Florida Football: 3 storylines to follow in spring 2021

Florida football just missed out on a playoff appearance and SEC title a year ago and now they enter an offseason with plenty of questions.

Dan Mullen was a slip-up or two away from really shocking the nation and making the College Football Playoff in 2020.

The Gators started the season ranked high and then dropped a surprise game at Texas A&M before going on a run until the regular season finale against a disappointing LSU team. The Gators slipped up with the finish line in sight, losing to the Tigers and falling out of the playoff conversation.

Florida then lost to Alabama in a surprisingly-close SEC title game and it earned a trip to the Cotton Bowl where the Gators were smacked by Oklahoma. It wasn’t a pretty end to the year and with plenty of turnover, there’s plenty to talk about this offseason.

Florida has plenty of storylines to follow this spring, but these are the three most intriguing.

3. The run game

A year ago, Florida had one of the worst rushing attacks in college football which was surprising given the number of solid options the Gators had.

Florida had just landed former five-star back Lorenzo Lingard in the transfer portal from Miami and Dameon Pierce who was expected to have a breakout season. Malik Davis and Nay’Quan Wright are also solid backs who can bring a lot to the table. On top of that, former five-star running back Demarkcus Bowman just transferred in from Clemson this offseason.

With a more mobile quarterback in Emory Jones or even Anthony Richardson, the run game should be far more effective. That mobility will open the door for backs like Pierce, Lingard, Wright, Davis or Bowman to take advantage of defenses on their heels, always guessing.

It’ll be interesting to see how much Dan Mullen will be stressing the run game this spring with all of his potentially elite options.