Offensive line remains in flux
Offensive line coach Stacy Searels was burned up by the play of his line in last Saturday’s scrimmage. Searels’ boss, Mark Richt, didn’t mind sharing their frustration over an inability to get the job done, particularly at right tackle.
After watching defensive ends roast his tackles time after time, Searels shuffled the deck, sending senior center Tyler Gauthier to the right side.
Tuesday, Gauthier was back in the middle, and Searels pulled an ace from the sleeve of his trademark gray crewneck sweatshirt: right guard Navaughn Donaldson. A freshman All-American last year, Donaldson has potential as big as his frame (6-foot-6, 350 pounds). Putting him at right tackle longterm would seal the edge, but would leave a crater at right guard.
“You think we’ll come out here and practice it and not be serious about it?” Searels said, prickly as usual, when asked about Donaldson playing tackle. “If he’s at tackle, it’s serious. It’s serious. … It’s based on (the fact that) we want to protect our quarterback. And we are going to put the best five out there to protect our quarterback.”
The best five, as Miami prepares for Saturday’s spring game (6 p.m., Hard Rock Stadium, no TV, 560 WQAM radio), includes senior left tackle Tyree St. Louis. Searels also trusts Gauthier, who performed well at right tackle and has game experience at left guard. Donaldson, still reshaping his body, looks like a future star.
He’s also encouraged by redshirt senior Jahair Jones, who has to this point held off other challengers at left guard.
“He’s doing a good job,” Searels said. “He’s stepping up. His play is starting to reflect his ability. He’s got to continue to get better, but he’s done a good job.” Then there’s right tackle.
It doesn’t appear to be redshirt junior George Brown Jr., the LSU transfer who spent the first nine practices as the firstteamer. He likes his youngsters — sophomore Kai-Leon Herbert, redshirt freshman Zalon’tae Hillery and true freshman John Campbell — but none is ready for a starting job. programs and compare the two. We want to make sure when they walk out of here, whether it is our spring game or whoever it is we are playing, every single game, when you walk into The Swamp it is the most electric atmosphere in college football. And these young players say: ‘That’s where I want to be. That’s the environment I want to play in. That’s the team I want to play for.’ ”
The official spring game attendance, as per program records, was about 65,000 in 2009, while the Gators have averaged 30,433 or so for spring games since 1984.
Mullen said Florida will announce guest coaches for the spring game later this week, and the Gators will then have a draft on Friday to split the team in half.
“I’ve always done it that way,” he said. “It’s not like the 1s against the rest of the team or some other thing. We’ll find a way to have a game and we’ll have two different teams going at it, so it should be a fun weekend.”