Florida Football: 3 reasons for concern heading into 2022 season

Florida football finished the 2021 season with a 6-7 record and parted ways with Dan Mullen, so there’s clearly some concern heading into 2022.

There’s a new sheriff in Gainesville and his name is Billy Napier.

Dan Mullen’s 2021 season with Florida football was not ideal as the Gators finished 6-7 and lost the Gasparilla Bowl against in-state foe UCF. It wasn’t pretty.

The school decided to move forward with some fresh blood and Napier has been one of the hottest commodities from the Group of Five for years. He takes over a talented roster, but there’s still a lot of work to do if he wants to get Florida back to the top of the SEC.

What are the biggest concerns for Florida heading into the 2022 season?

3. Run game

Florida is losing some serious production in the run game from a year ago. Emory Jones was a dual-threat quarterback who led the team with 758 rushing yards and four touchdowns while Dameon Pierce was the leading non-quarterback rusher with 574 yards and 13 touchdowns on 5.7 yards per touch.

The third-leading rusher, Malik Davis, is also gone after rushing for 487 yards and five touchdowns on 5.3 yards per carry.

It’s concerning that the leading returning rusher was last year’s backup quarterback who suffered through injuries, Anthony Richardson. But Billy Napier did bring in Montrell Johnson from Louisiana, he returns Nay’Quan Wright who had 326 yards and a touchdown last year, and Demarkcus Bowman and Lorenzo Lingard are also back. Outside of Johnson who excelled in the Sun Belt, Florida doesn’t have any proven No. 1 backs on the roster.