Florida Gators Transfer Portal Moves In Second Window Can Address Roster Needs

I've told you which positions I think the Florida Gator should Target in the second transfer portal window here's who I think they will Target you are locked on Gators your daily podcast on the Florida Gators part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day hello and welcome back to another episode of lock on Gator part of lockdown podcast Network your team every day thanks for making lockdown Gators your first listen of the day every day we are available daily and free every you listen to the podcast and on YouTube Happy Tuesday I'm Brandon Olson find me on Twitter at wns Brandon find on myw with giants country NFL 33 and today we're talking about what positions I think the FL orators will Target in the transfer portal we know what I think they should corner is the first thing on there I don't think that they're going to spend too much time on cornerback in the transfer portal just because one they've got the guys in the room that first off they've been recruiting um but also I do think it's kind of hard to to find someone that will fit and and like be able to evaluate those guys and find out will they fit I think it's really difficult to do just on defense in general to have the time to watch and evaluate these players go okay we value him we want him how do we get him on the team I think that that takes a lot of time and it's really hard to do I think that when you look at specific positions like receiver uh I do think that receiver is one of the spots that is easier to evaluate in the transfer portal or maybe not easier to evaluate but it's easier or quicker to recognize this guy's skill set we want this guy doesn't I think you can do that a lot quicker with or not you think that they're going to be good whe you put all the context in of like who did they do this against all that stuff little bit different but in terms of he has a skill set that we want you can find that quicker in the transfer portal or quicker at positions like wide receiver and obviously it depends on who enters the transfer portal which opens next week we don't really have the answer fully for who answers because a lot of kids wait for the for the spring game to happen and go all right that's and for their spring game for their school to happen then they go all right I didn't play much in there probably good indicator that I'm not going to play much during the season or I bald out in the spring game but I'm not going to be a starter and I want to be and so maybe they look at that um so it does depend I do feel like receiver is one of those spots where you can find Talent there in every portal window it's just matter actually getting there there's obviously a ton of receivers that tend to hit the portal because every team has 10 to 12 of them and not everybody's gonna play right and and so they try to find spots for me the biggest not even not not issue but the biggest question because again I do think the Florida Gator will look into the transfer portal for another receiver and you've got good guys in the room right now like Trey Wilson obviously very talented uh you've got shimay dek is great chemistry with graham Merz and he's got fine speed Andy Gene is someone that I think a lot of us are are relatively high on and and have expectations not proven at this point and that's also a lot about when you look at the Florida Gator receiver room is that there's a lot of unproven talent and so I do think that a big part of adding a receiver in this window will be get someone that's experienced but again the thing is what type of receivers will hit the portal compared to what the Florida Gator coaching staff is looking for in this portal window because if a bunch of six foot tall 435 speed guys hit which obviously there's not a bunch of that to begin with but if those are the kinds of guys that hit the portal in Florida's like oh we're actually pretty good on that we want to add a bit more size whatever it may be for Florida like you you do have plenty of speed in the receiver room but do you want more speed like is is that the qualifier that you're looking for do you feel like you have a bunch of Speedy guys but aren't good receivers because we see that all the time a ton of athletes and we see this happen a lot in col or high school to college not too much of college to the NFL but so much of high school to college is oh this guy had had 1,600 yards in his senior year of high school and he's just burning everyone because that's what you could do a lot of athletes that we see dominate people at the high school level and then when it comes time to play college football and it's like oh well now you actually have to run routes and separate they can't do that and so maybe that's kind of something that we're getting from this this current receiver room I'm not saying that we are I'm just saying may maybe that's one of the things that's happening why Florida might look at receiver again for uh next year but may you look at guys like like like like Fenley Graham is someone that I think of when we think of like oh he's fast but he's not a good receiver because fley tried that a bit uh didn't work out right played Corner didn't work out then he went to play receiver at uh it was Florida A&M and if I'm not mistaken still didn't do anything at receiver there um so it's like you can't just be fast is is that what we're seeing now I don't I don't know maybe maybe Florida feels the Florida coaching staff feels like that's all they have speed with no quality which again speed is fun speed is awesome and Madden and it will be in college football 2025 but I don't think that that's necessarily effective do they want size you only have a couple of guys who are taller than what 6'2 a Aiden misel 63 Marcus Burke is 64 jaquavian frasers is 63 64 it's kind of it you don't have a ton of size in the receiver room is that what they're looking for are they looking because even khil Jackson plays like he's 6'4 but He's listed as 6'2 if I'm not mistaken so it's even like you have guys that can play Above the Rim but do you want to get guys who live Above the Rim do you want to get guys who start Above the Rim so I think it's interesting there with what Florida is looking for and when you talk about who's going to hit the portal and who's going to actually be available and interested in Florida we talk different but when we talk about just what