It was always going to be a challenge for Florida to replace five starting linemen from last year's team, including stud offensive tackle Jawaan Taylor and former five-star prospect Martez Ivey.

But few envisioned it being this much of a struggle for the Gators. Certainly not offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator John Hevesy, who was blunt during the offseason that he thought this year's starting unit had as much or more potential as last year's group.

It hasn't quite played out that way. While the line has been good at pass protection, by and large, the Gators never really got the ground game going at all.

"I think there's things (we) need to work on, I think there are things that you don't start seeing until it's pinpointed out on there," Hevesy said. "For me even those four new guys, where's their deficiency? You don't always see it through spring practice, through fall camp, because there's so much installation going on."

Florida ranks 120th nationally in rushing offense this fall, averaging just more than 120 yards per game on the ground.

Some of that is simply that the unit has been better as pass-blockers. And ever since Kyle Trask took over as the starting quarterback, the team's passing game has really flourished. The Gators have won plenty of games even being fairly one-dimensional on offense.

"I think there's things that we need to get better at," Hevesy said. "Obviously we've done a good job of protecting. I think for us to win games -- and like Kyle comes in and Kyle can throw a ball, Kyle does a great job of protection. Kyle's not a runner. Everybody comes in, we're going to run the ball, but Kyle's not a runner. So we're going to always use what we have."

Bottom line: You can only force a square peg into a round hole so many times. Eventually, Florida adapted and leaned much more heavily on the passing game.

For the Gators to take the next step, though, the run game will have to improve going forward. For Hevesy, the real key is individual players continuing to fix certain aspects of their game, whether it's younger players that aren't starting right now or the starters themselves.

Outside of starting center Nick Buchanan, all of the starters on the line will be back next fall.

"The biggest thing is individually there's things we need to work on individually to get better at," Hevesy said. "Now each individual has the things that you see week after week, you see, 'OK, we've got to work on this, we've got to work on this to get us functioning all as one.' So to me, it's always the biggest thing is the deficiencies each one of them have that we've got to keep working on to get better as a group."

Overall, eventually with enough improvement, the goal is to fix the run game for good.

"Whether it's being more physical, whether it's things we have to get better at," Hevesy said, "obviously the run game we've got to be better all around to get us going."