Florida 2022 Preview

[Weeze]

New head coach Weeze looks to rebuild the Gators and challenge for the SEC East

 

Florida 2022 Preview

An In-depth Look at the Florida Gators

After a long off season, the 2022 season is finally here. For the Florida Gators, this season is not expected to be the season they win it all. New Head coach Weeze took the job knowing he was going to rebuild the team from the ground up. With only 9 4* players on the roster, only 7 of those are projected starters with 1 officially being redshirted and 1 projected to be a backup this season. 3 of those 7 starters are also seniors. No matter how well the team performs on the field this season, Coach Weeze knows he has to win on the recruiting trail. Florida has to win big recruiting big time players. Florida enters the season with 94 players on their roster. 85 of those players are 3* are lower, with 53 of those being 2* or lower. In other words, 56% of the roster is rated as a 2* or worse. If the Gators expect to compete in the SEC East, much less for the SEC, this isn't going to cut it.

 

Coach Weeze, while he got mixed reviews from various media outlets on his recruiting last season, he himself will tell you he made critical mistakes at certain points of the season not pushing harder when he could, not using visits properly, but even with all these mistakes, managed to pull a 34th ranked recruiting class according to tsweezy media. The Jewel of the class easily would be Jerel Campos, the 5* corner from St. Louis Mo. Aside from Campos, Weeze seemed to have a mind for defense as he was putting together a very good defense class in his first year. DT Alex Aviles, FS Nicolas Holland were notable additions among others on defense. He didn't forget offense though as he did add some offense weapons in RB Deshaun Whelan and WR Nick Norman. If he can take what he did at Arkansas, learn from it and build on it, he should do very well at Florida. But there is also the negative, that it is Florida. There is a lot more competition. FSU, Miami, UCF, USF, FIU, FAU... Then there is the outside competition who will try to recruit inside Florida. But We are going to stay positive and assume the New Florida coach is gonna build on his success. The only real question for him is what side of the ball does he try to build up first? No matter what side he works up first..it needs help.

 

Coach Weeze Addressing the Gators following a Spring Game.

 

Moving on from recruiting, We are going to take a look at projected week 1 starters for offense and defense. We will start with offense before moving onto the defense. These are of course projected starters and things can change between now and their week 1 game with Kent State.

 

Pos - Name - Year- Star - Overall - pot - QB - Morgan Neal - Sr - 3 - B - B+ - RB - Sam Haynes - Sr - 3 - B - A- - FB - Tommy Murton - So - 4 - B - B+ - TE - Johnathan Kling- Jr - 4 - B - C+ - WR1 - Michael Burawa - Sr - 4 - A - C - WR2 - Kai Benkert - Jr - 3 - B - B - LT - David Jones - Sr - 4 - A - C - LG - Pharoah Phillips - Sr - 3 - B - B+ - C - Tim Grugier-Hill - So - 4 - B - C - RG - Brandon Recker - Jr - 3 - B - A - RT - Justin Crossen - Jr - 2 - B - A- -

Pos - Name - Year- Star - Overall - pot - RE - Manasseh Swoope - Sr - 3 - B - C+ - DT1 - David Kingery - Jr - 3 - B - B - DT2 - Bryon Caupain - Jr - 2 - C - B - LE - Chad Iyiegbuniwe- Jr - 3 - B - C+ - ROLB - Rusney Carasiti - Sr - 3 - B - B - ILB - Keenan Williams - Jr - 4 - B - C- - LOLB - Kendrick Locke - Jr - 3 - B - C - CB1- Trayvon Johnson - Sr - 4 - A - B+ - CB2 - Darrell Capela - Jr - 3 - B - B- - FS -Auden Busenitz - Sr - 3 - A - B - SS - Gerald Jefferson - Sr - 3 - B - B- -

 

5 of the forementioned 7 4* starters are on offense. The offense is, perhaps only marginally, the better half of the team. The O Line will come in into the season as the most senior group on offense, with 2 of the 5 4* being found there. David Jones, the senior LT has a nasty attitude and is a pretty effective pass blocker, leads the unit. He will be entering the draft excited to play for the coach who lead the SEC last season in drafted players(7). But he is also looking to pass on the leadership role to rising star Time Grugier-Hill. The Sophomore Center, has pro ready strength and agility. His Pass blocking skills is already top notch. With some work on his run blocking, Tim could find himself as a top Center in his draft class.