you need or or what I think the Florida Gaters will look for in the portal in this portal window receivers the first thing that comes to mind just I think that it's it's what they're going to do I don't even know if I would do it if I were on the coaching staff I I don't know if I'd feel comfortable just going all right we're going to find a guy this portal class is going to be able to contribute at Receiver right now I feel like I would personally kind of rather go all right we've got a decent Bunch they're young but un proven but let's like we can figure this out but again I'm not at I'm not in the facility with them for spring practice looking at what these kids are doing um and so maybe they feel differently but I do think that they're going to look at receiver in this second portal class and try to add just a guy who can be wide receiver four or five that has experience probably going to look for some verified speed and probably going to be I want to say 6 two-ish so that he can kind of be an in between of the size that Florida typically goes for like the shorter guys and have some decent speed and be the size that is tall for that receiver room just get you a little bit taller and be able to do some more work preferably over the middle of the field there think it's uh think that's what we're going to see at receiver we are about to talk about we're talking to all offense for the entirety of this show but first a quick word from FanDuel it is playoff time in the NBA and NHL baseball is in full swing pun intended and FanDuel is your place to bet on every game right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed guaranteed it's 150 bucks whether you win or lose bet on everything from slap shots to home runs to slam dunks all on that that's safe secure and easy to use I'm just donating money to them as I continuously bet Wyatt Langford home run every single game of his career um we'll see how it works in the long run what are you waiting for visit fel.com lockon and make your first bet an automatic win that gives you $150 back in bonus bets bandal America's number one Sportsbook thanks for making lock down Gator your first listen of the day every day we are available daily and free reviews of the podcast and on YouTube and the second position that we're talking about again we're going to be on offense this entire show the second position that we're talking about interior offensive line and I say this knowing that I got like three or four DMS last week uh just like hey man like this guy's talking about you in the Twitter space and it's funny that it continuously happens uh but some people were really upset with me saying that Damen George like from from things that we've heard and things that not just me but other people have also reported that Damen George maybe not working out too great at guard either and I I don't know if it was because I tried to tell you and I I will remind you again that Damen George never played guard in his career he has practiced at guard but as far as have you ever in your life played a single snap at the SEC level at the college level to any extent at either left or right guard the answer is for a fact no Damen George has not he has practiced at guard that's it okay and I bring that up again because people get so upset because for this whole off season people spend time going Damen George is going to be good at guard he is a natural at guard that's his spot keep in mind on this show lock down Gators that's not what we said we said we know he's not good at tackle you think he has to be better at guard because he's so bad at tackle but if I'm not mistaken we never said he'd be good at guard he should theoretically be decent power Run game we know he's pretty good at that but his main issue was pass protection we've seen people run around him at the college level we've seen people run through him and I mean or not even through him we saw Jared verse use him to sack Max Brown in the Florida State game just threw Damen George into max Brown and got the sack we saw that like with our eyes unless I mean if you looked at the eclipse yesterday then you won't be able to see it this year but we saw that last year right so yeah maybe he's not going to work out I'm not writing him off completely but I will say again from things I've heard and things that other people have also reported Damen isn't ideal at guard and Billy Napier has has been praising Bryce love which good Bryce love seems like a great kid could work out is impressing and a very strong spring I don't know about you but like like think about it from how I'm going to think about this from Billy Napier Rob sale Jonathan deer's perspective right you've got your offensive line group both spots are pretty much figured out and then you've got this one spot at your other guard spot that you're looking at and you go Damen George isn't fully working out here might not be fully working out here Bryce love it impressing this spring even even myself who I'm a huge Rod Kierney fan we'll see what he can do long term but if you're in the seat of Billy Napier of robale of Jonathan the copster and you go hey we need to win football games this year or there's a pretty good chance and none of us will have a job at the University of Florida in 2025 do you feel comfortable with Damien George as a red shirt senior at this point if I'm not mistaken and hasn't worked out didn't start at Alabama started last year and was below average if you want to even say that you have to bank on that Rod Kierney as a red shirt freshman or Bryce love it as a red shirt freshman and even if you want to say hey Bryce love it has been really impressing in the spring on a year or on a season that's gonna decide your future decide your career do you really want to bank on a red shirt freshman having a strong spring as the thing that can be your Achilles heel the entire year or do you want to maybe look into the portal and find a guard who you know can run wide Zone who you know can run a bit of power counter and can pass protect I think phrasing it that way makes it pretty clear I'm not saying that Florida needs to look there I do think that they should at least look at the offensive line if there's Talent there's talent but I'm not saying they need to I am saying that I do think it's a position that the Florida Gators will look at in the second transferp window next week just because it makes sense to me to do that if the if the