College Football: 5 takeaways from April 14 spring games

4. Florida Gators

Moving along to central Florida, the SEC’s Florida Gators debuted their new head coach Dan Mullen. The Gators have high hopes for Mullen who was able to make Mississippi State viable finishing his stint as a Bulldog with a 69-46 record and 5-2 in bowl games while taking MSU to eight straight bowls, even if he didn’t coach the Taxslayer Bowl in 2017.

Mullen will be expected to figure out the Florida offense that has been abysmal since Tim Tebow left for the NFL back in 2010. He also figured out that he needs the fanbase on his side and over 53,000 Gators showed up to support the new coach. He rewarded them with “touchdowns” to Lawrence Wright and Travis McGriff, both alumni from the Steve Spurrier era.

It seems as though Kyle Trask is the quarterback of the future for Mullen. Trask, a 6-foot-5, 230-pounder from Texas, put together impressive drives showing accuracy and poise finishing 12-of-24 passing for 178 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers. Feleipe Franks, however, shows more running ability and ripped off a 60-yard run in the scrimmage.

True freshman Emory Jones had a beautiful 58-yard touchdown throw. Mullen kept him well protected and only let him play a handful of snaps in order to keep his confidence high and scrutiny low. If Trask is the guy, the ceiling is low for Florida in 2018 but improvements should be seen with a new regime.