Gators release list of inactive players for Missouri game

Due to an outbreak of COVID-19 on the Florida Gators football team, fifteen players are listed inactive as the game sets to begin.

The Florida Gators will be missing 15 players tonight when they face the Missouri Tigers at home in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium after an increased number of COVID-19 positive tests were announced this week, yet the team still managed to field enough scholarship players to meet the Southeastern Conference’s minimum of 53.

Below is a list of the players sitting out as of game time.

3 Marco Wilson
6 Shawn Davis
12 CJ McWilliams
13 Donovan Stiner
14 Quincy Lenton
19 Evan McPherson
21 Ethan Pouncey
24 Avery Helm
25 Chester Kimbrough
32 Mordecai McDaniel
34 Lacedrick Brunson
47 Austin Perry
66 Jaelin Humphries
75 TJ Moore
77 Ethan White

The biggest names of note are defensive backs Marco Wilson, Shawn Davis and Donovan Stiner, as well as star kicker Evan McPherson. The Gators will play shorthanded against a well-balanced Missouri offense but a less-than-stellar defense, which should make for an interesting matchup.

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Jags land various Gators in Draft Wire 3-round mock

The Jacksonville Jaguars were able to find their TE of the future in Draft Wire’s newest mock and he plays down the road in Gainesville.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will be wrapping up the first quarter of their 2020 season and it’s been clear that 2021 should be a year where they may need to bolster their defense over their offense. Despite that, Draft Wire’s Luke Easterling had the team opening up his latest mock with three consecutive offensive players, most of which still make sense for their team.

With their first selection, Easterling had the Jags replacing one Alabama left tackle with another by slotting them Alex Leatherwood to hold down things on the blindside.

14. Jacksonville Jaguars

Alex Leatherwood | OT | Alabama

While it’s understandable for the Jags to be slotted offensive players early even with their defensive struggles, this pick may be better spent elsewhere. Simply put, it feels like the Jags have way bigger issues than left tackle. Again, that’s really the case on defense, but there are also some bigger offensive needs than at left tackle.

Sure, Robinson is coming up on a contract year and has been sporadic, but it’s possible fans could be satisfied with the offensive line play when the regular season is over. Offensive coordinator Jay Gruden has gotten the group to play better than we’ve seen in the past although the pass protection is still a work in progress.

As for Leatherwood, my aforementioned statements aren’t to say he’s not talented. At 6-foot-6, 310 pounds, he’s a sturdy tackle who has insane strength when he clutches on to a defender. He’s shown good movement skills, too, but his technique can get in the way and that’s likely because he’s still learning the tackle position as a former guard.

The Jags’ next pick in the first round (thanks to the Los Angeles Rams) was one many fans won’t disagree with, even with there being defensive needs.

25. Jacksonville Jaguars (from LAR)

Kyle Pitts | TE | Florida

The Jags have struggled to find “the guy” at tight end for much of Dave Caldwell’s tenure. Whether he’s with the Jags’ front office or not in 2021, there isn’t a tight end in college playing better than Kyle Pitts right now, who currently has six touchdowns and 227 yards on the season. In fact, he’s been playing so well that it appears he won’t be available outside of the top-10, though there is plenty of football to be played.

After going with Pitts, the Jags doubled-up on Gators, landing his quarterback Kyle Trask with the selection given to them by the Minnesota Vikings.

34. Jacksonville Jaguars (from MIN)

Kyle Trask | QB | Florida

This pick, of course, hinges on what the Jags get out of Gardner Minshew II. Right now, it’s been more good than bad from the second-year signal-caller, but something we’ve stressed at the Jags Wire is to watch how Minshew looks during the back end of the Jags’ schedule. That’s when the harder opponents will take the field against them, and some even have elite defenses like the Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens.

Trask was an intriguing prospect in 2019 and has looked solid in the early stages of 2020, completing just under 72% of his passes for 684 yards, 10 touchdowns, and just one pick. At 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, he also offers impressive size and could intrigue a new front office that inherits good draft capital if Caldwell is fired.

With their second pick in the second-round, the Jags finally addressed the defense by selecting Pittsburgh safety Paris Ford, who would clear up a huge need.

