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Scrimmage number two of fall camp took place for the Florida football team on Saturday in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. However, the media only had the chance to view the warmups and drills that took place beforehand. Here are some notes on the offense heading into the scrimmage.
Florida Switches Up the Quarterbacks
With recent news coming out that transfer quarterback Jack Miller III had surgery on his thumb, as reported first by Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel, the Gators had to switch things up in drills for the quarterback for the past couple of practices. On Saturday, Anthony Richardson and Kyle Engel led the quarterbacks in the drills. Both threw good passes to their wide receivers. Also, Max Brown and Jalen Kitna made quality passes throughout the viewing period as well.
Having Miller III being sidelined for an undisclosed amount of time will now allow any of the three of Brown, Engel and Kitna to gain valuable reps with the second string offense. It should be a tight battle for who will be backing up Richardson early this season.
Receivers and Tight Ends
Ricky Pearsall is still working his way back to a healthy status and he did not participate in Saturday’s practice. The wide receivers and tight ends began the practice running through their regular routes with the quarterbacks. Xzavier Henderson was one of the receivers leading the drills and it’s more likely he will start the opener against Utah. Here is a nice slant from Henderson and pass from Anthony Richardson captured by Cam Parker of WRUF and Inside the Gators.
@GVOaant -> @XXH_03 on the slant @InsideTheGators pic.twitter.com/6DAiudkQ5d
— Cam Parker (@camparker25) August 20, 2022
Additionally, the tight ends group could be a wide open situation for the Gators in the upcoming season. The only player to have taken meaningful snaps at this position is Keon Zipperer. For the new faces, such as Dante Zanders, Hayden Hansen, Nick Elksnis or Jonathan Odom, there are reps up for the taking in this fall camp.
Lastly, wide receiver Ja’Markis Weston participated in practice on Saturday and tight end Arlis Boardingham did not.
Offensive Line Shaping Up For Florida
The offensive line took part in their stand alone drills like the rest of the position groups. To start their drills it looked as if they were running through the pairings of first-team and second-team units. The group running with what could be the first-team was Richard Gouraige at left tackle; Richie Leonard IV at left guard; Kingsley Eguakun at center; O’Cyrus Torrence at right guard; Michael Tarquin at right tackle.
Here is one shot of them running with this unit and the second unit.
@CoachRobSale & @darnellru53 working the OL in units. pic.twitter.com/FAuBhz2c9I
— Kyle (@_KyleLander) August 20, 2022
However, one major thing to note about this is that Ethan White was not seen practicing during Saturday’s viewing period.
The Gators open their season September 3 at home against nationally ranked Utah.
