Who’s Ready? Early Start to Fall Camp Provides Extra Opportunity for Gators

Who’s Ready? Early Start to Fall Camp Provides Extra Opportunity for Gators

Thursday, July 25, 2019 | Football

Excitement surrounds the Gators football program as players report for fall camp on Thursday.

By: Will Pantages & Sam Stolte

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With just 30 days remaining until Florida kicks off its 2019 campaign, and the 150^th season of college football, head coach Dan Mullen, coordinators John Hevesy and Todd Grantham and about 30 student-athletes met with the media prior to fall practice opening on Friday morning.

"I think this is the earliest we have ever opened training camp here at Florida," Mullen said. "But we are ready to go."

Late July is typically reserved for the start of NFL training camps, but since the Gators and Miami Hurricanes signed up to kick off the 150^th season of college football on Aug. 24, both schools calendars had to be moved up.

Kickoff for the 2019 Camping World Kickoff in Orlando, Fla. is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ESPN.

"Moving the Camping World Kickoff to Aug. 24 is a unique and rare opportunity that showcases college football, both storied programs, and the state of Florida," Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said upon the announcement back in March. "By mid-August the public is hungry for college football, and America is now going to be able to watch the Gators and Hurricanes in a marquee game a week earlier than usual. I'd anticipate the exposure for the sport of college football, and both schools, to be immense."

Well, the wait is just about over.

67763 — Florida's student-athletes met with the media and had some fun on Thursday prior to reporting for fall camp.

Florida hits the field tomorrow morning with a lot momentum, earning victories in four of its last five games in 2018, including an impressive 41-15 victory over Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. A season ago, Mullen was the architect of the second-largest one-season turnaround as Florida played with an edge not seen in Gainesville since 2009.

Coming off a 10-3 finish, the Gators are now faced with the challenge of finding a new edge and building a new chip on their shoulder.

"Every year you're different," Grantham said. "Last year we were new and had guys like Jachai Polite and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. Well those guys are gone, so I think the biggest thing as a coach is that you're going to have certain core things you're always going to do, but you always want to play to the strength of your players. I think you always have to be working to tweak what you do and find ways to get the best 11 players on field."

Defensively, Florida returns Marco Wilson from injury and has added a pair of freshmen (Kaiir Elam, Chester Kimbrough) to its very talented defensive backfield. Meanwhile, senior linebacker David Reese II returns as the quarterback of the unit.

Grantham will look to Amari Burney, Jeremiah Moon, Jabari Zuniga, Kyree Campbell, Adam Shuler, transfer Jonathan Greenard and many others to fill voids left by those from a year ago.

Offensively, Mullen and Hevesy spoke about the offensive line and tight end positions similarly. Both groups have talent and depth, but not a ton of experience. All of Florida's offensive coaches will be looking to develop the youth at those position groups through the fall.

However, the Gators return two veteran running backs (Lamical Perine, Malik Davis) and a talented and deep group of wide receivers, along with quarterback Feleipe Franks.
"Billy Gonzales has done a great job with our receiving core," Mullen said. "When you have a depth and a group of talented guys that you have confidence in, you can let the defense dictate who gets the ball. We can let the quarterback go through his reads and take what the defense gives, because we're pretty confident in every one of them being able to go make plays out there."

Tomorrow is the first chance to put it all together and begin to see the potential of what this team can become.

Who's ready?