George Gumbs trying to be an X-factor for Florida Football in 2024
![Florida Gators edge George Gumbs Jr. (34) celebrates tackling Samford Bulldogs wide receiver E. Jai Mason (3) during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 7, 2024 against the Samford Bulldogs. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_2253,h_1267,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F213%2F01j7dzcthx8jqx5aqvwc.jpg "Florida Gators edge George Gumbs Jr. (34) celebrates tackling Samford Bulldogs wide receiver E. Jai Mason (3) during the first half at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 7, 2024 against the Samford Bulldogs. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]")
In the wake of the loss to Miami, we here at Hail Florida Hail had highlighted some personnel changes we wanted to see moving forward. One of them was swapping out George Gumbs for either Kamran James or Tyreak Sapp.
Perhaps determined to put on a better showing than he did against Miami, Gumbs did have a better game against Samford and has been named Florida's Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
If Florida's defense is hoping to take a step forward in 2024, they will need more efforts like this out of Gumbs for as long as Billy Napier is going to keep playing him.
Florida Football: Project Building
Gumbs came to Florida as a project for the Gators. Coming out of high school, he was a three-star wide receiver who weighed 185 pounds and committed to Northern Illinois. Along the way, he blew up to a 249-pound defensive end and played the position for the first time ever last season.
One of the core frustrations we had expressed after the Miami game was that Napier had spent all offseason hyping up Gumbs, even though he was always seen as a project, and played him for 37 snaps for just one tackle.
Gumbs played another 34 snaps against Samford and is an interesting case study of what the metrics state versus what the film shows. Pro Football Foucs gave him a grade of 65.3 and rated him 20th on Florida's defense. But fair is fair, and early in the game there were a couple of plays where Gumbs exploded into the backfield and looked like the player Napier had tried to sell us on all offseason.
Don't just take our word for it. SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic was impressed by what he saw out of Gumbs, who wears #34.
FLORIDA: Handled their business. 2 looked really good. The poise stuck out. Comfy off play action. Big time ability to drive the ball. 456 the most pass yds by a Gator Fr. 6 will continue to emerge. 3 gave them explosives. Love 13 but gotta protect the ball. Def handled a very…
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) September 9, 2024
Florida also likes what they saw out of Gumbs on Saturday and he was named the DreamFinders Defensive Player of the Week.
📣 This week’s Dream Finders Homes Defensive Player Spotlight is on George Gumbs Jr.! We’re proud to have him as a Florida Victorious Student Athlete! A huge thank you to Dream Finders Homes for supporting Gator Nation! 💙🧡 @GeorgeGumbs pic.twitter.com/KnJZMCHf9X
— Florida Victorious (@Fl_Victorious) September 9, 2024
The gambit for Napier is whether Gumbs can consistently produce or if it will just be flashes here and there. We've seen players in the past like Scooby Williams who looked great against weaker opposition but turned invisible against the better teams.
But if it's the former, Gumbs could be a key cog in shoring up the Gator defense.
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