This story first appeared in Chomp, our Gators football newsletter. Subscribe here.
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There are only 100 days until the first Florida football game of the 2022 season kicks off!
Who’s ready?!
⌚6 game times now set
Six game times have been announced this month for the Gators’ 2022 football schedule.
It was announced earlier this month that the game at Florida State on Nov. 25 -- which falls on a Friday, not a Saturday -- will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. and be broadcast on ABC.
CBS also announced this week that the Florida-Georgia game on Oct. 29 in Jacksonville will make an appearance in its traditional 3:30 p.m. timeslot. (Full disclosure: At News4JAX, we alternate between using Florida-Georgia and Georgia-Florida every year. Last year was Florida-Georgia, so this year’s game is Georgia-Florida. But I think as Gators fans we can all agree Florida-Georgia just flows much better. 😉)
And the Southeastern Conference on Thursday released TV selections for four home games, including the first three of the season.
Here are all of the games this season that kickoff times have been announced for:
| Date | Opponent | Network | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept. 3 | Utah | ESPN | 7 p.m. |
| Sept. 10 | Kentucky | ESPN | 7 p.m. |
| Sept. 17 | South Florida | SEC Network | 7:30 p.m. |
| Oct. 1 | Eastern Washington | ESPN+/SEC Network+ | Noon |
| Oct. 29 | Georgia (in Jacksonville) | CBS | 3:30 p.m. |
| Nov. 25 | Florida State | ABC | 7:30 p.m. |
🏈 McMillon more confident heading into 2nd season
Safety Donovan McMillon heads into his second season more confident while the Gators adjust to a new defense under defensive coordinator Patrick Toney.
Turnovers and tackling have been issues the last couple of years for the Florida defense, but McMillon, who had an interception in the spring game, talked about the different approach with the new defensive staff.
“I mean, the first thing I did notice about the whole attacking situation was that I really didn’t think we had as much a problem with tackling last year as much as it was the repetition of tackling, you know? We’re going against guys in the SEC that are guys who’ll be playing on Sunday in a few years, literally this upcoming year. So I don’t think we worked as much tackling as we should have done,” McMillon said.
“So coming into, not even spring ball, like once we hit the field in January, February, for like just outfield workouts and just running everything, we worked tracking the hits and making sure we can make those, you know, those short tackles. And I really did think it showed when it came to spring. We worked every single day 10-15 minute tackling drills. And it doesn’t really have to be like hard, everyone killing each other and everything like that, but as long as we just keep repeating the process of, you know, having those open-field tackles against guys who are jitterbugs, 4.3 kind of guys, and the fact that we did that, I really did think it improved during spring ball, and what we got about four months before, you know the first game? And we keep doing that, I think our tackling will improve majorly from last year.”
In the latest episode of Gators Breakdown, host David Waters and Will Miles, with Read and Reaction, sit down with McMillon to discuss the differences under the new coaching staff, as well as his big spring performance and off-the-field topics.
🐊 Transfer WR commits to Gators
Florida added a much-needed piece to its wide receiver corps.
The Gators and coach Billy Napier got a late addition to the roster last week in the form of Arizona State transfer wide receiver Ricky Pearsall.
In another episode of Gators Breakdown, David breaks down Pearsall’s impact on the wide receiver room.
🏀 Florida men’s hoops team gets 2 additions
There are two new additions to the Florida men’s basketball team.
On Thursday, the team signed guard Riley Kugel from Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School.
247 Sports has the four-star player as the No. 4 shooting guard and No. 48 player nationally.
“We are very excited to add Riley to our program,” said coach Todd Golden. “Riley brings all the tools to become an impactful play-making guard, in addition to great size. He has advanced ball-skills and a natural feel for how to play the game. We’re looking forward to his continued growth as he joins our team and Gator Nation.”
Kugel will reunite in Gainesville with his Dr. Phillips teammate Denzel Aberdeen, who is also part of Florida’s signing class. That freshman duo also joins four transfer additions to the Gators’ 2022-23 roster.
One of those transfer additions is guard Kyle Lofton from St. Bonaventure.
“We are excited to bring Kyle into our program here at Florida,” Golden said. “Kyle has experienced a lot of success both from a team and individual standpoint during his time at St. Bonaventure. He’s a proven winner and leader. He makes others around him better and cares only about one thing: winning.”
Florida signed Lofton earlier this month, but with all the news packed into last week’s newsletter about “Voice of the Gators” Mick Hubert’s retirement and the drama with Alabama coach Nick Saban and Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, I totally forgot to include the signing!
✉️ Send us your Gators thoughts & questions
David and I want to hear from you. Do you have any thoughts or questions about the Gators football program? Agree or disagree with something we’ve said? Let us know here, and we’ll share our responses to your questions.
🎙️ Listen to more Gators Breakdown
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