Spring Preview: Where will Amari Burney play?
Spring Preview: Where will Amari Burney play?
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Spring football is less than a month away and that means it's time to start breaking down some questions on the gridiron for the Gators. Swamp247 will take a look over the next several days at some of the key things to watch this spring.
Today we continue with our second key question: where sophomore
Amari Burney will fit in.
Where will Amari Burney play on defense?
Position versatility is a definite theme in defensive coordinator
Todd Grantham's system and Burney might just have the most position versatility of anyone on the roster. That makes him one of the most intriguing players on the team headed into spring football.
As a true freshman Burney got involved early and often, quickly making a name for himself on special teams.
His unique blend of size and speed -- he's listed at 6 foot 1, 222 pounds but appears bigger than that -- is something that allowed him to make an immediate impact last fall. Florida opted to train him at the nickelback, or "Star," position on defense in addition to his special teams duties.
Keeping him there allowed him to focus all his efforts on learning one spot. But will Burney stick there this spring? It doesn't sound like it, with coach
Dan Mullen indicating the team plans to move fellow sophomore
Trey Dean to that spot to replace junior
Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who left early for the NFL Draft.
There's little sense having Burney back up a player like Dean, who got a ton of actual starting experience in the secondary last year and figures to play the lion's share of the reps at nickelback next fall. Burney's simply too valuable.
So where does he move? Safety? Linebacker?
After an initial projection of Burney to safety in
our depth chart projections, it actually appears like Burney will play some linebacker this spring. He's a fine fit for either spot, with ridiculous speed for a guy his size.
Florida is looking to replace junior
Vosean Joseph, a guy who also had terrific speed at the linebacker spot.
Burney is pretty similar in size as Joseph and actually has a chance to fill out more with another offseason of strength and conditioning under his belt. While Burney didn't see a ton of snaps on defense last year, he did show in the last couple games that he can be a very effective blitzer; that's something the Gators did with Joseph quite a bit.
Moreover, despite the lack of known quantities at safety, Florida does have plenty of capable players there.
Between
Brad Stewart,
Jeawon Taylor,
Shawn Davis,
Donovan Stiner and
John Huggins, Florida can almost certainly find two quality starters there. And that's to say nothing of the possibility of one of four true freshmen defensive backs moving over to safety.
So where will Burney fit in this spring? Linebacker would make a lot of sense, and he's certainly got the chops to play there.
Here's a look at some of the other key questions we'll be highlighting in the coming days, as well as topics we've already tackled if you missed them:
- How will UF's starting O-line shake out?
- What kind of production can UF expect out of Jonathan Greenard?
- Will Trevon Grimes' usage uptick continue?
- Can Chris Steele challenge for starting minutes?
- Can Kyle Pitts emerge as the guy at tight end?
- Which second-year player makes the big leap?
- Will Florida start to see O-line depth emerge?
- Who starts at safety?
- Who emerges as the backup quarterback?
