Day Eight of the Gator football team’s spring practice season took place this afternoon, and was once again streamed live on the team’s Instagram account (@gatorsfb), as well as Dan Mullen’s personal account (@coachdanmullen). Unfortunately, the internet connection wasn’t working too well for parts of the practice, leading to low-quality video on the stream.
Nonetheless, it’s always better to get to watch some Gator football action than not, and today we got a few more doses of that gift.
Here were some of the highlights.
Practice (or at least the portion of it that was broadcast to the public) kicked off with some full-contact, eleven on eleven trench warfare in the form of running plays in goal line situations. I captured several reps here, and I think what many people will be excited to see- despite the question marks on the offensive line- is the defense stand tall and hold its own.
Here were the next set of goal line reps I recorded. Again, note that the defense finally looks adequate in short yardage situations- thanks in large part to the new acquisitions on the interior of the defensive line, Daquan Newkirk (Auburn) and Antonio Shelton (Penn State).
After the goal line line reps, practice moved outside, and the first stop was the quarterbacks. Today, they worked a good amount on their play-fakes. Here’s the first batch of reps there:
And here were a few more. Shoutout to the desperate and/or bored fans in the comments of the Instagram Live feed for pestering Lee Begley, the director of recruiting operations at Florida (and the woman recording the live stream) about Demarkcus Bowman, and shoutout to Lee Begley for not being able to help herself and troll them in response. Just perfect.
Then it was time for some routes on air.
A few more routes on air, mostly drag and short crossing routes.
Then it became time to put bodies on the receivers, and start the real competition. On the whole, the defensive backs did well today- particularly freshman sensation Jason Marshall.
Begley stayed with the one on one WR vs. DB drills for awhile, so here was the next string of reps. Of course, the defense isn’t going to win every rep in any one drill, but it was noteworthy how the defensive backs were winning more of these one on one battles than they have been winning so far in spring ball.
And here were the final few one-on-one reps of the WR vs. DB battle.
To cap it all off, the Instagram live feed was graced with the presence of none other than Tim Tebow. The former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and two time national champion chatted with Begley for almost ten minutes about a variety of topics, including his foundation, his favorite memories with the Gators and how he can’t watch the current team play with too many people around him. He also got to talk with Mullen for a minute (after all, this was being broadcast on his Instagram account) at the end.
Watch their conversation in its entirety below:
