FLORIDA FOOTBALL & RECRUITING COVERAGE |
- Orange & Blue Game Postgame Press Conference
- Live from the Swamp: O&B Game Thread
- Inside the Gators: Mock Signing Class 1.0
- WCC: Live from Thursday’s Spring Practice
- Watch: Counting down Florida’s Top 20 March Visitors
- Anonymous Player Q&A III: Recapping Offseason Phase I & II
- ITG TV: Video from spring practice
- Behind the Scenes look at recruiting under Dan Mullen
- Anonymous Player Q&A News Feed
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Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson powered Team Blue, which consisted mostly of the first-team offense and second-team defense, to a 34-0 victory over Team Orange in Thursday's Orange & Blue spring game.
Here is Inside the Gators’ Instant Analysis.
THUMBS UP
Tight end involvement! Despite a litany of injuries to the tight end room, that didn’t stop both offenses from involving those filling in. Keon Zipperer, Dante Zanders, and even Noah Keeter caught several passes on patterns designed for them. Now, we’ll see if one of those last two sees more snaps as a result of Gage Wilcox’s career-ending injury. Zanders and Keeter paced the Blue offense with over 50 yards apiece, Zanders with five catches, and Keeter with three and a touchdown.
THUMBS DOWN
The Orange team defense. Anthony Richardson tore up this unit for four touchdown drives. It was essentially Florida’s first-team defense, but Richardson was too much for them. Does that speak to their inability or the ability of Richardson? Either way, over seven yards per play, four touchdowns, and 15 first downs allowed through those drives can’t be viewed as anything other than negative numbers for them.
FIVE TOP PERFORMERS
Anthony Richardson: Going against presumably the first-string defense, most people’s pick for QB1 looked on time and made solid throws, mostly over the middle, in his first two drives with the Blue offense. The Blue team’s first touchdown drive featured three passes between the numbers including a 19-yard touchdown to Ja’Markis Weston. His decisions looked quick and precise, especially on RPOs.
Montrell Johnson: The staff must think highly of him if it had him taking carries for both squads. He seemed featured quite a bit as he was one of the three main backs mixed in throughout. He ended the night second in total carries.
Tyreak Sapp: Finished with three solo tackles and six total. But don’t forget the great forced fumble on Demarkcus Bowman. That can only add to his case for minutes in the defensive front.
Jalen Kimber: He’s challenging for time at the cornerback spot. He tied with Diwun Black on the Blue defense with two pass breakups on the night, plus three solo tackles. He was tested several times against the second-team receiving core and stood tough a few times. Not to mention a sweet interception of Jalen Kitna late in the game.
Demarckus Bowman: He was quite the active back. He tallied several catches out of the backfield and led every running back with 17 carries for 61 yards despite one fumble on a kickoff return and another in the third quarter.
THIS AND THAT
The 2022 edition of the Orange and Blue Game was the first Florida spring game in three years. The last time Florida had a spring game, Dan Mullen was still the coach and used the attendance number to troll Georgia. 2022 was a return to form for spring games when it came to the format. But it did demonstrate one thing in real-time: a lack of quality depth at spots. Florida possesses first teams that can perform well but after those front-line players, it can kind of be a guessing game.