Finishing on defense, so-so quarterback play and explosive plays from both the backfield and receivers highlighted Florida’s scrimmage on Friday night from coach Jim McElwain’s perspective.
With less than one week of Spring practices remaining before the Spring game and the gap until summer workouts, the Gators are getting their last few opportunities to work on their craft and impress the coaches.
One unit that took advantage of Friday’s scrimmage was the defensive line, which caught the eye of McElwain.
"I thought our defensive line did an outstanding job of finishing plays," he said. "I thought their energy and effort was outstanding."
The quarterbacks, on the other hand, weren’t at the same level.
All four signal callers had their bright moments during the scrimmage, the coach said, but none did anything overly impressive or performed well throughout the session.
"Quarterbacks, eh, just OK," McElwain said. "I mean not great, not bad, just kind of keep working on the consistency piece there."
However, that lack of consistency didn’t prevent Florida from putting together some big plays, a good chunk of which came out of the backfield through both rushing and pass catching.
But a few wideouts made an impact, too.
"Receiver wise, Dre Massey, I think him coming back has had a really good impact, he had four critical big plays in the scrimmage," McElwain said. "I mentioned Fulwood, which we know he has that ability."
Explosive plays have been one of the areas of weakness for Florida over the past few seasons, and it’s been an area of emphasis for McElwain this spring.
"It makes such a difference in games," he said.
Contact Graham Hack at ghack@alligator.org and you can follow him on Twitter @graham_hack24.
Jim McElwain instructs his players during Florida's Spring practice at the Sanders Practice Fields on March 9, 2016.
