Florida held its first of two split-squad practices on Thursday afternoon, with the veterans going in the early session. GatorBait.net breaks down some of the highlights from the open periods of media viewing at the beginning of the practice.
The passing game looked crisp in its debut
It's hard to read a ton into the first practice in shorts and helmets, but there's little doubt the passing game at Florida is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was at this time a year ago. The Gators know the spots they're supposed to be hitting.
The Gators didn't show a ton of routes in the first practice -- it was primarily digs, slants and the occasional drag or seam route -- and will add more as they build on each practice. That said, it was an encouraging first outing for the offense.
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Quarterback Luke Del Rio was crisp in the fastball portion of the practice, which features four plays run at a quick tempo. He completed a short dump-off pass over the middle on the second play after Jordan Cronkrite led off the drill with a run to the left that was swarmed quickly by the defense.
Then Del Rio hooked up with DeAndre Goolsby twice, with Goolsby making a nice snag over the middle with Marcus Maye quickly closing in. The final play of the drill was a beautiful short floater down the seam to Goolsby, lofted perfectly by Del Rio over linebacker Daniel McMillian in coverage.
In routes on air work, the quarterbacks were mostly sharp, though Del Rio missed Chris Thompson once behind him on a slant and the receivers had a few drops in the drill.
In pass skeleton work, both Austin Appleby and Del Rio had some nice throws. Appleby very nearly connected with Brandon Powell on the play of the day in the periods open to the media as Powell blew by three defenders down the seam, but the throw was just a hair long and Powell couldn't quite make a one-handed snag.
Regardless, it was clear that Florida's passing game likely won't take quite as long to get in sync as it did a year ago.