45. Jacksonville Jaguars

Paris Ford | S | Pitt

Ford is a tenacious safety who plays with emotion and could really bring some life to the Jags secondary. Scouts like his downhill ability and skills in zone, but also feel he would be fine as a single-high safety, too. Simply put, he makes a lot of sense for the Jags because he could help them with their woes against the run and struggles in pass defense.

To round up the mock draft, the Jags were slotted yet another Gator —this time on the defensive side.

76. Jacksonville Jaguars

Marco Wilson | CB | Florida

The Jags would be reuniting Wilson with their first pick from April, CJ Henderson. He’s stronger in zone than he is in man coverage and will need some work when it comes to his jam technique, but the tools are there for a team to develop if they would like.

With Easterling’s mock offering plenty to talk about, feel free to let us know on social media how you all feel about this group of prospects. Should they have gone with more offensive picks? Was it fine? Or are these simply prospects you all at home aren’t high on?

WATCH: Gators CB Marco Wilson Talks Season Opener, 2020 Expectations

Redshirt junior cornerback Marco Wilson, one of the veteran leaders on defense, talked about the matchup with the Rebels to the media.

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Florida’s 2019 offense, which featured the program’s most successful air attack in nearly 20 years, received a lot of praise during its 11-2 campaign last season. But the true anchor of the team was its ferocious pass rush and swarming secondary, which made life difficult for SEC quarterbacks not named Joe Burrow.

That defensive unit faces a challenge in UF’s 2020 opener against Ole Miss, who has the ability to put up points despite coming off a 4-8 season that resulted in the firing of coach Matt Luke.

Redshirt junior cornerback Marco Wilson, one of the veteran leaders on defense, talked about the matchup with the Rebels to the media.

“I’m excited,” he said. “The season got delayed, so it’s been a lot of practice against our own team, so we’re just excited to go against somebody else and start competing.”

Asked about his goals for the upcoming season, Wilson said he wants to lock down his fundamentals while having a greater impact on the game. He had 36 total tackles and three interceptions a year ago after coming back from a season-ending knee injury early in the 2018 season.

“Make sure I’m touching the ball every game, and just make sure my coverage is on point. I want to get more interceptions than I got last year, and that’s pretty much it. I just want to win.”

If Florida’s going to start off in the win column, it has to be prepared for not just one Mississippi passer, but two.

Coach Lane Kiffin is yet to announce a starter between sophomores John Rhys Plumlee and Matt Corral (a one-time Florida commit). Both quarterbacks split time fairly evenly last season, but Plumlee was much more productive in the ground game, rushing for over 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Both could see the field on Saturday, and Wilson said the defense is prepared to contain the dual-threat attack Plumlee could pose.

“We’ve just got to make sure we contain him,” Wilson said. “We’re aware that he’s a guy who can run, he’s a guy who’s fast, so we’ve got to make sure we keep an eye on that, don’t get lazy in our techniques up front, and make sure we hone in on that.”

Kickoff between the Gators and Rebels is set for noon on ESPN, and Wilson and the Florida defense will hope to spoil Kiffin’s debut in Oxford.

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ESPN SEC East preview: Can the Gators finally win the division under Mullen?

Coach Dan Mullen has gone 21-5 in his first two seasons as the coach at UF but there’s one hump he yet to overcome: winning the SEC East.

Dan Mullen has gone 21-5 in his first two seasons as the coach of the Gators, but there’s one hump Florida has yet to overcome during his tenure: winning the SEC East.

This could be the year to do it. UF returns its starting quarterback in Kyle Trask, several experienced receivers and most of its defense. Meanwhile, Georgia — who has won the division the last three seasons — has to replace quarterback Jake Fromm, and Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman, the player expected to do so, is opting out of the season.

The East feels up in the air, even more so now. With that in mind, how does ESPN’s Bill Connelly see the division race going down? Here’s what he wrote about the Gators in his preview.

Head coach: Dan Mullen (21-5, third year)
2019: 11-2 (6-2), seventh in SP+
2020 projection: 8-2, fifth
Five best returning players: CB Marco Wilson, S Shawn Davis, QB Kyle Trask, TE Kyle Pitts, LT Stone Forsythe

Your view of Florida’s place in the national title race this fall is almost 100% determined by your view of Kyle Trask. That isn’t exactly profound — quarterback is the most important position in any team sport, of course — but Trask is a hard player to figure out.

