CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee released his list of one question each SEC team must answer during spring practice ahead of the 2022 college football season on Tuesday. He believes Florida needs to figure out who it will rely on in the running game to help accelerate the development of quarterback [autotag]Anthony Richardson[/autotag] after [autotag]Dameon Pierce[/autotag] and [autotag]Malik Davis[/autotag] graduated while [autotag]Nay’Quan Wright[/autotag] is recovering from a knee injury he suffered late last season. Here is what Sallee had to say.
Who will pound the rock? It’d be easy to say that the development of quarterback Anthony Richardson is the most-pressing question, but that development will accelerate if first-year coach Billy Napier can figure out his running back situation. Dameon Pierce and Malik Davis are gone, and junior Nay’Quan Wright won’t participate in the spring while he recovers from a knee injury suffered late last season.
Napier will have to rely on multiple players who have transferred into the program over the last few years to bridge the gap — [autotag]Lorenzo Lingard[/autotag] (Miami), [autotag]Demarkcus Bowman[/autotag] (Clemson) and [autotag]Montrell Johnson[/autotag] (Louisiana). Napier has used multiple running backs in key situations in the past, so this spring is a golden opportunity to build the depth that the Gators will need to be competitive in 2022.
Before diving in further, I’d like to applaud Sallee for not centering his question around a mythical Gators quarterback competition like other national media members have this offseason. Richardson is the starter in Florida’s season-opener versus Utah, barring a massive surprise.
This is definitely one of the biggest questions coach [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and staff have to answer this spring, besides who will be Richardson’s go-to receiver this spring.
It’ll be a difficult task to bridge the gap between last year’s unit and this year’s, but this team’s running back room has much more upside because of former five-stars Bowman and Lingard then add in the addition of Johnson who just had a strong season with the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Bowman should emerge from the spring as the designated starter with Johnson and Wright following suit. Lingard has struggled to see the field since transferring to Florida and needs to have a strong spring to see snaps this fall.
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