Florida Gators Spring Ball Pivotal to Development of Young Core

The Florida Gators will be in developmental mode for much of the offseason, working to get its young group of players up to the Gator standard.

For weeks, the Florida Gators, including head coach Dan Mullen and his coaching staff have been working on a plan to get the football team up to standards for the opening of the 2021 season. While last year didn't go quite as planned, with Florida losing its final three games of the season, the future is intriguing and the development of that future begins now.

This week, Florida has begun a long journey to getting its team ready to face off against the rigors that is the 2021 football schedule, a schedule that includes a rematch with Alabama as one of its first SEC opponents of the season.

Although the challenges this season will not be as emotionally taxing as last years due to the team's adaptability and the lack of an all-SEC schedule, the side effects of not having spring football for the returning players from 2019 and the early enrollees from the 2020 recruiting class are at play.

"So this is going to be a critical couple of weeks for us with spring practice and development for these guys to get prepared for the future,' said Mullen when speaking to the media at his availability on Tuesday. "We’re excited to kick it off. We’re excited to get going.”

This will be the first opportunity the '20 class will have at participating during spring, it will be the '19's second spring, and of course, it will be the first spring for many of the 2021 recruiting classmates who were able and eligible to enroll early, which is quite a few prospects. 

Those enrollees include cornerbacks Jason Marshall Jr. and Jordan Young, safeties Donovan McMillon and Corey Collier, wide receiver Daejon Reynolds, defensive tackles Christopher Thomas and Desmond Watson, quarterbacks Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Jalen Kitna, outside linebacker Chief Borders, tight end Nick Elksnis and defensive end Justus Boone.

Florida will field a host of young players next season. Several players, particularly on defense, have since declared for the 2021 NFL Draft, including at least six starters or key contributors in cornerback Marco Wilson, safeties Shawn Davis, Brad Stewart and Donovan Stiner, and defensive linemen Kyree Campbell and Marlon Dunlap Jr.

With the veterans departing, there will be a host of both new and young players ready to take the reigns. Its starting quarterback, assumingly Emory Jones, will be getting his real starts and playing time since joining the Gators three years ago. The offense and defense will be new, and Mullen made that much clear on Tuesday.

And with spring football, they'll have the opportunity to do just that.

"The one thing you got to miss a lot of the spring, we met as a staff this morning … player evaluation, finding out exactly what our guys do well and don’t do well and making sure that our scheme fits the strength of our players," said Mullen of the positives to having a spring football plan.

"That we’re putting guys in the best position to be successful on the field, and we’re putting our best players out on the field. But a lot of that gets into an evaluation process that we’re going to get to go through this spring to evaluate a lot of young players out there and making sure that we’re putting them in the best position to be successful on Saturdays next fall.”

Florida is going to have to dig deep to find its identity this year, but it may not happen during the spring, Mullen says. The team will have its 15 practices, coaches will evaluate those, and then they'll work to field the best 22 players on the gridiron each week during the regular season.

"We're going to adapt to our guys and what they do well and put the guys in position to do well."

Florida will need to do just that if they want to continue its quest for greatness moving forward. With a lot of moving parts and the youth of its roster, this spring will be one of the most important in Mullen's tenure as the team's head coach. An early start will certainly do them favors, too.