After taking over for the injured Feleipe Franks last year, Trask posted a 25-to-7 TD-to-INT ratio and finished 10th in the country in Total QBR. But he thrived at least partially because of the game plan. His passer rating was 169.6 on first down, 148.0 on second and 139.2 on third, and Florida ranked only 53rd in blitz downs success rate. When conditions were favorable, he thrived. When they weren’t, he didn’t. And that was with Van Jefferson and Freddie Swain, last year’s top wideouts. They’re both now gone.

You have to go back to 2015, with Alabama’s Jake Coker, to find the last time a team won the national title without a surefire first-round talent behind center. Coker had the nation’s best defense at his disposal, and 2014 champion Cardale Jones had a crazy-good run game for distracting defenses. Florida’s defense will certainly be good, but will the Gators have enough going for them to make a run if Trask doesn’t enjoy a Joe Burrow-like senior leap? In this year of uncertainty, will continuity — a third-year coaching staff that has remained mostly intact, plus a second-year starting QB and strong overall returning production numbers — make up for whatever the Gators might lack in star power compared to other contenders?

I don’t know that answer, but I do know there’s still a lot to like about Mullen’s Gators. The offensive line returns three starters and adds Mississippi State transfer Stewart Reese and his 33 career starts. The receiving corps still features efficient tight end Kyle Pitts and big-play threats in Trevon Grimes, Jacob Copeland, Kadarius Toney and Penn State transfer Justin Shorter. And the defense could be scary.

Coordinator Todd Grantham can get a little predictable in his aggression at times, but he’s brought results: He inherited a defense that ranked 33rd in defensive SP+ and improved it to 17th in 2018 and seventh in 2019. With most of last year’s two-deep back, Florida starts out this year projected third. Without Jonathan Greenard, Grantham needs a new ace pass-rusher, but he’s still got end Jeremiah Moon, and his linebackers are dynamite. So is a secondary that includes safety Shawn Davis and corner Marco Wilson.

The biggest question is the offensive run game. Florida was a dismal 107th in rushing success rate, which put a lot of pressure on Trask to make plays on early downs. The line is much more experienced this year, but a back still needs to step up, be it junior Dameon Pierce, Miami transfer Lorenzo Lingard or someone else. If they can run the ball and defend as well as it seems they could, Trask could certainly play at a Cokerian level and lead a Playoff push.

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Kyle Pitts, 2 other Gators featured on Draft Wire three-round mock

Here are the predicted landing spots for the three Florida football players expected to go in the first 96 picks of the 2021 NFL Draft.

In a three-round mock draft released by Draft Wire, the Gators had three players represented in the field. After having four players taken in the first three rounds in 2020, Draft Wire still sees a solid number of Gators going early in 2021.

Here are the predicted landing spots for the three players expected to go in the first 96 picks.

NEXT: No. 46 (Second Round) – Tight End Kyle Pitts, Tennessee Titans

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4 things to know about new Jets CB Quincy Wilson

Here are four things to know about new Jets cornerback Quincy Wilson, who New York traded the No. 211 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft for.

Instead of making a selection with the 211th pick, the Jets dealt the choice back to the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for CB Quincy Wilson.

New York originally traded the 211th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft in exchange for CB Nate Hairston. That pick was returned to Gang Green after the compensation conditions were not met. Wilson now joins his former Colts teammates, Hairston and Pierre Desir, as well as his former Florida teammates, Marcus Maye and Brian Poole, in New York’s secondary.

Not only did the Jets acquire an established veteran in Wilson — he has three-years playing experience under his belt — but he’s also just 23 years old. He has a lot of raw talent and the potential to play a pivotal role in Gregg Williams’ defensive scheme, which better fits his playing style.

With that said, let’s get to know the Jets’ newest addition to their secondary.

Scheme Change

Quincy Wilson played exceptionally well in the Colts’ press-man system in 2017 and 2018 when he received a Pro Football Focus grades of 71.1 and 69.9, respectively. In those two seasons, Wilson served primarily as the Colts’ No. 3 cornerback, recording two interceptions and 50 tackles.

Once the Colts switched to a zone-scheme to accommodate their personnel, Temple cornerback Rock Ya-Sin leaped Wilson on the depth chart. Wilson’s play immediately hit a wall. In 2019, Wilson received a PFF overall grade of 30.2.

The Jets are now hoping that a change in scenery and a return to a press-man coverage system under Gregg Williams will revitalize Wilson’s career.

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