UF Position Preview: Offensive Line

The Florida Gators starting offensive line looks for consistency and chemistry heading into the 2018 football season.

Experience Leads the Way

The 2018 Florida Gators offensive line is bringing plenty of experience to the table. A potential starting line of Martez Ivey, Brett Heggie, T.J. McCoy, Fred Johnson and Jawaan Taylor have a combined 95 starts between them. Martez Ivey, Tyler Jordan and Fred Johnson are all seniors and have been playing since their true freshman seasons.

For Ivey, Jordan and Johnson, this season is their last chance to make it count Ivey, who was named to the pre-season All-SEC first team, is one of the team’s veteran leaders. He’s had to deal with injuries and position changes over the past two seasons, but he looks to have his best season yet.

Ivey said his message to the team was to “just believe that we can win because we’ve got the talent. Everybody can see it. Once we come together as one and believe we can win, we can do this thing. That was my goal pretty much, just saying we got one shot, why not us right now?”

Jawaan Taylor commented on his expectations for himself and for Martez Ivey:

Consistency

The Gators’ offensive line has plenty of talent on the roster. Their play last season didn’t reflect that very well. The line was inconsistent all season, sometimes showing off their talent and sometimes looking like one of the worse offensive lines in college football. The team gave up 37 sacks in 11 games.

Run blocking wasn’t too much better. In the 2017 season opener against Michigan, the team finished the game with just 11 total rushing yards.

Gators’ offensive line coach John Hevesy is working to get the most out of the teams talent and get consistency out of the team. Hevesy commented on the kind of rotation he expects to use this season.

Chemistry

John Hevesy said that line play is about “cohesion, teamwork and chemistry.” If there is one thing this O-line has, it’s chemistry. Martez Ivey said that this team is the “closest team I’ve been on” in his time as a Florida Gator.

Tyler Jordan also had great things to say about his unit, saying “”You get closer with your brothers and you get closer to your boys, you’re going to want to play harder for them, and you’re going to trust them more. So, you’re going to feel more comfortable out there.”

Great nite having the boys to the house for dinner on the night before reporting day! Fed them well, so Rise and shine tomorrow and Let’s get after it! @GatorsFB #GatorsOline #GatorStandard pic.twitter.com/uzS8SOHBXQ

— Block5 Oline Training & Development (@CoachHevesy) August 2, 2018