Florida Gators, Mullen Prepare to 'See Where We’re At' in First Scrimmage

Florida will take the field today in a scrimmage that coincides with one of the first real instances the team will have at self evaluation.

The Florida Gators are set to hold their first scrimmage of the fall today.

While the season doesn't get started for another month, the Gators will need to kick it into high gear in preparation for what will be one of the most unprecedented years of all time. Following several months off the gridiron, the Gators, and all SEC teams, returned to the practice fields on Aug. 16 for the first time since the end of last season.

While spring football was set to begin in March, that was canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which ultimately left the college football season in the balance. Two power 5 conferences opted out of the season, the Big Ten and Pac-12 with the Big 12, SEC and ACC opting to press forward.

While the Gators have held several practices to date since the opening of fall camp, there still has yet to be an actionable change in regards to their preparation for this season. There hasn't been live hitting, nor has there been an opportunity for a proper evaluation of 118 players who will eventually receive repetitions - at least until now.

With the scrimmage set to take place today, the Gators and head coach Dan Mullen are looking forward to seeing how the players stack up against one another. This will be an important showing, one that Mullen hopes the Gators simply "come out healthy".

“You know, it’s going to be interesting. They haven’t played football in a long time — a really long time. Then we’re practicing," Mullen told reporters on Thursday. "Our practices are starting to look a little bit more normal. To go out there and tackle and catch, ball security, get hit and do all of those different things to see where we’re at. Usually, you have two scrimmages and a spring game during the springtime.

"So between that New Year’s Day, the nine months until kickoff, there’s five opportunities to do it. Since Dec. 31, we’ve had zero. Normally this time last year we were 1-0, and we haven’t had an opportunity since 2019. That glorious year, in retrospect, to how this one seems to have gone so far. We haven’t got hit and tackled and played live football. That’s one of the things I want to see, where we’re at that way.”

One player in particular Mullen is no doubt interested in watching is quarterback Kyle Trask. Trask, entering his redshirt senior season, will be put squarely under the spotlight, expected to lead the team to new heights after winning the Orange Bowl just last season.

The Gators won't be the only team to deal with these circumstances, of course. However, with the changes the team will be making to its offensive line, receiving corps and running backs room, this scrimmage will likely set tone for how the players will shake out over the next several weeks.

When asked if there was a particular position group he will be watching, however, the head coach gave a direct, "no", he will instead be watching the entire football team. With 118 players getting repetitions and 130 offensive plays being called, this will be the final chance for the Gators to see what they have in them leading up to the league's 10-game conference-only schedule.

"You’ve got to kind of take it all in, and you’re figuring out, looking at all these things that end up being relevant to the current team more than the program as a whole.”