'Oddly Quiet' Crowds Benefiting Gators Offensive Line

For the Gators, offensive line play will be hugely important, but what if unforeseen circumstances will allow for quicker progression?

This year has been incredibly difficult, and different for sports and college football in particular. Not only have there been various issues surrounding the coronavirus in terms of practice schedule or plays, but it has also impacted programs across the nation, including the Florida Gators, in attendance - or in some cases, a lack thereof.

On Saturday against the Ole Miss Rebels, Florida played in front of a crowd of an announced 13,926 attendees at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium due to the strict restrictions put in place by the team and the local government in Oxford Miss.

With that said, the Gators and the Rebels needed to adapt and offensive lineman Brett Heggie believes the lack of crowd noise actually benefited himself and the team's front five.

“It was very different. I’ll say that," Heggie said on Monday when asked about the crowd, or lack thereof. "Just oddly quiet. Again, very easy to talk to one another and all be on the same page. So, that kind of helped out, but it’s just very different. It feels like a scrimmage.”

One of the basic tenets of a good offensive line comes directly from good communication. Being able to make checks at the line to read blitzes from an opposing team allows for the protections to be there, and thus are able to keep the quarterback clean as much as possible.

Against the Rebels, while there were a few leaks along the offensive line, the team as a whole surrendered just one sack on the day - a fantastic outing for a position group that was in need of a refresh following a somewhat down year in 2019. Thus far this season, the team's blocking up front was more than respectable, it was good.

In his first real experience as the team's starting center, the second quarterback of the offense, Heggie felt as though his communication went well, something he attributes not just to his play itself but the lack of crowd noise, able to hear and talk to the man beside him.

“I did well," he says. "[I was] able to talk clear and everyone can hear it because there’s not any other noise. You know what I mean? So, I think it helped us out.”

While a team typically gets fired up to play in front of a sold-out crowd, Heggie doesn't feel he needs a crowd to get him pumped up. No, all he needs is to see the man in front of him in a different color jersey than the orange and blue he typically dons on Saturdays.

"You look across the line of scrimmage and see a different name on the jersey, and that’s really all I need," Heggie said with a laugh when asked about the lack of crowd noise and not being able to get pumped up to play. "And then you don’t know a lot of people are watching back home and just having the goal that we have to go win the game, and that’s important every single week, to go out there and execute to win.

"It felt like a scrimmage just because there’s no noise, and I’m not used to that. The past four years, obviously, it’s always been hostile wherever we’ve been, and it was different.”

If the Gators' offensive line plays as well as it did on Saturday against Ole Miss, then fans will likely hope every game feels like a scrimmage, even if it doesn't boast the same incredible experience of a typical game in the SEC.

Next up, the Gators will take on the South Carolina Gamecocks in its home opener on Saturday, another place that won't be packed with only 17,000 attendees allowed.