Nick de la Torre, who covers Florida for On3 Sports, tells McElroy & Cubelic where his expectations are for the Gators & what Graham Mertz has learned heading into this season
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Get to Nick De La Torre here in just a moment. Talk Florida Gators camp underway. 936 a.m. Thursday, August 1st. GMAC, before we do that, tell our listeners about B-Dry. B-Dry has been serving homeowners here in Florida

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All right. Let's go to the Buyers Ready Hotline now. Nick De La Torre covers the Florida Gators. He's joining us on the Buyers Ready Hotline. Practice started yesterday. Anything stick out? Anything a little bit different? Anything maybe catch your attention that was unexpected for the Florida practice yesterday, Nick?

I think just health. I mean, we know how injuries can pop up throughout the spring and summer. And Florida only had one player in a non-contact jersey, a freshman, great

Gregory Smith, and he was still kind of going through things. So as Florida had to kind of shuffle strength coaches with Craig Fitzgerald leaving, Tyler Miles, I think him and his staff not only got the guys to be bigger, faster, but kept them healthy. So I think from a standpoint of just starting the fall camp in a good spot and you hope to keep that,

as you're 30 days away from the first game. But I think that kind of stood out to me, just the way the guys looked coming off of the summer program and just starting camp healthy. Well, that's super encouraging. So much has been made about Graham Mertz. Is he overrated? Is he underrated? Can he take the next step? Will he be able to carry the team in the event in which maybe there's other parts of the team that are still a work in progress? So I know it's early, but how has he looked as far as his command?

I think it's interesting because this time last year, everyone was wondering why did Florida go to Wisconsin to get a quarterback, maybe an offensive lineman from Wisconsin in the transfer portal, but not a quarterback. And Graham Mertz proved everyone wrong last season. I think he's only taken the next step in terms of his

his knowledge of the playbook. He said something that really stuck with me. And it was last year. I was learning my teammates names this year. I'm learning there. Why, why are they here? Why are they playing? What does it mean to them? So I think Graham is kind of ready to take that next step that we've seen second year transfer portal quarterbacks make like Joe Burrow did or Kyler Murray. The command he has of the offense, I think is exceptional. And,

And the biggest thing that we're looking for from Graham, I think, is that deep ball. Really didn't connect on deep balls last year. I don't think it's an arm strength issue. Maybe it's just the way he knew the plays and where his eyes were going because of his knowledge of the playbook. So I think that's something with the guys they've added, Elijah Badger, Tim Dike, and, of course, Eugene Wilson coming back. I think Florida will look to try to push the ball down the field a little bit more this year with Graham.

What are your expectations of the run game? All indications that I get are that the offensive line is going to be a little bit better, going to be improved. We know what Montreal is about as solid as you're going to get in college football with the running back position. Maybe not super dynamic explosive, but somebody that you're going to be able to lean on. I'm excited about Jaden Ball. If he gets a real opportunity, don't know how much he's going to get.

But from what I saw in the spring game, I think he can be special. What's your outlook of the Gators' run game this season? Yeah, that's going to be the question for me. Last year, or the last two years, Montrell and Trevor Etienne got about 92% of the running back carries. What does that shake out? I think there's a belief inside the building that Montrell can be a guy that can carry the ball 25 times a game and maybe even get stronger as the game goes and if he gets more carries. Yeah.

But how do you mix that up with Tram Webb, Jaden Ball? They have a transfer, second-year guy Jacoby Jackson, and then Katie Daniels. There's a lot of talent. And I've said for the entire offseason, I think losing Trevor Etienne, as good of a player as he is,

was worse for the perception of the program than it will be for the production. Because I really like Florida's backfield. Like you said, Montrell's gotten 800 yards or more in all three of his college seasons. He'll go over 3,000 career yards. He's capable. And then behind him, I think Jaden Boss showed off in the spring game, but he's not the only one. And I would expect to see Katie Daniels and Jacoby Jackson a little bit as well, too.

What about as we transition to the defense? I think all of us feel pretty good about the offense. I think the weapons are going to be really underappreciated. I love some of the... Well...

Love is probably a bit of a stretch, but I do think they have a couple of sneaky good additions to the wide receiver core. I think Eugene Wilson's very capable of stepping into a number one spot. I like their personnel offensively. I really do. I think they can score. Defensively is the big question, and there's a lot of reason to believe that there's been progress made, but that's kind of just listening to what people are saying. How true is it, though, in the progress that supposedly has been made?