 

The weapons on offense are likely to be lead by WR Michael Burawa and Sam Haynes. The receivers for Florida over all is very weak. It lacks speed, and outside of its top two targets, it lacks excellent hands. Again, why the recruiting will matter so much more than the on field performance this season. Though the players may argue otherwise. Sam Haynes has excellent outside speed and decent strength, getting him into the open field will be a must. Creating those chances may be difficult however against some of the more proven defenses of the SEC however. One of the greater mysteries of the team is Tommy Murton. The 4* FB is a Bull. If Haynes can be the quick strike lightning so to speak, can Murton be the thunder? A bruiser and a short yard back that bodies the defenses and keeps the offense on the field in critical situations. Particularly if you can't trust your receivers to catch the ball. Regardless of his ability to run the ball, the FB is a fantastic blocker and his ability to open up running lanes and keeping the defense off the qb can't be understated.

 

The defense, is hard to figure out, it is the more senior group, but in terms of raw skill, raw ability, it is less talented than the offense. Keenan Williams and Trayvon Johnson, the 4* ILB and CB1 respectfully, are the heart and soul of the defense. The front seven, only has two seniors, RE Manasseh Swoope, and OLB Rusney Carasiti. Both will generally play the right side. The strength of the defense is going to come in the backside. The secondary is essentially all seniors. While we can't say the defense has a ton of raw ability, we are hoping this unit has had time to develop skills and learn from experience that maybe they can use to take advantage of younger players. Either way, Florida is going to need the offense to score lots of points to ensure that it doesn't need to rely on the defense to win games. Going in Week to Week needing your Defense to come up big is not going to be the key to success, the offense needs to click early.

 

Kent State

Maryland

at Nebraska

at Texas A&M

Missouri

LSU

Kentucky

at Vanderbilt

at Tennessee

BYE

South Carolina

Georgia (NS)

BYE

at Florida State

 

With a look at the team done, here is a look at the 2022 schedule. Kent State and Maryland both at home before heading to a big road game against Nebraska before opening SEC play on the road against Texas A&M, a place Coach Weeze should already be familiar and should have some experience with preparing his team to play there. After that however, Mizzu, LSU and the heavy weight Kentucky all at home in the swamp. These games in particular are vitally important. 2 East games and a rivalry game against LSU. Vandy and Tennessee follow up on the road before the Gators can finally get a breather. SCAR at home, then the Gators head to Jacksonville to take on the Bulldogs for their annual rival showdown at the worlds largest outdoor cocktail party. This will also be the final SEC game of the season. The Gators would love to snatch a win here more than any other. After a bye, they finish off the regular season in the state capital against Florida State, but hopefully this won't be the final game of the season.

[tsweezy]

Good write up! All I'd say is that is a lot of focus on stars, still a solid, solid mix of B and A overalls it looks like. A starting 11 on defense of all upperclassmen can't be overlooked

[Weeze]

And you’re right, i probably didn’t give enough credit to the fact that it was all upper classmen. I did notice that though. I guess I should have mentioned once you get pass the starters, the talent drops significantly. Those As and Bs goes to Cs and Ds real quick. And the grades on the secondary starters (slot receiver, nickel corner, etc) are essentially hot garbage. So while writing it. I think I zoned in so hard on it because I could see it while I was writing. I didn’t think about how others wouldn’t be able to see it. But I can see how maybe it was too much doom and gloom/focus on stars.

 

but it does feel nice to get really acquainted with the roster and have a firmer idea of how I need to attack the recruiting trail over the next several years.

[RobSun08]

This is great stuff! Can't wait for week two down in the swamp!