Florida football: The running backs will be the key to a successful offense

Corneilus Barnes

One of the young guys at running back for the Gators is Corneilus Barnes. He joined the team as a walk on in 2021, and hasn’t seen any action on the field yet.

Given his lack of playing time it’s hard to give him a real evaluation.

At 6’0-171, he has plenty of room to add some muscle mass before he can be a real threat on the field. He’ll likely have the next 2 years to learn under Montrell Johnson Jr., Nay’Quan Wright, and others, before perhaps seeing some good action in a few years.

Carlson Joseph

Joseph, similar to Burnes, joined the team as a walk on in 2021 and hasn’t yet seen the field.

Carlson does already have decent size however, at 5’11”-196. Assuming he has decently quick feet, he may not be that far away from getting a few reps near the end of games.

Overall Joseph does find himself in the same situation as Burnes. They’ll be on the sidelines on gameday, learning the ropes before hopefully finding their way onto the field.

Gabriel Ortiz

Ortiz is one of the newest members of the team, as he walked on to the squad earlier this year.

Gabriel is 5’9”-191, so he has that low pad level and bowling ball run style that Etienne will have.

It’s obviously not expected that Ortiz makes too much of an impact this season, but with his build it isn’t too far fetched that he could make an appearance late in some games this year or next.

Eddie Battle

Battle is a redshirt senior who joined UF as a preferred walk on in the Spring. He has prior experience playing 2 years at Allan Hancock College and Southeast Missouri State, where he redshirted his only season.

At 5’11’-225, Battle does have bulldozer potential, and is likely the top option outside of the 4 clear cut starters/backups.

It would be great to see Battle get into some game action at the highest level of D-1 football during his final year.

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