Florida football: An inside look at the Gators’ special teams

You never really hear about them. Except when they do something really bad, or something extraordinary. But, Florida football coach Dan Mullen did talk about the Gators’ special teams unit ahead of this week’s practices.

If a punt is muffed or dropped.

If a kickoff is returned for a touchdown or fumbled.

If a gimmie extra point is missed, or if a long-distance field goal is nailed to win the game.

Those are about the only times you really hear mention of a squad’s special teams unit.

But, as Florida football was set to take the field for this week’s practices, head coach Dan Mullen did talk about the Gators’ special teams unit.

“I think our guys have worked really hard on it,” Mullen said. “We get a lot of reps in practice. I haven’t set any special teams’ depth charts.”

Mullen said he plans to set the special teams’ depth chart on game week, likely next week.

"“I like to kind of give everyone experience on special teams,” Mullen said. “We’ll, kind of, place the pieces, you know, on game week.”"

However, some spots are pretty much a lock at this point:

Tommy Townsend returns for his redshirt senior season to lead the Gators’ punt team. Last season, Townsend averaged 45.5 yards per punt and had 2,315 total yards on 51 punts for the season.

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He had 14 of those punts go for more than 50 yards and 24 punts fall inside the 20-yard-line.

Townsend notched one of the longest punts in Florida history with a 71-yarder against LSU last year. It was the seventh-longest in Gator history. Last season, Townsend was a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award and is on the watch list again this year.

Sophomore kicker Evan McPherson will handle extra points and placekicking this season.

Last season, he was 17-of-19 on field goals and led all freshman in field goal percentage. Nailed 3-of-4 kicks from beyond 40 yards and was 11-for-11 on kicks between 20 yards and 29 yards.

McPherson was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award and is on the preseason watch list for the honor this season.

However, there may be some battles for returners.

For punts, I would give the starting nod to senior Freddie Swain. He will likely be the backup Z receiver on offense, but Swain has speed. He also has experience as he was Florida football’s main punt returner last season.

In that, Swain was 19th nationally with a 10.2-yards-per-return average (oh, he also had an 85-yard return for a touchdown against Colorado State — check out the 1:30 mark):

Swain will likely be backed up by redshirt senior and fellow wide receiver Van Jefferson. Jefferson was the Gators’ leading receiver last season and it’s not likely Mullen and special teams coach Greg Knox will want to divert his focus away from that.

However, there could be situations where it is good to have two threats on return, in which case Jefferson would be a logical option.

On kickoff returns, I would give the main role to Kadarius Toney. The junior from Alabama had six returns for 133 yards last season.

He’s also pretty versatile as he came in as a wildcat quarterback in some instances. In that, he had a touchdown pass against Mississippi State after Feleipe Franks lateraled to Toney, who then dropped in a nice pass to tight end Moral Stephens for a touchdown.

I would give the backup job to redshirt freshman receiver Jacob Copeland.

Copeland had a kick return for 26 yards against Idaho in his college debut but had limited action after that. But, as Mullen wants to get guys reps on special teams, it would be a perfect place for Copeland to lay a foundation for a bigger role in the future.

The other positions that are up for grabs involve the line on punts and kickoffs.

“There are 88 starting spots and we did lose a bunch of starters,” Mullen said.

The Gators will open the season Aug. 24 in Orlando against Miami.