The Back Alley Archives

Maybe it was only a few drills that lasted 90 minutes. Maybe it wasn’t anything to really hang your hat on, but it was football and for Florida’s freshmen and walk-ons, it was a chance to show the coaching staff that they’re eager and ready to start proving themselves. Even without a scholarship quarterback on hand, the offensive drills showed there is plenty of talent among the youngsters.

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Here is a position-by-position look at Monday’s first practice for the offense:

QUARTERBACK: No scholarship quarterbacks.

FULLBACK: T.J. Pridemore worked out on offense during some of the passing drills and looked better than I expected. For a guy who wasn’t heavily involved in a high school passing offense, his hands looked average, but he looked good during blocking drills. At the end of practice, the fullbacks and offensive linemen did some one-on-one drills with the defensive group. Pridemore has quick feet and was able to stay in front of many defensive linemen, including his high school teammate Omar Hunter.

RUNNING BACK: Jeff Demps was the only one who worked out at this position. The running backs, wide receivers, linebackers and defensive secondary all took reps running routes with the quarterbacks and catching passes. Demps has never been looked at as a running back with excellent hands, but he only dropped one of the passes and made a few impressive catches. The running back drills were few and far between with only one at the practice. During seven-on-seven drills, he caught a pass four yards past the line of scrimmage, blew past five defenders and would have taken it to the end zone with ease. After that, Coach Meyer crossed his arms, leaned back and yelled “wow!” He followed that up by yelling “speed, speed, speed!” There’s no doubt Demps could play a large role in this offense or special teams this fall.

WIDE RECEIVER: T.J. Lawrence spent the entire practice at safety, so Omarius Hines and Frankie Hammond were the only two scholarship wide receivers. Hines looks outstanding physically. His highlight film showed him attack the football at its highest point, and that’s what he did today. There was a drill where a coach would lob a football into the air and receivers would go up and catch the ball. Hines looked as if he was shot out of a cannon when he caught it. He can absolutely jump and is as physically impressive as any freshman wide receivers I can remember. Hammond is going to be an exciting player here. He’s only about 175 pounds right now and will most likely redshirt, but there’s no doubt he has plenty of ability. He shook a walk-on cornerback out of his shoes after he caught a drag route, but also caught a fade pattern 30 yards down the field. He will be a complete wide receiver some day but it may take him some time to add the necessary weight.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A surprise to me was Byran Jones being on the offensive side of the ball. I imagined he would start at defensive tackle to see if he could produce there this year. He’s probably going to redshirt though. Not only is the interior offensive line extremely deep, but Jones may need to reshape his body a little bit. Sam Robey looks like he could be able to play either center or tackle, wherever the need may be. He looks around 300 pounds right now.

Practice ended with senior long snapper James Smith leading the freshmen in singing the fight song.