The Gators are expecting a clear improvement in their offensive line against hurricanes

Now, it's only a little over 24 hours before the Florida Gators open the Orlando 2019 college football season against Miami, and the positive and negative attributes of UF and the opposition are well known.

For the Hurricanes, it remains to be seen how the team will behave during the debut of Manny Diaz's head coach; It does not matter if the Miami roster in seventh place is lacking in experience, while rookie Redshirt quarterback Jarren Williams was sentenced to the team's redesigned attack.

And for the Gators, entering the season with a top 10 high in the two big polls among the top 25 pre-season, the progression of the offensive line has been a central point since the end of the 2018 season. At the spring camp, Florida coach Dan Mullen said the unit – especially the linemen behind the starting rotation – should move into the offseason before the team resumes in late July. to begin the pre-season installation.

"We are trying to train very young offensive linemen right now. I do not speak of those. I'm talking about guys (second channel), "said Mullen." You've been there, right now, it's huge for our o-line. "

However, after 20 practices – not to mention a week of surveillance of the Hurricanes – UF's offensive line has progressed from one notch to another, according to those who get a close and personal vision of their progress.

"I think we have as much potential (if not more than last season)," said offensive line coach John Hevesy. "The problem is that last year everyone was learning. Everyone was learning. Me, the offensive coaches. These guys now know me for the most part, except for young children. But everything was new last year. All out of my mouth, these guys had to understand the covers, the pressures, it was like, "What? What? What? Now, it looks like half the room has it, half says, "What?" So it was cut in half. "

Given what is at stake, there is little point in adopting a pessimistic state of mind before kick-off. While Florida is full of talent and talent and ready for a mighty season with quarterback Feleipe Franks quarterback, Hevesy knows that the strength of the offensive rests on the shoulders of the offensive line.

"I have no choice but to (feel good)," said Hevesy. "All the confidence in the world. They have to go play and they have to play hard. "

This is probably the most enthusiastic endorsement Hevesy can give to a unit with only 23 starts combined. Although the gaming experience is almost impossible to simulate, Florida's protection thinks it has made good progress in the months following the first Orange and Blue game.

"I feel that we have come far. We are just clicking ahead, "said Junior Left Guard Brett Heggie. "It's just another game and we just have to be ready. We must prepare.

Behind Heggie – who started 10 games in Florida and where Nick Buchanan, the senior Redshirt – has 13 other starts on the team's offensive line – hides a plethora of inexperienced underclasses, including real Kingsley freshmen Eguakun, William Harrod, Ethan White and Michael Tarquin.

It is clear that Florida would be captivated by more experience and depth, but alignment is established – although the rotation behind the top five is still to be seen.

All Florida's offensive line can do is continue to progress as they did in 2019, until Saturday and beyond.

"We are still improving every day. I would like to say that we are better today than we were the first day of the camp and that we will be better tomorrow than we were today. It's our state of mind: we come here and we worry about the little things, the technique, the fundamentals, and we get better every day, "said Buchanan. "We will never be comfortable with ourselves. We come here every day and strive to improve ourselves. When we come to the match, we are confident in the work we have done. We will not win the match on Saturday. We started winning this game in January when we started off-season conditioning. "