Time for a 2019 Spring Football thread....

[instaGATOR]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The best part about spring football is that it provides an opportunity well before the season to evaluate where you are at, both individually and as a team.

Florida has plenty of new faces to go along with returning ones that didn’t see much of the field or have much of an impact last season. Here are a few that could see their stock rise as we head into spring.

Soph RB Dameon Pierce 5.9 ypc, (rsFr RB/FS Iverson Clement)
Soph TE/WR Kyle Pitts
Soph SS/OLB Amari Burney

rsFr WR/KR Jacob Copeland
rsFr RG/OT Chris Bleich
rsFr SS/OLB David Reese

~ Reese-Burney-Dean will compete to replace CG-J at the 'Star' (Nic) position.
(all 3 are rock solid, imo any or all can play that position)

Buck-OLB/DE
rsFr Andrew Chatfield
Grad-Sr Jonathan Greenard (UL xfer)
Fr Mohamoud Diabate

Jr DT/NT Tedarrell Slaton 6-5 343 (his time to shine has arrived)

https://florida.rivals.com/news/gators-that-could-see-their-stock-rise-this-spring

 

[PacoGator19]

Burney is going to be big time.

 

[instaGATOR]

Burney is going to be big time.

I can easily agree with that statement.

SS/OLB - STAR (there's a 4th that might also be in that group)
FS/ST's John Huggins 6-1 206 So (3 Tkls, 1 TFL, 1 Int)

OLB/ST's David Reese 6-0 221 rsFr (4 Tkls)
SS/ST's Amari Burney 6-1 222 So (11 Tkls, 2 TFL, 1 Sac-mich, 2 PBU's, 1 QB-H)
CB/ST's Trey Dean III 6-3 194 So - forced into starting CB after Wilson's injury.
(26 Tkls, 0.5 TFL, 1 Int-fsu 6 PBU's - Awarded Fr All SEC)

All 4 of those guys have talent to spare, and imoho, all will play in 2019.

 

[instaGATOR]

Burney -- Position versatility is a definite theme in defensive coordinator Todd Grantham's system and Burney might just have the most position versatility of anyone on the roster. That makes him one of the most intriguing players on the team headed into spring football.

Burney could play CB, Star, S, LB. Heck, I'm not sure that he can't play every position but K-P-OL-DL on the team if he wanted to, he's that multi-talented. -- iG -- My W-a-G is they play him at LB to replace VJ.

https://247sports.com/college/flori...eview-Where-will-Amari-Burney-play-129301349/

==========

Some pretty good stuff on the coming Spring practice/game can be found here.

https://247sports.com/college/flori...-UF-expect-out-of-Jonathan-Greenard-129351489

 

[polobaby0927]

Michael Edwards

 

[instaGATOR]

A pretty good write up on the 2019 Early Enrolles.

http://www.gatorsports.com/2019/02/how-early-enrollees-fit-in-on-floridas-depth-charts/

 

[ocalaman]

I'm looking forward to seeing how Jacob Copeland breaks into the WR rotation. He was our highest rated recruit from the 2018 class, just ahead of Richard Gouraige.

 

[instaGATOR]

The Gators are LAY-ODED with top quality at receiver for 2019.
Jacob will definitely see the field, but how much depends on him,,,

WR Van Jefferson 6-2 197 rsSr
WR Tyrie Cleveland 6-2 206 Sr
WR Josh Hammond 6-0 194 Sr
WR/PR Freddie Swain 6-0 199 Sr
WR Rick Wells 6-0 202 rsJr
WR/RB/PR Kadarius Toney 5-11 190 Jr (Human Joystick)
WR Trevon Grimes 6-5 210 Jr
WR/TE Kyle Pitts 6-6 246 So (with speed)
WR/KR Jacob Copeland 6-0 198 rsFr
9 returning.
-----
WR Arjei Henderson 6-2 190 Fr- Richmond, TX (E #12 WR ****)
WR/Ath Ja'markis Weston 6-3 195 Fr- Clewiston, FL (E-#45 Ath/DE ****)
WR Dionte Marks 5-11 178 Fr - Deland, FL (E-#45 WR ****)
WR/FS Trent Whittenmore 6-3 190 Fr - Gainesville, FL (E-#33 FS ****)
4 FNG's for a total of 12 WR's with very solid quality and depth.
-----
TE Lucas Krull rsJr 6-6 255 **** (2017 JuCo xfer-in)
TE Kemore Gamble rsSo 6-3 246 ****
TE Dante Lange rsFr 6-5 253 ****
#1 TE-H Keon Zipperer Fr 6-3 240 **** UA-AA - Lakeland, FL

 

[kimeth]

Franks needs to distribute to the WR talent could be an awsome offense!

 

[kimeth]

Franks needs to distribute to the WR talent could be an awesome offense!

 

[instaGATOR]

Spring is wide open competition at QB, as with all of the other positions....

We will see if Franks continues to progress, or if one of the other 3 QB's passes him up.
Should be very interesting to watch the results of the top quality QB coaching from Dan & Brian. As of now, it's Franks job to either keep or lose, so may the best QB win the job...

 

[LakerGator]

Franks needs to distribute to the WR talent could be an awsome offense!

