Notebook: Day 3 of Florida Gators Fall Camp 2022

What AllGators saw on the practice field during day three of the Florida Gators' 2022 fall camp, with a focus on wide receivers.

Photo: Ja'Quavion Fraziars; Credit: Alex Shepherd 

The Florida Gators moved to the indoor practice facility on Friday for day three of 2022 fall camp, preparing for Billy Napier's first season in charge as UF's head coach.

You can find AllGators' observations from the media viewing portion of practice below. 

After analyzing the Gators' offense as a whole on day one and providing similar coverage of their defense on day two, we've decided to focus on individual position groups moving forward until each unit is covered, switching between offense and defense daily. We'll start with the wide receiver unit's Friday performance.

Focusing on the wide receivers

The wide receiver unit spent the first half of the media viewing portion of practice working on blocking technique with wide receivers coach Keary Colbert and several off-field assistants, before moving onto the field to run routes on air and catch passes.

Each receiver ran one of each of the following routes: Curl, slant, out-route, stick (sitting in the middle zone) and tunnel screen, before a formation change aligned two receivers next to each other (outside and slot) to work on the slot dig/outside out route combination.

No one ran as sharp of routes as transfer wide receiver Ricky Pearsall did throughout the day, and he saved his best for a specialty route that we will discuss later in this story. 

Pearsall's footwork is polished and he wastes very little movement breaking into his routes, which is something UF's receiving corps has struggled with in recent years as less shifty and more big-bodied receivers were recruited by the previous coaching staff. 

Pearsall's only issue throughout the day were the two drops he posted, one on his out route and another on his tunnel screen. The latter drop was in part due to poor placement on the pass from quarterback Max Brown, although the ball did bounce off of Pearsall's reaching right hand.

A receiver who stood out to us as well was Ja'Quavion Fraziars, who falls into the big-bodied receiver category at 6-foot-4, 212 pounds. 

Despite that, Fraziars may run the crispest short-to-intermediate routes of anyone not named Ricky Pearsall, rarely committing false steps from his release and making swift breaks into his routes. This could especially be seen on his out routes, a concept that the receivers have seemed to focus on as it pertains to timing with the quarterbacks this fall.

Frazairs' notable showing comes after emerging as an early standout at receiver during the closed portion of day one's practice, AllGators has learned.

Like Fraziars, Xzavier Henderson appears to have improved his fluidity this offseason as well considering his 6-foot-3, 195-pound frame. A speedster for his size, Henderson may still be best utilized as a deep-threat, but his ability to separate out of his releases has needed to improve during his UF career and he's shown some progress in that respect so far this fall.

Justin Shorter still doesn't appear to be the most nimble of the bunch at 6-foot-4, 223 pounds, seen committing false steps to begin a couple of routes. That being said, he remains a reliable option on underneath routes and might have the largest catch radius of any receiver on the team. Expect him to be one of Florida's top red zone and in-traffic targets this season.

Although he isn't as widely known as the previously mentioned receivers, Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman may also be worth monitoring moving forward. The recent JUCO transfer, like Pearsall, offers shiftiness and solid route-running footwork that should allow him to create separation from cornerbacks in a competitive setting. He's shown these skills routinely through three days of camp, although his hands could use a little improvement.

Participation report

Below are the players that were seen wearing no-contact jerseys throughout the media viewing portion of practice. An asterisk indicates that the player worked off to the side with a trainer instead of on the field. This list does not include the quarterbacks as they're required to wear no-contact jerseys.

• TE Jonathan Odom
• OT Richard Gouraige*
• DB Dakota Mitchell*
• K Trey Smack

Additionally, wide receiver Trent Whittemore, tight end Dante Zanders and edge rusher Brenton Cox Jr. were excused from practice on Friday as the trio of contributors were taking part in graduation, according to a UF spokesperson.

As Napier confirmed on Friday, cornerback Jaydon Hill is not currently participating in practice as he recovers from an undisclosed offseason injury.

Clip of the day

Keeping our focus on the wide receivers, Pearsall earns clip-of-the-day honors for this leaping grab on a corner-post route.

Interestingly, only Pearsall, Ja'Markis Weston and Chiaokhiao-Bowman were tasked with running this route among the receivers during the viewing period — Pearsall ran the best route of the three and hauled the ball in, Weston caught his pass although he rounded the top of his route, and Chiaokhiao-Bowman dropped his pass as the ball was thrown slightly behind him, despite running a sharp route.

👀

Ricky Pearsall with a leaping grab on a corner-post. pic.twitter.com/8mqdNotks9

— Zach Goodall (@zach_goodall) August 5, 2022

Stay tuned to AllGators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @SI_AllGators on Twitter and Florida Gators on Sports Illustrated on Facebook.