Joey Slackman enters 2024 as Florida Football's biggest wildcard
![A pylon with a Gators and SEC logo sits on the field which is painted black for the game between the Florida Gators and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 4, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_5472,h_3078,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F213%2F01j4eht83tmzn9nwwcv5.jpg "A pylon with a Gators and SEC logo sits on the field which is painted black for the game between the Florida Gators and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, November 4, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]")
As the 2024 season for Florida Football approaches, we are at the stage where we can make reasonable predictions about what the lineup will look like on August 31 against Miami, but everything is still being determined.
Among the players who keep popping up despite seemingly being on the second team on the depth chart is one of the key transfers the Gators brought in during the offseason.
Florida Football: No Slack
Joey Slackman was one of the highlight transfers Billy Napier and crew brought in during the offseason. The 6th year defensive lineman from Penn is the ultimate wildcard for the Gators in 2024 in more ways than one. The reigning Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year has been gaining the respect of his teammates and coaches since arriving on campus.
"I'm a Joey Slackman guy. Look, I think Joey brings a maturity and an awareness. I think he's extremely bright. And he's motivated, he's driven, he's a self starter and he's an alpha... But yeah, he brings it. He's consistent. His motor's always running and I think he has the ability to affect other people. That's one of the reasons we brought him here."
- Billy Napier
And when Napier says his motor is always running, he literally means always.
"Well, let's put it this way. Last night, so I got a little training camp ritual, I get in the cold tub after practice, right? So I go in here, and Joey, he did a cannonball into the cold plunge. That's what we're dealing with."
Being the ultimate wildcard for the Gators is more than just cold tub antics. The mystery surrounding Slackman is whether his game will translate from the Ivy League to the SEC. Publically, everything has been praise for Slackman. But during the spring campaign, he was recovering from a torn bicep, and at the start of fall camp, he is still viewed as a depth piece on Florida's roster rather than a day one starter.
But if Slackman emerges as who we think he could be and can be rotated consistently with Cam Jackson and Caleb Banks, the Gators might have depth along the defensive line they did not have in 2023.
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