Former Gators show up big during spring game

GAINESVILLE —

said he wanted to involve former Gators in the program and that was clearly the plan during the team’s first touchdown drive Saturday.

Redshirt freshman connected former UF safety for a 52-yard touchdown pass to start the second quarter. Decked out in a white jersey with a blue No. 4, Wright, 44, caught a perfect spiral before collapsing in the end zone for the score. A few

with minutes later, hit a

wide-open

for a 60-yard touchdown pass. McGriff, 41, was a wide receiver for the Gators in the late 1990s.

“I think it’s a great deal just to get some of the Gators back into it,” running back

said of seeing the former players back out on the field. “Those guys always come out to talk with us after practice and teaching us about the Gators standard and what we have to do.

“Getting those guys back involved will bring some juice back into our program. Those guys will show us how it was back in the day and we can reiterate those things.”

There were about 170 former players on hand for Saturday’s festivities, including

With kicker punter former Gators and

anticipating the future with the upcoming NFL draft later this month, UF introduced a new kicking unit Saturday.

a redshirt senior from Coral Gables, is taking over the placekicking duties and the new punter, who will also take over the holder duties, is former Orlando Boone standout

He is Johnny’s younger brother.

Powell made a 35-yard field goal in the game and Townsend, a redshirt junior, punted twice for an average of 45.5 yards.

“It was a cool experience to see Tommy out there,” said Johnny Townsend. “Me and Tommy have worked together for years and finally seeing him out there taking over the stage I once had, that was a cool experience. We’re each other’s biggest supporters.”

UF had numerous prospects in the crowd for the spring game and two of the biggest on hand were current and former Alabama commits — former Port St. Joe running back

of Bradenton IMG Academy, who decommitted from Alabama on Jan. 1, and current Tide commit safety

of Lakeland Kathleen.

While Gant said he remains committed to ’Bama, he said the Gators also remain in the hunt and he wanted to check out the energy in the Swamp generated by the new head coach.

“They still have a shot. That’s why I’m here. I just wanted to check everything out and see what the atmosphere was like … see what [Mullen] had to say,” Gant said.

Miami commit linebacker of Mount Dora Christian, the No. 1-ranked player in the Sentinel’s 2019 Central Florida Super60, was also in attendance. Georgia is another school he is considering, while FSU has said it plans to offer him a scholarship as well. So far, he remains committed to the Hurricanes. Former UF commit

., a linebacker at Orlando Jones High who decommitted from Florida about seven weeks after Mullen was hired, also was at the Swamp.

The 28 points the Orange team scored in the second quarter were a new record for the most points scored in a quarter. … Alums and were the celebrity coaches for Saturday’s spring game. …. The estimated attendance for the game was 53,015. It was the highest figure since 2009.