Florida football: Gators offer highly touted Penn transfer Joey Slackman

Florida football needs to be active in the transfer portal this off-season, and Billy Napier knows it. The Gators are already one of the teams in on Texas A&M transfer Raymond Cottrell and are now after an Ivy League defender as well.

Penn DL Joey Slackman is the latest portal player that Napier and his staff have decided to go after, extending an offer to him earlier today.

The senior DL from Commack, New York, was a member of the 2020 recruiting class and has been at Penn his whole career.

Now, the Gators are trying to get him down south to finish off his college years.

Florida football: An established presence upfront

Slackman is in the portal with a very good reputation as a disruptive defensive lineman. He was named to the All-Ivy League first team this past season and has been disruptive for the Quakers the whole time he’s been there.

This season he’s racked up a total of 48 tackles, 22 of which were solo, and four sacks. He has a great combination of size and speed that allows him to apply pressure from the interior of the defensive line, as well as range out to track down an RB or the QB on the perimeter.

Two schools that have already contacted Slackman that seem to have an early lead are Rutgers and UCONN. Being from New York, those local schools do have a slight advantage over the rest of the teams that will pursue him.

The Gators do have a good opportunity they can give to Joey, however. D-line depth hasn’t been a strong suit for Florida this season, so Slackman will have the opportunity to play early and often.

Ideally, the appeal of playing down in the SEC over playing up north in the cold is something that also helps the Gators out.

Slackman may not be one of the best players that will come out of the portal this cycle, but he can be a difference-maker on any defensive front.