Secondary works on tackling and other takeaways from Florida football practice

Florida football held its 11th practice of fall camp on Tuesday at the Sanders Practice Fields.

In all, the Florida Gators are holding 17 practices in fall camp to prepare for the 2024 season, which opens Aug. 31 at The Swamp against Miami.

Florida held its first intrasquad scrimmage of the fall last Saturday and will hold another Saturday.

UF head coach Billy Napier said the third full week of camp, which began Monday, will serve as an important evaluation period in determining depth chart decisions.

"We kind of reboot the computer and organize them in a way for this week, then we’ll scrimmage again next week, and I think ultimately that’s where we’ll start pairing it down," Napier said. "Even this week, we have to continue to work contingency plans. If this guy goes down, how do we shuffle the deck? The reality is you only get to put 11 out there at once."

Here are three takeaways from the open portion of practice:

Florida football secondary drills tackling

After the Florida defense missed 20 tackles in Saturday's scrimmage, the secondary was hard at work going through tackling drills under the direction of UF secondary coach Will Harris.

Safety Jordan Castell and defensive back Aaron Gates both recorded interceptions during Saturday's scrimmage. Gates is in a position battle with fellow sophomore Sharif Denson and Oregon transfer Trikweze Bridges for the starting spot at star this season.

OL Fletcher Westphal, Kamryn Waites back practicing

Freshman offensive tackle Fletcher Westphal is back practicing this week after sitting out the first two weeks of camp recovering from mono. Tackle Kamryn Waites, who was out for the scrimmage in a black jersey, also was back to full contact.

WRs Chimere Dike, Marcus Burke make nice catches along the sideline

Wide receivers Chimere Dike and Marcus Burke both made nice catches along the sideline on Tuesday, with Burke leaping to haul in a high throw from freshman quarterback DJ Lagway.

Burke and Dike are both battling for a starting spot as the third wide receiver behind returning starters Eugene Wilson III and Kahleil Jackson.