Florida Gators News: Weekend update features multiple new commits

It was a busy weekend for the Florida Gators as Billy Napier and crew secured the commitment of two new players, one via the transfer portal and one from high school. As previously noted, Florida hosted multiple players from the transfer portal on campus over the weekend. Cam’Ron Jackson headlined the group, but there were several uncommitted players Napier tried to woo to become Florida Gators.

Yesterday linebacker Deuce Spurlock tweeted out he was committing to the Gators. A three-star prospect in the class of 2022, Spurlock played two games for Michigan this past season and managed three tackles. He is listed at 231 pounds, so he brings the size needed for an SEC linebacker.

His commitment was on top of three-star offensive tackle Caden Jones announcing he would be part of the Florida Gators. Jones is 6-8, 325 pounds, out of Louisiana, and is ranked 36th in the country among offensive tackles. However, of the 35 players rated higher than Jones only six are listed at a higher weight.

Jones committed to Florida while taking part of the All-American Bowl in San Antonio.

Florida Gators: Transfer portal taketh

While Florida has picked up a couple of players from the portal over the past week, former Gators that entered the portal are continuing to find new homes.

Diwun Black announced that he will officially be transferring to Temple for the 2023 season. Black’s journey has been long and winding. After originally committing to Florida as part of the class of 2019, Black wound up going to JUCO route where he was the top JUCO linebacker in 2021. He never quite cracked the lineup once he did make it Gainesville and thus, he will be becoming an Owl.

Trent Whittemore also announced his new home. As has been popular among Gator transfers, he will be heading to UCF for 2023. Whittemore was a low graded prospect when he came to Gainesville and did well for himself to even crack the Florida lineup. But the arrival of Ricky Pearsall and Florida’s use of two-tight end sets limited Whittemore’s playing time and he eventually slid down the depth chart.

Florida Gators: Kyle Trask sighting

Kyle Trask seems to be mirroring his college experience in the NFL as he has been relegated to third-string duty for two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after being a second-round draft pick in 2021. Something about this guy named Tom that keeps wanting to play.

With Tampa’s game yesterday meaning nothing, Trask was able to get into the game during the fourth quarter to make his official NFL debut. His stat line wasn’t pretty as he went 3-9 for 23 yards, but he also was playing with the backup wide receivers and had two or three throws that Mike Evans or Chris Godwin probably would have caught.