Florida football: Gators are poised to have a top RB room in the SEC
By Will Thomas
Florida football heads into the 2023 season without their most dynamic playmaker on offense from last year in Anthony Richardson. The Gators QB was a do it all guy for Florida and was prolific running the ball.
It wasn’t just Richardson who utilized the ground game for the Gators last year though. In contrast to the Dan Mullen years, the Gators were a run-first team and relied on their ability to wear a defense down and get chunks on the ground to move the ball.
They had six games where a running back eclipses the 100-yard mark, and went over 2,500 yards as a team while crossing the goal line 29 times.
This season, we may see the Gators run the ball even more often than they did last season. Outside of Ricky Pearsall, the Gators don’t have many high-level threats on the outside.
In addition, transfer QB Graham Mertz isn’t known for his ability to sling the ball around the field. We have heard great things about Mertz coming out of Spring camp, but he’ll most likely be a game-manager type of player with a heavy reliance on the ground game.
The good news for Mertz is that the Gators have more than enough talent in their backfield to carry the load on offense, and a few players who are looking to explode on a national level this season.
Here, we’ll go through the running back room in Gainesville, and highlight some of the guys that could play a major role in this upcoming season.