If this headline isn't an understatement I don't know what is....
Veteran Florida offensive line facing ‘last chance to get it right’ with new voice setting the tone
https://www.seccountry.com/florida/florida-gators-football-offensive-line-john-hevesy-coach
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Drift far enough toward the back end zone of the Florida practice fields, and John Hevesy’s voice becomes the soundtrack to the spring.
He’s loud, he’s direct and he’s trying to coax a returning group of Gators offensive linemen into a better collective unit than they’ve been at any point these last few years.
As has been clear through spring practice, that’s going to be a process.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, brother. We got a ways to go. We got a ways to go,” Hevesy, the offensive line coach, said after the first few spring practices. “I think they are buying into it. But it’s just, again, it’s like anything. You need to do it 10,000 times before it’s perfected. So we are on about 300. So we got a ways to go.”
Left tackle Martez Ivey passed on the NFL draft to return for his senior season, while left guard Tyler Jordan and right guard Fred Johnson also are seniors who have been in and out of the starting lineup since their freshman seasons. Junior right tackle Jawaan Taylor has started the last two seasons, and redshirt junior center T.J. McCoy has started since late in the 2016 season.
And maybe at some point Brett Heggie, the starting left guard last fall, will return from the knee injury that ended his encouraging redshirt freshman season and continues to keep him out this spring.
Normally, that kind of experience would be viewed as an obvious asset. But with this group, it just further underscores the questions and doubts about the unit.
For all the experience the offensive line carried into last season — former coach Jim McElwain boldly dubbed the group the strength of the team — Florida ended up ranking 123rd out of 129 FBS teams in sacks allowed (3.36 per game) while getting manhandled up front by its tougher opponents (Michigan, Georgia and Florida State, to name a few).
“For me and like for Fred and for Tyler it is our last chance. Our last chance to get it right, last chance to, you know, do what we came here to do,” Ivey said Friday after the Gators’ first spring scrimmage. “We didn’t come here to go 4-7. We came here to compete for championships and win a championship. I mean, that’s my mindset, that’s their mindset. It should be everybody’s mindset around here.”
But what is going to flip the switch with a group that has endured many of the same struggles for several years now?
“I would say Coach Hevesy. He’s been really big on fundamentals and technique. I’d say just us being fundamentally sound,” McCoy said. “You know, we’ve got a new offense, most of our install is done and now it’s just knowing how to do it, the different techniques. Coach Hevesy’s really big —
really big — about technique. In my opinion he’s Coach [Nick] Savage on steroids when it comes to technique. He’s a very intense guy, and he’s really big on us doing the thing right, doing everything right. And just having the attitude and really being the protectors of this offense.”
Savage, of course, is the Gators’ new strength and conditioning coordinator who set the tone for the team during offseason workouts.
Hevesy, meanwhile, has been with Mullen since they worked together at Bowling Green under Urban Meyer. They continued on together to Utah, Florida (for two national championships), Mississippi State and now back to Gainesville.
Mullen believes in Hevesy’s ability to get the most out of his units, and that is his challenge now.
That is why his voice is strained during practice yelling out commands and holding his linemen accountable for mistakes.
During Florida’s open practice for fans and media two Saturdays ago, Hevesy was the loudest coach on the field.
“I’m tired of sacks. Pay attention!” he yelled to his unit, among other things, during live team drills.
Like McCoy said, he’s taking this veteran group all the way back to the basics this spring.
“Fundamentals. Fundamentals. We’ve got a long time to make sure we learn the assignments — everything we talk about is learning what, how and why: What to do, how to do it and why you’re doing it,” Hevesy said.
“My biggest thing with them is discipline. I can’t stand offsides, and we’ve done it too many times. We did it about five times [in practice],” he said after that practice about two weeks ago while speaking with reporters. “That’s just mental discipline and focus on what you have to do. We have to pay attention, we have to be on things, and that takes no talent to listen to the cadence. But there’s enough there to work with. Now it’s just a matter of who is going to step up with all the things we’re working on.”
Florida has some newcomers to the unit with redshirt sophomore Jean DeLance, who sat out last season after transferring from Texas; JUCO addition Noah Banks; freshman early enrollee Chris Bleich; and a couple of more freshman signees on the way this summer.
But so far none have overtaken the incumbents on the first team. Those guys are now on their third offensive line coach in three years, with the hope that Hevesy can be the one to unlock more potential than what the group has collectively exhibited to this point.
Time will tell.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and more than three years into the process, the Gators’ offensive line remains under construction as well.
“I feel like we needed what happened to us last year,” McCoy said. “We thought it was going to be our year last year and it wasn’t. I believe everybody on this team, especially on the offensive line, we have a bad taste in our mouth and we’re just ready to prove everybody wrong and to prove that we can be the strength of the team.”