reviews back about Daman George were just Stellar throughout if it was like oh my God he's a dog at guard then we're having a different conversation but that's not the conversation that we're having right now the conversation we're having right now is that hey maybe he's just not it hey this red sh freshman's playing really well this spring hey do we want to bank on that being maybe one of the most glaring weaknesses on the team when we've got this second portal window to maybe address that I think you do right I I think you do address that so I I think Florida's going to look for an interior offensive line in this second portal window now one more position to T about to rap Today Show and it's going to be one of my favorite positions I want you to know that and you might have a clue to it because I did talk about this one a couple weeks ago but first a quick word from a couple sponsors to wrap up today's episode of Locked on Gators which by the way let me know what positions you think Florida will Target in the second tra portal window and or positions you think Florida should Target in the second transfer portal window go put it in the comments below uh if you're listening on like the Apple podcast or whatever go ahead leave a review if you want to tweet at me go ahead it's WN wsor Brandon um but go ahead but the third position I'm talking about is tight end this is a position where when I last spoke about this and I said positions that I think Florida should Target I put tight end on there and I said in that episode that I think Florida wants to and I think they should I think Florida wants to go for a tight end because they spent the first transfer portal window speaking with it was like six tight ends or something like like in in that range and by speaking with I mean actually speaking with not just like hey bud how you doing um so I I do think that tight end was a position that going into the first portal window they identified as hey we should look into this position we should try to find a little bit of help here depthwise and since then since the start of the first transfer portal window the only thing that's changed in the tight end room is Jonathan odm left officially Dante xanders left officially Keon zipper returned officially and Gavin Hill moved from defensive line to tight end those were the only changes that happened in the tight end room none of those changes were really significant right you could argue Keon ziu returning was sure but there like like if you were looking into the transfer portal or a tight end do any of those things change like has anything changed there really because even Keon zippa returning you knew he would so when you were planning on adding a tight end in the first transfer portal window you knew you were adding a tight end anyway even with Keon zippa returning or you knew that you were trying to add a tight end even with Keon zipper returning so basically it comes down to does moving Gavin Hill from defensive line to tight end change your plan to want to add another tight end to the room because personally I don't think it should at all you you moved a freshman from Reserve defensive lineman to reserve tight end that's really what happened you added another body to the room sure but really what happened was that and Amir Jackson signed but again is that really relevant to the position that they're specifically talking about because Keon zipper is not and Amir Jackson is not not because they're not tight ends they are tight ends but they are the pass catching tight ends they are the receiving tight ends they're going to be backing up most likely Arles boardingham unless zipper gets the spot and Arles is tight end to there but I don't think that's the case I think it'll be Arles than zip than Amir Jackson so I don't think that they have any impact really on the in line tight end spot behind Hayden Hansen but right now you have Hayden Hansen there you have Tony Livingston there you've Gavin Hill there and that's that's pretty much your inline tight end group you lost first off you lost more than you added just in terms of quantity not quality but in terms of quantity you lost more than you added I see nothing that happened this past off season this this from the beginning of the first transfer portal window to today April 9th 2024 I see nothing that happened that changed oh we don't need to look at inline tight end anymore it was a thing they looked at in the first transfer portal window nothing significant happened in that spot and again I want to make this abundantly clear inline tight end is only a need for depth right like like you you're just swinging for experienced depth at the inline tight end spot because right now your only experience there is Keon zipper Hayden Hansen Arles Bingham that's it and two of those guys had no experience going into last season and gained all of the experience that they had in that last season so even then they are relatively experienced to the room but in general they've got one year of playing college football if you could add a guy who again is just a a primary blocking tight end that can just give you a little bit of breathing room there because knock on wood I mention this every time right now when you look at that inline tight end spot you've got Hayden Hansen starting and he played the overwhelming majority of snaps last year which I do think is an indicator for how they felt about Dante xanders that he didn't even rotate in for the huge majority end of the season so you have Hayden Hansen as the inline tight end starting and he played the overwhelming majority of snaps that means that if you can add a guy that you actually trust to back him up if Tony Livingston becomes that then he becomes that then you limit the injury of or you limit the risk of injury there and also if there is an injury your team's not as screwed and so for me I think that that's why they will look at tight end that's why they should look at tight end but again you're looking for indepth tight ends that's what you need I think in or depth in line tight ends next Mega lock down Gator is your first listen of the day every day we are available daily and free wherever you listen to podcast we will be back tomorrow talk more Florida Gators for lockdown Gators I'm Brandon olison don't forget to follow me on Twitter at wns Brandon find all my written work with giants country at NFL 33 and as always I will see you all next time