Five players for Florida Football who have stepped up as the season has progressed

It seems like just yesterday that Florida Football took the field against Miami, but blink, and we are already past the halfway point in the Gators season. Florida is 4-3 entering their second bye week before starting their home stretch in November.

But in the time between the Miami game and the Kentucky game, there are a handful of players who have stepped up and have been key contributors after being invisible against the Hurricanes.

The following are five players who have stepped up since opening day.

Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson

Coming out of the Miami game, the right side of the offensive line was a massive weakness for Florida. And even though the Gators went out and grabbed Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson and Devon Manuel out of the transfer portal, Kamryn Waites was given the start at right tackle and it did not go well.

Crenshaw-Dickson was rotated in during that game, but he, too, struggled with two pressures allowed on just 19 pass-blocking snaps.

As the season has progressed, Waites has been cycled out, and Crenshaw-Dickson has been entrenched as the full-time right tackle.

And of the 245 tackles around the country who have taken part in at least 150 pass-blocking snaps, Crenshaw-Dickson has allowed the 25th fewest overall pressure with just five on the season.

Chimere Dike

We have stated this before, but we were never sold on Chimere Dike when he was brought in from Wisconsin. The selling point was his 2022 campaign when he played with Graham Mertz, but even then, the deeper metrics showed he was not as effective as Ricky Pearsall was playing the same role in 2023.

And, two games into this season, Dike had a grand total of two catches.

He is now up to 21 catches on the year for 420 yards and two touchdowns, including his game-tying score against Tennessee.

Just as important, Dike has also morphed into a valuable punt returner and is in the top ten in the country in yards per return.

Jadan Robinson

After appearing in seven games in 2023 and racking up a grand total of four tackles, Jadan Robinson entered the 2024 campaign as an afterthought at linebacker. Most literature focused on Shemar James and Pup Howard, with Derek Wingo, Aaron Chiles, and Myles Graham as the reinforcements.

Robinson played 22 snaps against Miami and did have a couple of tackles. His overall snap count has stayed in the 20s per game, but despite the fact he has taken 161 fewer snaps than James, he is tied with him for total tackles (32) and is fourth on the team in tackles.

Jack Pyburn

In Florida's first two games, Jack Pyburn saw a combined total of 26 snaps. He started to see an uptick in snaps against Texas A&M, but it wasn't until the Mississippi State game he started to have a coming-out party.

He still isn't a sack machine, but what fans have picked up on is his willingness to crash hard into pulling guards and tight ends to blow up opposing running games.

Sometimes, this works against him, but when he gets it right, he is at the center of some key stops to get Florida off the field.

Trikweze Bridges

One of the more under-the-radar guys from Saturday's win, Trikweze Bridges, went from 19 snaps against Miami to 69 snaps against Kentucky and appears to have taken the reigns from DJ Douglas as one of Florida's starting safeties.

Bridges is Florida's most willing tackling safety and was credited with ten total tackles against the Wildcats. He has also held up well in coverage, giving up just five receptions off of 12 targets for a total of 44 yards.