One of the backdrops to the USMNT crashing out of the World Cup after a 4-1 loss to Belgium in the round of 16 was Christian Pulisic's performance. The star winger for the US had 11 turnovers in the first half alone and was eventually subbed off in the second half. Considering all the hype surrounding Pulisic coming into the tournament and the marketing spent on his “Captain America” persona, it was a massive flop.
Florida fans know this song and dance and have seen plenty of players over the years get billed as “The Next Great Gator,” only to flame out. Jeff Driskel is probably the highest-profile example of the modern era, but looking only at the last ten years, these are the five Gators who never lived up to their billing in Gainesville.
Hyped Florida players who flamed out once in Gainesville
DJ Lagway
Let’s get the most recent and perhaps most obvious one out of the way first. Lagway’s two years in Gainesville might have been two of the most opposite years one could have experienced. As a true freshman, Lagway looked every bit like the five-star phenom that was going to become the next Tim Tebow. He didn’t lose a single game that he started and finished, and the hype train was in full force.
But as we all know, a chaotic 2025 offseason, with the mysterious backdrop of Lagway’s injuries, left him looking like a shell of himself. Lagway ultimately transferred to Baylor, where he still has a chance to write his story. But even if he wins the Heisman Trophy at Baylor, his time at Florida was a flop.
Joey Slackman
If you want one transfer who summed up the Billy Napier Era, look no further than Joey Slackman. On paper, Slackman was a super high-upside transfer with the ceiling to get 10+ sacks in 2024. He was the highest-rated returning DT in the SEC entering 2024, and it seemed like every week there was a puff piece getting written on Slackman.
Then Slackman got hurt against Miami in the opener. Then he had knee surgery after the Texas A&M game. He came back by week eight, but it was clear he wasn’t the player who had been hyped all offseason. He wound up playing 112 snaps in 2024 and had a PFF grade of 66.5.
Kamari Wilson
If Slackman represents the Billy Napier Era in the transfer portal, then Kamari Wilson represents what happened when he landed high-profile recruits. One of the reasons Wilson got hyped up as much as he did was that it felt like Napier had finally cracked the code for landing talent from IMG. He was a top-50 overall prospect, and Wilson was supposed to represent a new era in Gainesville.
Wilson did play 311 snaps as a true freshman in 2022, and while it was clear he was still super raw, there was hope he could step it up going into 2023. But after 7 snaps against Utah and 13 snaps against McNeese State, it was clear the Kamari Wilson experiment wasn’t working out. After zero snaps against Tennessee, Wilson was never seen again in Gainesville. He transferred to Arizona State, then to West Virginia, then to Memphis, and he is back at West Virginia for the 2026 season.
Demarkcus Bowman
Bowman is a little harder to quantify on this list just because he didn’t start out as a Gator, and the hype train for him when he did become one wasn’t quite off the rails in the same way as it once was. But make no mistake about it, the Lakeland High RB was as hyped a prospect as there was in the class of 2020, and when he wound up at Florida after a brief stop at Clemson, it had fans dreaming of what was possible.
Unfortunately, the player who 247 once called a “potential three-and-done NFL Draft candidate” never put it together in college. Bowman only ran the ball 14 times in 2021 and ended up transferring again in 2022 to UCF, where he only had ten total rushing attempts before he transferred away and wasn’t heard from again.
Khris Bogle
If we go back to the class of 2019, Bogle was supposed to be the next great EDGE rusher for Florida. He was noted for his explosiveness, and 247 said he “Should hear his name called on the second day of the NFL draft.”
And Bogle did stick around for three years under Dan Mullen, but he looked more like a lower-tier three-star than the top-50 billing he had coming out of high school. There were some flashes from Bogle, but it just never came together. He wound up transferring to Michigan State after Mullen was fired, where he played three more years but never had a high-end impact. Over six years of college football, Bogle recorded just 14 sacks and was not drafted by the NFL.
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