Yeah, I think there has been progress. Billy Napier had never fired an assistant coach in six years. Less than 24 hours after the season ending last year, he fired two. They have three new coaches. They've added 13 new players, either through the transfer portal or through high school recruiting. I think it's Florida's

best roster, deepest roster. And a lot of that is because of the changes and the additions on defense. And I think it starts probably with at the back end with Asa Turner, DJ Douglas, Jaquez Bridges. They added over 5,000 snaps of experience and guys who are proven tacklers sort of struggled just getting the ball carrier down last year and

And that's an area they really, really targeted this offseason. Another guy, Pup Howard, who's just up the road from Jacksonville. You missed out on signing him out of high school, but you get a nice rebound in the transfer portal. And I think he'll start next to Shamar James. So it's an improved linebacker room. And then the big thing for me will be Kim Florida get to the quarterback because there was a lot of talk last year about the secondary not doing well. It

if you have to cover a guy for seven seconds because you're not getting pressure on the quarterback, the offense is going to have a lot of success. So can't Florida get pressure. You have to replace Prince. I think justice spoon, uh, LJ McCray, TJ Searcy are three guys that can do that. But I also want to see Florida get a little more pressure and a little more penetration from the interior defensive line. That's Cam Jackson, Caleb Banks, and then the either the transfer, Joey Slackman, who is one of the most football guys I've seen. He's,

headband, eye black for 5 a.m. workouts on a Friday morning, old school football guy. So I think Ford has done a lot to kind of reshape and rebuild the defense, and there's definitely optimism in Gainesville that it'll pay dividends.

Nick De La Tour talking Florida Gators with us. All right, so you kind of mentioned, alluded to this just a little bit, guys being a little bit stronger. Billy talked about the muscle mass that's been added, just the conditioning aspect of it, which we kind of said it earlier in the week, Nick. I've heard more coaches talk about how different their guys are this offseason around the league than I think I've ever heard. I don't know why it's all of a sudden so different now. How much of a difference do you really believe this could make for this team this season?

Yeah, well, everyone works out really hard in the offseason, so I think you probably get these stories from more places. But I got the opportunity kind of –

go behind the scenes and spent a couple of days with Tyler miles. Um, he calls himself, uh, you know, a redneck meathead from Kansas grew up on a farm. Um, but as I watched everything they do is analytic and data driven and they're looking at numbers and they're changing things. So, um, when I look at their speed numbers, I think they said, um, they have 15 guys running 22 miles an hour, two players who are running 23 miles an hour. And I think that,

you're getting back to what made Florida great during the Urban Meyer years. And he wanted to have the fastest team at Florida. And I think for the first two years, Florida was kind of trying to play like Michigan or play like Kentucky and have big, strong offensive, defensive lines and run the ball. And just when you're recruiting the state of Florida, you have unbelievable access to skilled position players and speed. And I think Florida is kind of finding that out and getting guys where they

You have a little more speed and space, and you can get them the ball. So to me, looking at the guys, they look fantastic. I think the world of what Tyler Miles has done and Jake Sankel, they have a nutritionist who's also on the strength staff. I think that's an interesting dynamic that you'll probably see more teams

start to mimic because it just makes sense but yeah Florida to me looks bigger stronger faster but you know like I said everyone works out really really hard in the summer it matters what you do on Saturdays in the fall quickly because we're running out of time here but I just am curious like everyone seems to still be super down on Florida I think Cole and I have

We are of the blue. We're probably as high on them as anyone in the media, especially the national media. Where are the fans with where this team might be this year? Yeah, I think they're definitely split. I've had fans tell me that Florida's going to go 10-2, and fans who think they're going to win three games and fire Billy. I think we've talked so much about the schedule, but

But it's kind of more manageable if you start looking at things. You get LSU at home. Jaden Daniels, the number two overall pick, isn't there. Two first-round wide receivers aren't there. You get Kentucky at home. That's a game you need to win. You get Miami at home. I think Florida – I'm hammering the over. And I know the people in Las Vegas don't lose, don't keep building palaces in the desert for setting lines wrong. But I think four-and-a-half wins –

is a little low based on what I've seen this summer and what I'm going to see this fall. I think Florida will surprise some people if you're going into the season thinking that their team is not going to go to a bowl game. Nick, we appreciate the time. The updates on Florida fall practice, it's underway, it's here, and we'll have you back soon.

All right. Thanks. How are you doing? Thanks, man. That's Nick De La Torre. He covers the Florida Gators at De La Torre. You can follow him on Twitter. Find his work at GatorsOnline.com.

Well, it's interesting. They've got new pieces. There's some confidence with a lot of people on those new pieces and maybe what they'll be. So we'll keep you updated on Florida practice as it continues. When we come back on the other side, bad box score of the day and some bad news on a former Alabama player right after this on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kublik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than that.

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