Florida Football: Roster purge reaching eyebrow raising levels for Gators

Most people can accept that players that aren’t starters are going to poke around and look for opportunities to play college football. That has certainly been the case for Florida football where it seems like every non-starter has entered the transfer portal.

But now in the aftermath of The Las Vegas Bowl there are starters and projected starters leaving the program and it feels like a make or break moment for Billy Napier.

Florida Football: Overhauled offensive line

A couple days ago Michael Tarquin announced he was entering the transfer portal and it was less than ideal. Tarquin was projected to be a starter at tackle along with Austin Barber. It was the first case of a projected starter for Florida football in 2023 going to the portal.

Then yesterday Jordan Hall announced he was heading to the portal.

Then Tre’Vez Johnson.

Then this morning is was just announced that Ethan White was heading to the portal.

Um, what?

Hall and Johnson were what they were but giving the lack of depth on the roster they would have been guys Florida football would have liked to have kept.

White feels like it’s out of left field.

He help hold down an o-line that led Florida to one of the top rushing attacks in the country this past season. And with Tarquin in the portal and O’Cyrus Torrence and Richard Gouriage heading to the NFL, White’s starting position wasn’t in question.

So what on Earth is going on?

One wouldn’t imagine that Billy Napier pushed White out like he probably did the group that entered the portal prior to the Las Vegas Bowl.

But there is also a narrative one could buy into that Napier is trying to do a speed run of a roster overhaul. Part of the deal with Napier is that he is a program builder and those things normally take time.

Or a speed run to get fired when he goes 4-8 next year with a roster filled with nothing but freshmen and sophomores.

Only time will tell.