Spring Notes: Elam fills void, Mack Brown breaks fibula and play-action playcalls

As always, there is some good news to report and at the same time some bad news to report. Seems to be just another case of same stuff, different day.

News highlights for today are Matt Elam and his plans to fill the void left by departed starting strong safety Ahmad Black to the NFL, Mack Brown breaking his fibula and the greatness that is the play-action pass.

On to the topics...

Remember three years ago when everyone (including myself) thought that the next great safety at Florida was going to be Will Hill? Well, that turned into just one massive disappointment. Ahmad Black ended up being that dominant safety and now there appears to be an heir apparent. 

Sophomore Matt Elam is looking to fill Black's spot at strong safety and leader. If the defensive leader this year is again a safety, I don't have a single problem with that.

"One of the things I need to work on is being a leader," he said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper. "I’m not used to being vocal. I might have to take on that role."

That is fantastic news. If Matt Elam does step up and take over the leadership of the defense (and in turn become one of the leaders of the entire team) the Gators will be better as a result. He has shown that he likes to lead by example, stay out of trouble and handle things (aside from his brief moment during recruiting when he was on the FSU side of things) the right way.

The second topic of the day is yet another injury to Mack Brown. We all know his injury troubles in the past, and they seem to be back. According to head coach Will Muschamp, Mack Brown has a broken fibula and is probably out until July. That is not good news for someone who is attempting to complete his first injury free season in nearly five years.

Finally, Robbie Andreu of the Gainesville Sun reports:

Offensively, the Gators look like they’re going to be very good with play-action passes, screens on the perimeter and in the downhill running attack out of the I.                                      

We all know that the defenses in the SEC are known to be very aggressive. The best way to counter an aggressive defense is the play-action, screen passes and other similar sets, play-calls and formations. The Gators have the correct personnel to pull off the play-action and screen pass play calls. 

If properly executed there is absolutely no reason why this current Gator team couldn't average nearly 10 yards per screen-pass play. Speed on the perimeter kills and with Rainey, Demps and Debose leading the way, there is no reason to think that the Gators would struggle with these sets.