How the Florida Gators will split teams for the 2024 spring game

Untitled designby:Nick de la Torre•04/08/24•

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Billy Napier | 2024 Spring Scrimmage No. 2

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators will run out of the tunnel this Saturday divided — one group in blue jerseys and the other in white. While the Orange and Blue Debut has a decided lack of orange jerseys, the two teams will meet inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for the culmination of spring camp.

It’s the prize at the end of a 15-practice monthlong grind.

“I think we’re going to go let them play. We’ve got a lot of young players,” Billy Napier said after Florida’s second scrimmage. “You think about the spring game, this is the first opportunity for our fans to watch this 2024 team, in particular a bunch of these rookies, not only the high school players but the transfers.”

How the Florida Gators will divide the roster

The spring game is heavily orchestrated. Plays, situations, matchups, everything is choreographed like the script for Wrestlemania but the players still have to go out and make plays. Past coaches have allowed the team captains to draft their rosters, splitting the team in that unique way. Napier and his staff will split the offense and defense on their own but the players will have some say in the way this final week of camp goes.

“What we do is we divide the players up to try to make the game as competitive as possible based off of who’s available and then we allow the veteran players on each team to draft all parts of the organization,” Napier explained. “So we divide the entire organization in half and we give them a little ownership in terms of, ‘Hey, I want this guy to be my OC, I want this guy to be my DC, he’s going to be the assistant head coach.’ They pick their strength staff, they pick their — every part of the building is broken in half and then we give the players some — just to make it competitive, you either win or you lose and I think it’s healthy and it certainly makes it fun.”

The Gators are still scheduled to hit the practice field two more times prior to the spring game. Florida will practice Tuesday before a lighter walk-through on Thursday afternoon.

“We’ll meet with the veteran players at some point Thursday before practice,” Napier said. “Then we announce the teams post practice and then they have their own Friday prep independent of each other so we try to simulate a Friday and then get them ready for the game.”

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