Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier during the first half as the Florida Gators defeat the #9 Ole Miss Rebels 24-17 at Ben Hill Griffiin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. November 23rd, 2024. Gator Country Photo by David Bowie.
The winter window for the college football transfer portal opens Monday, Dec. 9, and closes Saturday, Dec. 28. Florida will be looking to add players at multiple positions to strengthen their 2025 roster. Gator Country provides you with five positions Billy Napier and the Gators’ staff need to target in the transfer portal.
Let me be clear, any position can be upgraded. Florida should be taking elite players regardless of position if they want in. But there’s five positions I think Florida really needs to add depth / strengthen before the 2025 season.
1. Wide receiver
Florida is losing their top two receivers from the 2024 season in Chimere Dike and Elijhah Badger due to eligibility. This duo combined for 1,476 yards and six touchdowns this year. The Gators have a young core returning, including Eugene Wilson III, Aidan Mizell, and Tank Hawkins. They also plan to welcome legacy Vernell Brown III to the mix, who could be an early contributor.
The Gators will likely look to add two day one starters at receiver, much like they did last season, with one of them being a bigger bodied outside receiver.
Florida shouldn’t have many issues attracting the best receivers in the portal given DJ Lagway is their QB of the future. Badger ranked 5th in yards per reception this season and Dike ranked 17th.
2. Safety
The safety position is one that Florida has struggled to add SEC quality players through the transfer portal under Napier. In 2022 they added RJ Moten from Michigan, who started the season at safety but logged just 95 snaps. He switched to linebacker in 2024 and found much more success. In 2023 they added a trio of safeties in DJ Douglas, Asa Turner, and Trikweze Bridges in an effort to fix their issue at safety. Bridges worked out well for the Gators but had to switch to cornerback in the final month of the season due to a laundry list of injuries in the secondary. Douglas played a lot early in the season but was later benched for younger talent. Turner suffered a season ending injury in week one and logged just 35 snaps for the Gators.
Douglas and Bridges are out of eligibility, and it remains to be seen whether Turner will apply for a medical redshirt to gain one more year of college football.
Florida returns Bryce Thornton, Jordan Castell, and Greg Smith III at the position, but they need to add SEC quality safeties to the mix in order to fix what has been the Gators’ worst performing position group in the last two seasons.
3. Offensive tackle
Much of the offensive line recruiting will depend on what Austin Barber, Damieon George, and Jake Slaughter decide to do. All three have one more year of eligibility remaining if they want it. Either way, Florida will need to add an offensive tackle to the mix because Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson is out of eligibility. Really good offensive tackles are difficult to find in the portal, but Florida needs to put all their chips in to find an SEC quality tackle that can protect their future star quarterback.
4. Defensive tackle
Florida loses defensive tackles Desmond Watson, Cam Jackson, and Joey Slackman due to eligibility. Caleb Banks has another year of eligibility, but his performance over the last month of the season shot him up NFL Draft boards and it remains to be seen what he decides.
The Gators return Michai Boireau, Jamari Lyons, Tarvorise Brown, D’Antre Robinson, Brien Taylor, and hopefully Caleb Banks at the position.
Florida likely needs to add two interior defensive linemen.
5. Edge rusher
Florida has numbers and talent at the edge position, and they return almost everyone who contributed in 2024. But when you look at how the Gators had success getting to the quarterback, a lot of it came from the interior defensive line. Caleb Banks led the Gators in pressures with 28 and Tyreak Sapp was second with 24, who often times slid inside on passing downs.
This is a position that Florida shouldn’t look to add depth, because they have plenty of that, they need to add a day one starter. Edge is one of the more valuable position groups in football, and Florida’s defense would really benefit from an elite pass rusher.
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