You meant Emory Jones right? People PLEASE, PLEASE listen to me. If you want to go 8-4 give or take a game, play Felipe Franks. Slow runner and highly inaccurate as his BELOW 60% completion %age showed the last 2 years. We’d had given Georgia a much better game if he was accurate.

 

[instaGATOR]

You meant Emory Jones right? People PLEASE, PLEASE listen to me. If you want to go 8-4 give or take a game, play Felipe Franks. Slow runner and highly inaccurate as his BELOW 60% completion %age showed the last 2 years. We’d had given Georgia a much better game if he was accurate.

If you're going to talk passing accuracy, then it's Trask, not Jones.
And we have yet to see what Dan and Brian can do with Jalon Jones?

 

[instaGATOR]

The sophomore Big Four skill players:
RB Dameon Pierce 5-10 216 So (Perine + Pierce make a great 1-2 punch)
TE/WR Kyle Pitts 6-6 246 So - UA-AA (size with speed match-up nightmare)

CB/Star Trey Dean III 6-3 194 So - (another Fr All SEC at CB)
FS/Star Amari Burney 6-1 222 So - (best all around Ath on the team)

Plus ~~ FS John Huggins 6-1 206 So (enough talent to compete for a starting job)

Hole filler Big Four in the trenches:

OT Richard Gouraige 6-4 303 rsFr
OG Chris Bieich 6-6 321 rsFr
(with 7 Fr FNG's, including 4 EE's coming in)

DE/OLB Andrew Chatfield Jr 6-0 245 rsFr (lightening)
DT/DE Malik Langham 6-4 286 rsFr (thunder)

Plus ~~ DE Jonathan Greenard 6-4 263 Sr (UL Grad xfer, All ACC)

For every hole created by departures, Dan has players ready to fill the holes.
(Ht/Wt are from last year, not from the Spring updated bio's)
==========

UF's various Way Too Early 2019 Preseason Rankings:

Note - 1st Seasons at UF: Spurrier 9 wins, Meyer 9 wins, Mullen 10 wins.
And neither Spurrier nor Meyer took over a 4 win team with the 10th rated QB in the SEC.
BTW - Grantham's D was 6th in scoring defense and 3rd against the pass in the SEC.

7. ESPN
7. 247Spirts
7. Athlon
-----
8. CBS Sports
8. Orlando Sentinel
8. College Football News
9. Sports Illustrated
9. Fox Sports
9. Sporting News
14. USA-Today (clueless again)

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

If the Oline gets it together and Franks advances as a QB - could be a special year. Should be a lot of talent on the field...can't wait.

 

[ocalaman]

It will be interesting to see who emerges as QB. Franks improved tremendously over the year before and even as the season progressed. But Trask got hurt right before he was going to get a real opportunity to be the guy. And Emory Jones came in very highly touted and is more in the dual threat style that Coach Mullen likes to work with. Then there's the freshman Jalon Jones, another highly rated recruit. I imagine Franks will have the edge initially, but we'll see how it shakes out.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

It will be interesting to see who emerges as QB. Franks improved tremendously over the year before and even as the season progressed. But Trask got hurt right before he was going to get a real opportunity to be the guy. And Emory Jones came in very highly touted and is more in the dual threat style that Coach Mullen likes to work with. Then there's the freshman Jalon Jones, another highly rated recruit. I imagine Franks will have the edge initially, but we'll see how it shakes out.

In Mullen we Trust!

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

If the Oline gets it together and Franks advances as a QB - could be a special year. Should be a lot of talent on the field...can't wait.

The schedule is tough, lotta hard road games.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

Yep big if. I think it's likely we trip up early but I do expect to have the OLine rolling late in the year, barring major injuries.

 

[instaGATOR]

Yep big if. I think it's likely we trip up early but I do expect to have the OLine rolling late in the year, barring major injuries.

At least for 2019, they'll have some depth for injury protection, for the first time in years...

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

The schedule is tough, lotta hard road games.

Actually, in a season playing both Miami and FSU, who woulda thought that those would be two of the easier games, tough schedule we got.

 

[ocalaman]

Georgia & LSU will be the toughest games, IMO. @KY, South Carolina & Missouri won't be easy, but we should be favored in all 3. The O-line is the key to the season for me.

 

[gatorbuilderorlando]

lol - it's fun again to actually "expect" to win games we should win.

 

[instaGATOR]

There is no better 2 deep CB corp in the entire NCAA imoho...
And now they have Torrian Gray back as their coach....

#16 CB C.J. Henferson 6-1 191 Jr **** (Fr All SEC)
#3 CB Chris Steele 6-1 184 Fr ***** - 19/100

#25 CB Marco Wilson 6-0 190 rsSo **** (Fr All SEC, injured out for 2018)
#6 CB Kaiir Elam 6-2 180 Fr **** - 48/100

#17 S - Star Trey Dean 6-3 194 So **** (Fr All SEC at CB for Wilson)
#14 S - Star/LB/SS Amari Burny 6-1 222 So **** (raising star & best Ath on team)
#20 OLB - Star/SS/LB David Reese 6-0 221 rsFr **** (2 Gms, red-shirt)

CB C.J. McWilliams rsJr
CB Jaydon Hill Fr **** EE
CB Chester Kimbrough Fr ***
Several of them can play any of the DB positions.