Notebook: Day 5 of Florida Gators Fall Camp 2022 – Sports Illustrated
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Photo (left to right): Lorenzo Lingard, Jabbar Juluke and Trevor Etienne; Credit: Zach Goodall
Another rainy day in Gainesville had the Florida Gators in their indoor practice facility for the fifth practice of 2022 fall camp, their third day in a row in the complex.
You can find AllGators’ observations from the media viewing portion of practice below, as well as our notebooks for each day of camp so far this year. Since day three, we have covered positions individually to maximize the viewing window, with Monday’s focus on the Gators’ running backs.
Focusing on the running backs
The lone run-game drill in the media viewing window was a counter rush where the running backs practiced their footwork in tight quarters — navigating bags on the ground with two steps required in each of the first four spaces (out of seven total spaces) —, their pad level by clearing a small chute and their ability to bounce off contact by thudding a tackling dummy immediately after clearing the chute.
AllGators was able to observe each running back complete the drill once. We’d rank each of the four scholarship back’s reps in this drill as follows: True freshman Trevor Etienne, redshirt junior Lorenzo Lingard, sophomore Montrell Johnson and redshirt sophomore Nay’Quan Wright.
Etienne executed the drill perfectly, getting all of his steps in without touching any bags, clearing the chute and knocking the bag to the ground. Lingard’s left foot touched the first bag but he didn’t let that slow him down, navigating the rest to perfection, clearing the chute and delivering the strongest punch on the bag of the bunch.
Johnson’s rep was solid, although the navigation test at the beginning of the drill wasn’t his strong suit as it took him more time to clear the first three bags than it did the other backs. He also could have made better contact with the bag to shake off the “tackler.” Wright had two missteps in the double-step spaces with three steps in one space followed by one step in the next, then his helmet dinged the chute and his bag punch didn’t carry much force. Wright was asked to redo his rep as a result.
You can find a clip of each four backs in this drill in the clip of the day section below.
Otherwise, the majority of the running back workout media was able to view revolved around the pass game. The unit ran swing routes from the backfield and curl routes while lined up at outside receiver when media first entered the facility.
The swing routes were on check-down reads, delaying the pass after the backs settled into their break, making it tough to pinpoint any standout reps. However, Johnson ran a sharp curl route and caught his pass, notably.
After the rushing drill, the running backs began to work on pass protection, taking on two “rushers” while working on hand placement and striking power as well as pad level and leverage-creating.
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Once again, Etienne was a standout in this drill, showing off the lowest center of gravity of the bunch and meeting the bags with a strong punch as well as adequate hand placement. This may come as a surprise as Etienne was not overly involved in the passing game during his high school career.
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Photo (left to right): Lorenzo Lingard, Jabbar Juluke and Trevor Etienne; Credit: Zach Goodall
Another rainy day in Gainesville had the Florida Gators in their indoor practice facility for the fifth practice of 2022 fall camp, their third day in a row in the complex.
You can find AllGators’ observations from the media viewing portion of practice below, as well as our notebooks for each day of camp so far this year. Since day three, we have covered positions individually to maximize the viewing window, with Monday’s focus on the Gators’ running backs.
Focusing on the running backs
The lone run-game drill in the media viewing wi…….
Photo (left to right): Lorenzo Lingard, Jabbar Juluke and Trevor Etienne; Credit: Zach Goodall
Another rainy day in Gainesville had the Florida Gators in their indoor practice facility for the fifth practice of 2022 fall camp, their third day in a row in the complex.
You can find AllGators’ observations from the media viewing portion of practice below, as well as our notebooks for each day of camp so far this year. Since day three, we have covered positions individually to maximize the viewing window, with Monday’s focus on the Gators’ running backs.
Focusing on the running backs
The lone run-game drill in the media viewing wi…….