'm talking about, right there (laughs).
You know, on the injury front -- where you at, are you going to change on me? So that's the old "Where's Waldo" for me, right? Is that what we're doing.
You know, our guys who had the off-season surgeries seem to be doing really well right now. We're going to limit obviously some of the things that we'll do with Anzalone. Martez Ivey will be limited, but only more both because of precautionary reasons more than anything. A lot like we did a year ago with a couple guys, as you guys were aware, as we went through practice.
We have two guys that won't be on the 105 that are dealing with some injury/surgery things, that will be back kind of when school starts, and it's only because they can't practice. So don't read anything into it. But Kalif Jackson and Case Harrison, they will join us when school starts. But they can't practice right now, anyway, because of their injuries. So we didn't want to use the spots for those in the 105.
And we had a couple guys in Thomas Holley and Andrew Ivie who received medical exemptions by the SEC, so they will continue their education, get their degrees, except they have had obviously injuries that would not allow them to go on anymore.
But other than that, that's kind of where we're at injury-wise. You guys, you good with that? Am I missing anybody? I mean, usually you know more than I do. We good there? Good.
With that, guys, love to take some questions and get rolling.
