Good Morning Gators: UF players enjoying 'vacation time'; new podcast
Florida Gators football is the No. 1 topic in Good Morning Gators every day — but we cover news, notes and analysis from across the Gators sports world. Join us each morning to get caught up on everything in the world of Florida football, UF recruiting, Gators basketball, Florida baseball and more.
The Florida football team is halfway through the fourth phase of Billy Napier’s year-long football calendar, which he calls “The Journey.”
After the Gators completed spring ball, which is Phase 3, they moved into what Napier calls the discretionary period, aka summer break.
“It’s basically the players time to relax. It’s like a little vacation time,” UF offensive guard O’Cyrus Torrence, who played for Napier at Louisiana, said on the Gators Online Podcast. “That’s all the discretionary period is. Just to give us time to relax and kind of do more outside of football. It’s a little break for us.”
However, Torrence added that his new teammates would be wise to continue working out during the discretionary phase.
“What I like to do with my time is get little workouts in. That’s the smart thing, make sure you work out at least twice or three times a week. Because when we come back, we hit the ground running. Coach don’t care if you haven’t been working out or not that first day. They got a conditioning test. So, hopefully you have been doing something,” Torrence said.
“Because once we get back at the end of May, we go through the whole month of June. We get another week off for the fourth of July, then we get like three days off between July and August. And once that little time is over, it’s game time once fall camp starts.”
Phase 4 is followed on the calendar by Regimen, which is a nine-week block during the summer before training camp (phase 6).
“We’re right in the middle of phase 4 right now,” Napier said Thursday night prior to his speech in Pensacola. “We’re moving forward. We’ve certainly done a lot of work. We’ve had exit meetings with the players. Our players are on a little bit of a break right now, coaches are on the road for the evaluation period and we’re prepping for our summer regimen with the players.”
In other Florida football news
- Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin addresses the coaching changes under his watch and what he’s learned about making hires.
- Scott Stricklin reveals what Katie Turner and UF players Gervon Dexter and Trey Dean III were shown Thursday in new viral video clip.
- Upon seeing the new football facility for the first time, Stricklin said Napier told him, “We’ve got a loaded gun here.”
- Gators Online Podcast: Stricklin talks the new football facility, his new hires, NIL, stadium upgrades and more.
UF recruiting roundup
- Texas tight end Reid Mikeska has scheduled his official visit to Florida after backing off his commitment to Clemson on Thursday.
Gators sports roundup
- The Gators baseball team brings a five-game winning streak to Missouri for their second-to-last conference series.
Let’s keep talking
Want to keep the conversation going? Head over to our Florida message board, Swamp Talk. Sign up here and join the discussion.
Gators Twitter updates
- Lorenzo Lingard Jr. is taking up Torrence on his workout advice:
- Dexter comments on the video reveal:
