Florida Gators vs Miami Hurricanes EARLY PREVIEW | Breaking Down Florida's MASSIVE 2024 Season

Intro college football season is right around the corner and one of the biggest matchups of week one is when the Miami Hurricanes will be visiting the Florida Gator in the swamp to talk about that matchup fall Camp coming up Wednesday with the Florida Gators we have Gators online's Nick delatori Nick tell us about the weather in Gainesville we know it's for the Ft of heart I'm sure there's going to be some acclimating this week with fall Camp yeah it's uh it's that time of year in Gainesville where it rains every day whether that is all day or just for 15 minutes you can count on rain uh which just makes 98 uh feel even hotter when you get that humidity and nothing that Miami fans aren't experiencing down there in South Florida where I'm from but yeah it's uh it's hot weather uh if you still had weight to lose on the football roster guarantee you'll lose it during fall Camp no let's get right into this matchup with Miami I think that when you talk about the recent history of Florida you look at these week one matchups I feel like it doesn't get much bigger than this one you have a 2020 matchup with Miami to open the season Old Miss in 2019 talk about just the stakes of this week one matchup and maybe even bigger picture the stakes for Billy Napier specifically as we already have some hot seat conversations as he heads into his third year with the team yeah I Game Preview think Mario chrisal and Billy napia are intertwined they were both hired the same offseason they're both under 500 after two years I've been calling this week one match up the Hope Bowl because I think Mario and Billy are both selling their fan base's hope um hey we've got this thing in the right direction recruiting will get us to where we need to go just trust us and this is a rivalry game that used to to be yearly you don't really get it yearly anymore with conference expansion Florida will play Miami to start the year this year they'll play again in Coral Gables uh next year but after that I don't know the next time Florida and Miami will play so this this year and next year are really the last two times for the foreseeable future that we'll get a Florida Miami game it's a rivalry that means so much to both fan bases so good luck to the losing coach selling hope the rest of the year and for Florida specifically because this game is at home it's even more important to start because of the schedule Florida has Florida I think would take Miami's schedule in a heartbeat but the schedule Florida has they need to get wins early and I think starting the year off with a win against Miami really kind of solidifies and cements the belief that you build up throughout the offseason so it's a critical game uh for both the Florida Gators and for Billy apier yeah there's no question this starts off a series of instate games that are going to be huge non-conference wise for this team I'm sure we'll be talking about those later this football season but it maybe a little too early to start talking about the keys to this game and the matchup but we've seen kind of the good and the bad with the back-to-back Utah games in the last two seasons with this Florida team what do you think it's going to take for this Florida team to get that win in the swamp and what the biggest keys to the game might be yeah I Key to the Game think for Florida you know he doesn't get talked about a lot he wasn't on any of the preseason list but grah Merz I think it starts up front with grah Merz and um he's a 24 year old sixe uh player um and if you look at the recent history guys like Kyler Murray uh Joe burrow uh even Baker Mayfield the second year for a quarterback in a system after transferring the jump they've been able to take so I think internally and here in Gainesville Florida fans have gone from why is Florida getting a quarterback from Wisconsin who has no interest in the forward pass to a lot of confidence in grah Merz heading into this year and I think they did a good job adding a couple play players uh at receiver and on the offensive line to kind of protect Graham and to give him some options to throw to I think that's where it starts but it's the SEC everything is going to start up front I think Miami has a really good offensive line and defensive line Florida needs to protect Graham MZ and give him time uh to throw and Define those receivers yeah there's no question I think at SEC media days when you look at Billy Napier he was talking about the importance of Graham MZ coming back and how he's kind of the tip of the spear the spoon that's going to stir this thing and I think it's to talk about gr Merz without talking about DJ lagway The Freshman quarterback the five star who came in the spring who's been a longtime commitment to this class and you know naturally with with today's modern day of football freshman quarterbacks there's always going to be a conversation about them being in the backdrop what do you see lag's role being in Fall camp and maybe even this season if there's a potential for him to have a package in the offense or anything like that well I've written DJ Lagway this I I don't know that it makes any sense to red shirt DJ lague if he is what you think he's going to be that Five Star Plus athlete as we had him ranked he's not going to be at Florida in 2028 he's a three-year player and then goes on to the NFL uh and if he isn't what you're going to be we see quarterbacks every year hit the transfer portal you can only have one starting quarterback there's only one ball to throw um and quarterbacks leave if if they're not getting the playing time so to me it doesn't make any sense to red shirt DJ lagway because he's not going to be at your school for four years in my opinion um that being said it is gr Mer's team and Florida needs to win games they feel that grah Merz uh his experience gives them the best opportunity to win games this year so if you want to be able to coach DJ lagway next year you have to win games this year that means Graham Merz I think you have to get DJ some packages and get him involved um when I talked earlier about hope you know you need to sell hope DJ lagway is the future so Florida should in my opinion find ways to manufacture positivity around DJ um get him reps against um Miami he should probably play more snaps than gr Merz against Sanford in week two um let him experience games on the road at Tennessee and at Texas so that when he's the starter in 2025 it's not his first time playing meaningful snaps on the road so it'll be interesting to see how they get DJ involved uh a lot of Florida fans are comparing it to uh Tim TBO Chris leak during Tim's freshman year and that would mean maybe around 10 snaps a game uh maybe start you know get a drive the game but it's certainly going to be interesting to see how Florida implements DJ while we all know that Grant Merz is the starting quarterback no it's definitely something to closely watch I think throughout fall Camp watching how they push each other will be something interesting you talk about the non-conference matchups which are always a great opportunity but the meaningful snaps will be key we've seen a lot of freshmen get their first starts maybe in bowl games down the road so definitely looking forward to that and just to end on Fall Camp other than that quarterback competition not really competition but watching those two go up against one another with the one two is what other things in Fall Camp are you looking forward to as far as what we saw last year from a Florida team what you maybe want to see improved and what is going to be most telling at fall Camp heading into the year one one thing on Fall Camp Expectations each side of the ball let's start with the offensive line gr Merz was sacked over 30 times last year you have to be able to keep him upright um you have to be able to keep him healthy I think that's where it starts on on Florida's offensive line they get their Center back and Jake Slaughter who's a guy who really wasn't going to play last year other than Kings the igac and being injured and they kind of found a really good player in Jake Slaughter you get Austin Barber back as we're starting left tackle king um and then you go to the transfer portal to get Brandon kensaw Dixon so outside Florida feels really good interior wise they're still moving pieces around waiting for guys to earn and take those starting spots what's that starting five look like and can they keep gr Merz healthy go to go to the defensive side of the ball tackling and turnovers um last year Florida was second to last in the country in turnovers forced only beating Temple uh only forced three interceptions all year and and I think that's an area where you have to improve you have to win the turnover margin uh for a team that might have kind of a razor thin margin of error this year in a lot of their matchups and then tackling it has to be a point of emphasis um you can't give teams uh an opportunity to turn you know a one- yard gain that turns into an eight- yard gain 15 yard gain because of a missed tackle so it's been a point of emphasis for Florida all offseason uh in spring camp and I'm sure it will be again in Fall Camp just getting the ball carrier down to the ground yeah I know you and Zach talked on the gator online show about the running back position being something to watch now as well with Trevor etn out the picture the wide receiver hierarchy so definitely a lot to monitor for fall camp in Florida thank you so much for joining us Nick if you haven't already get yourself a membership to Gator online because they will be all over with the coverage with Florida this entire season if you like this video give us a like comment let us know how you feel and of course follow us on the on three Round Table Channel Nick thanks again for joining us hey I appreciate you for having me