Former Florida coach Urban Meyer placed a heavy emphasis on special teams when he helped the Gators win two national championships. Current coach Dan Mullen was an offensive coordinator under Meyer and said he wanted to focus on side of the ball when he was hired. Through three years with the Gators, his special teams unit has been average at best.
They have only scored on a punt or kickoff return twice on 87 attempts during his tenure. Because of those average statistics, Mullen recruited defensive back Fenley Graham who excelled in those areas. At Lakeland High School, he collected more than 1,600 combined return yards, three kickoff return touchdowns and three punt return touchdowns in his high school career.
“Fenley coming out of high school, obviously everybody knew that was a guy that was very much a utility player, a really good football player, can return punts, can return kicks, can move him around defensively,” Mullen said on Thursday. “A guy who has a really natural instinct for the ball. Obviously, in the return games, he’s up there big.”
Because of his size at 5-foot-9-inches, Graham is similar to special teams ace Brandon James who starred under Meyer.
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Mullen also added that they are trying former five-star running back Demarkcus Bowman on kickoff returns.
On punt returns, he said that wide receiver Xzavier Henderson, wide receiver Ja’Markis Weston and cornerback Kaiir Elam have been getting some run at the punt return position.
It’ll be interesting to see if these moves pay dividends in 2021.
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