Napier Reveals Gators' Plan for OL Rotation

On Wednesday, Florida Gators' head coach Billy Napier revealed his plan for the offensive line rotation, but does that mean the five he will rely on should be the five Florida starts?

Sep 7, 2024; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators offensive lineman Jake Slaughter (66), quarterback DJ Lagway (2), and offensive lineman Austin Barber (58) celebrate against the Samford Bulldogs after the game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It took a long time, but the Florida Gators and Billy Napier have finally settled on a main starting five across the offensive line heading into their matchup against UCF in Week 6. While this is certainly a good thing, it conversely goes to show just how bad they have been up to this point in the season. 

Many had hoped the offensive line wouldn’t be the main talking point for the second season running, but that just wasn’t the case for the Gators. Instead, this part of the offense has been in constant disarray and a never ending headline from game to game. 

The plan through the first four games from Napier has been mixing and matching across the offensive line in every position other than center and figuring out his best combination. By doing this, he had hoped the best players would rise to the top and make life easy on him. However, that did not happen. It took all the way up to Mississippi State and through the bye week for things to shake out this way. 

And despite the number of players seen trialed at each position, many of the same faces saw the lion’s share of snaps through this early portion of the season for the Gators.

Leading the way in snaps for this offensive line is center Jake Slaughter with 236. The next four in order are right tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson (192 snaps), left tackle Austin Barber (178), left guard Knijeah Harris (164) and right guard Damieon George Jr. (160). 

This appears to be the five that Napier referred to during his portion of Wednesday's SEC coaches' teleconference.

“In general, the five that we play the majority of the game, I think we feel good about,” he said. 

Here's how the reps have shaken out this season.

More on the Gators OL here: https://t.co/WtzFowqV49 pic.twitter.com/R30X9a4mgu

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) October 2, 2024

Although, there is still potential for replacements when Napier sees the chance for developmental opportunities. 

“But we do feel as if there are some of those other young players (who) have a chance to continue to grow and develop, the Bryce Lovett's, the Caden Jones' of the world,” Napier said. “So, we're going to continue to do that and find, you know, pick our spots, play some of those guys.”

The only question mark that comes into play though with this core five is how they have actually performed in those reps. 

Based on PFF blocking grades for the Gators, Slaughter has been the most dominant along this line with an overall grade of 78.3 and a team-high 90.3 pass block grade. So, it is no surprise to see him with the most snaps. He is one of the only Gators in this group that routinely does his job. 

However, the consistent level of play drops off after Slaughter. For tackles Barber and Crenshaw-Dickson, they hold grades of 69.7 and 70.4, respectively. This isn’t bad, but can certainly be better. 

As for the guards, though, they need to improve drastically for this offense to elevate its game.

George Jr. is third on the team based on PFF’s pass blocking grades (83.2), but his run blocking is on the opposite end of the spectrum (59.2). The only lineman to have a worse grade in run blocking is Harris (54.9). Furthermore, Harris and George Jr. hold the two lowest overall blocking grades on PFF for linemen with grades of 55.2 and 62.6 respectively. 

In short, it is great that Napier believes he has found his best five, but if these numbers can project the future, then things are going to have to be much better sooner rather than later or the offense will be no different from where it started.