Looking Back On, and Forward To, Florida's WR Room
The Gators are entering a crucial offseason, the second of head coach Billy Napier's tenure, looking to turn things around after Florida posted its second consecutive 6-7 record to conclude the 2022 campaign.
After nearly two dozen scholarship players entered the transfer portal and another ten declared for the NFL Draft, the roster will undoubtedly look a lot different in Napier's second year at the helm.
Therefore, All Gators is breaking down every position on Florida's roster as the offseason gets underway, looking back on every contributor's 2022 season and looking forward to each unit's 2023.
After recently looking at both positions in the backfield with the quarterback and running backs, we now shift our focus to the weapon on the outside by analyzing the past and future of the Gators' wide receiver spot.
Looking back
Florida's wide receiver room entered last season billed as one of the most worrisome groups for the Gators' success.
Despite returning two key returning contributors in Justin Shorter and Xzavier Henderson to the fold from 2021, the depth of the unit developed under previous head coach Dan Mullen provided little signs of promise for the staff taking over. That came on top of the shortcomings in progression from the aforementioned two former top WR prospects out of high school.
Simply put, the unit Napier and Co. inherited was lackluster, and the new Gators staff tried its best to reconcile what it had.
Shorter and Henderson took early steps forward under wide receivers coach Keary Colbert, who proved to be an immediate factor in their development from the start to spring.
With those two wideouts set to control the outside in place, Florida hit the portal, looking for another option from the slot the offense could depend upon. To find that explosive balance in the passing game, the staff elected to bring in Arizona State transfer slot wideout Ricky Pearsall following the spring practice sessions.
He entered the room alongside 2022 February signee Caleb Douglas.
His emergence in summer and fall camp quickly turned heads as he became a front-runner to assume the WR1 spot in terms of usage and production.
However, while the trio ranked as the three best pieces for Florida statistically, the unit failed to present the speed in space needed to provide the Gators with a dynamic air attack for quarterback Anthony Richardson to take advantage of. Equipped with a bevy of possession receivers who could produce adequately in short to intermediate levels of the field, the Gators still lacked the ability to take the top off of defenses at any point.
Florida found mild success from Shorter in the middle of the year, sending the fifth-year senior of deep posts — usually at the beginning of games — to catch defenses lacking. He hauled in multiple deep balls on the year in these scenarios, but the unit still lacked a true deep threat to make these plays consistently without the necessity to catch an opposing secondary off guard.
Pearsall started to find his groove in space and down the field as his touches began to increase — providing a testament to his potential growth in the future — but it came late in the year.
To make matters worse, the room grew depleted when the war of attrition began in the closing stretch of the season. Henderson, Pearsall, Shorter, Marcus Burke, Ja'Quavion Fraziars and Thai Chiaokhio-Bowman each were bitten by the injury bug at inopportune times, starting with Florida's trip to Jacksonville at the end of October to take on eventual national champion Georgia.
That forced an already thin unit to rotate in second-and third-string reserves over the final four-to-five games.
It culminated in a battle with Vanderbilt, where starter Henderson was ruled out, Shorter returned at less than 100% from a previous absence due to his hamstring and Pearsall was knocked out after reeling in his lone catch of the contest in the first half.
Leaving a strain on the Gators' offense, the injuries at wideout allowed Vanderbilt to key in on a sputtering Gators rushing attack. The unit failed to find any positive movement against the Commodores' front line, totaling just 45 yards on 21 carries after a near-400-yard performance against South Carolina the week prior.
They did find an unlikely source of production from second-year pass catcher Daejon Reynolds, who posted a career day in orange and blue to give UF a needed boost in their comeback efforts. He totaled eight receptions, 165 yards and two touchdowns.
That day was good enough to catapult him into fourth in receptions yards (244) and sixth in catches (11) on the year.
Despite his impact, the lack of weapons across the board at Richardson's disposal plagued a Florida team operating in an already stagnant state. It dropped its first contest against the Commodores in Nashville since 1988, as a result, failing to secure a crucial seventh win of the season.
The unit, expectedly, underperformed throughout the season, a byproduct of the substandard amount of talent at the position and Richardson's inconsistency as a passer. Only five wideouts eclipsed the 10-catch mark on the season.
All Gators compiled the wide receivers' statistics from 2022 below.
- Pearsall: 33 receptions, 661 yards, five touchdowns, eight carries, 113 yards, one touchdown
- Henderson: 38 receptions, 410 yards, two touchdowns
- Shorter: 29 receptions, 577 yards, two touchdowns
- Reynolds: 11 receptions, 244 yards, two touchdowns
- Douglas: 10 receptions, 175 yards, two touchdowns
- Bowman: Seven receptions, 138 yards
- Whittemore: Four receptions, 87 yards
- Fraziars: Five receptions, 60 yards, one touchdown
- Burke: Four receptions, 30 yards
- Kahleil Jackson: Two receptions, 43 yards
- Jordan Pouncey: Two receptions, four yards
Looking forward
The journey ahead looks much brighter than it did this time last year for this Gators' skill position.
Bringing in multiple new pieces via the prep stage, and only losing the likes of Shorter, Reynolds (Pitt) and Trent Whittemore (UCF), the talent in the room seems to have undergone an upgrade despite the experience that leaves.
On the surface, it looks similar as veterans of Pearsall and Henderson will occupy the feature roles in the offense again with Fraziars, Douglas, Burke and Bowman serving in complementary roles for new quarterback Graham Mertz.
However, the pieces stepping in this offseason will determine the unit's success — and arguably the offense as it supplements the rushing attack — next season.
Understanding the necessity to replenish the roster heading into the future, the Gators hit the recruiting trail with intentions to secure talented prospects who also filled gaps at the position.
Namely, Florida looked for the speed in space that eluded the unit in year one of Napier's reign in Gainesville. They found three in-state prospects to plug the voids long-term.
Two of them fit the mold of dynamic deep threat with impressive speed on the boundary.
Eugene Wilson III will likely assume duties as a short area pass catcher early in his career with hopes of getting him to full-steam ahead in the open field. The screen passes that Napier called frequently will eventually be Wilson's duty as he displays his explosiveness.
Aidan Mizell, on the other hand, will feature in the role Shorter once controlled with deep hitters down the field, although more equipped to do so than his predecessor. But, with Mizell needing to put on considerable muscle before stepping onto the field and Wilson enrolling post-spring, it's likely that they'll able to contribute starting day one.
However, arguably the most game-ready piece of the incoming wideouts is Miami Northwestern product Andy Jean, who doesn't necessarily present the burners to take the top off of defenses or wiggle out of tackles in open space.
Instead, Jean understands the importance of being a technician as a route runner, finding ways to create space against defensive backs in coverage to give his quarterback a window to make a throw. He makes up for his lack of straight-line speed with his twitch at the top of the route. In addition, his technical ability to count steps and lose defenders by exploiting blind spots or flipping their hips away from where he wants to go is supremely advanced for his age.
Working with Colbert will only refine that skillset over the next eight months before week one kicks off.
While there is still room to build moving forward, the current pairing of players at wideout is a firm foundation for the Gators to utilize in 2023.
Before the season commences, it's expected that Florida will look to bring another wideout into the fold from the transfer portal, mimicking the formula they used to pluck Pearsall off the market when he elected to leave Tempe late last offseason.
Doing so would result in a quick turn from little options to an abundance of possibilities by the season's end, depending on the progression of the true freshman at that point.
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