Florida hosted its eighth practice of fall camp on Thursday morning at the lacrosse facilities, and GatorBait.net brings you an in-depth recap of the periods available to the media for open viewing.
Passing game not quite as crisp
If the passing game was promising on the first two days of practice open to media viewing -- it was -- it wasn't nearly as promising on Thursday. The quarterbacks and receivers seemed out of sync for large chunks of the 20 minutes or so that the media was present.
It wasn't just the quarterbacks being inaccurate, either. The receivers had a rough start to practice.
Quarterback Austin Appleby started with the first team in fastball work and completed a couple of short checkdowns before Kyle Trask took over with the third team. Trask actually uncorked a couple beautiful passes, but a good floater down the sideline was dropped by Joshua Hammond and a picture-perfect corner route thrown to a walk-on was also dropped.
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In the routes on air portion of practice, the Gators didn't practice a ton of complex routes. Still, there were a number of drops and both Feleipe Franks and Luke Del Rio didn't do nearly as good a job throwing in front of and leading receivers as they had done in the first two practices.
Dre Massey had two drops against air (one thrown slightly behind him), as did slot receiver Brandon Powell. In general, the slot receivers had a rough start to practice. Moreover, through the three practices the media has seen now, drops have been consistent in that group.
Quarterback Luke Del Rio did not have a sharp day overall, though he completed one very nice corner route to Freddie Swain. Del Rio was picked off by Duke Dawson on one short slant and generally didn't connect nearly as well as he did in the first two open periods of practice in camp.
A handful of players were missing
As expected, a couple players were missing from Thursday morning's session.
One possible injury that GatorBait.net has not been able to verify just yet is a reported injury to freshman cornerback C.J. McWilliams. McWilliams was not spotted at Thursday morning's practice. Nor was freshman safety Quincy Lenton, who reportedly broke his foot.
Though the Gators weren't necessarily counting on either player to contribute this fall, Florida needs all the depth it can get, particularly in the secondary.
After two strong sessions in the open viewing to the media to begin fall camp, the start to Thursday's practice reinforced that Florida is still short on legitimate quality depth. The receivers generally didn't appear very deep, nor did the secondary.
Florida needs to remain relatively healthy at a few key spots, primarily on the offensive line, at linebacker and in the secondary. Any injuries to players in starting roles at those spots will create some immediate and noticeable dropoff.
Odds & Ends
-- Freshman Kyle Trask continues to look like the only quarterback on the roster capable of fairly consistently throwing guys open by hitting them in stride. Del Rio and Appleby both struggled with that somewhat in Thursday's practice, while freshman Feleipe Franks remains a good deal behind in practices.
-- At running back, Mark Thompson again worked with the first team on Thursday. He looked the part, with a couple short carries in fastball work, followed by a short catch over the middle.
-- Two receivers that continue to stand out with their natural ability are C.J. Worton and Freddie Swain. Swain continues to get open routinely, though the quarterbacks missed him a couple times and Swain dropped one pass after beating safety Marcell Harris. Worton beat defensive back Duke Dawson twice, once for a deep catch and once drawing a pass interference flag.
-- Senior receiver Ahmad Fulwood had one long touchdown catch over defensive back Jalen Tabor, with Fulwood doing a nice job stacking the deep route to prevent Tabor breaking up an underthrown ball to the end zone.
-- Freshman receiver Joshua Hammond had two drops in the beginning of practice, then was on the wrong page with Del Rio on a route in pass skeleton work. He has typically been a quiet but consistent performer, so Thursday's start to practice for him was a bit surprising.
-- Tight end DeAndre Goolsby had a few nice catches in pass skeleton and continues to look like a reliable option over the middle of the field. Florida has continued to use the skinny post over the middle of the field with a variety of receivers, and Massey managed to catch one over the middle in pass skeleton work.
-- Safety Marcus Maye continues to look better each day in coverage down the field, with one really nice play on a ball thrown down the left sideline deep. Meanwhile, Marcell Harris looked overmatched trying to cover receivers in pass skeleton work.
-- Linebacker Daniel McMillian had a nice pass breakup on a short slant in pass skeleton work, a route the offense was struggling with to open Thursday's practice.
