![Florida Gators running back Jadan Baugh (13) rushes with the ball during the first half at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_4931,h_2773/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/213/01knvpf76yv8w0y6xmxh.jpg "Florida Gators running back Jadan Baugh (13) rushes with the ball during the first half at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]")
With Florida’s spring game set to take place on Saturday, one of the growing debates is just how much the annual scrimmage actually translates to regular-season success. Florida is not televising the game as part of the larger trend in college football to demphasis spring games. It’s annoying for dedicated fans, but the retort is that what we see in the spring rarely means anything.
So we opted to look back at the past decade and look at the standout performer from each spring game and see just how much that translated once fall rolled around.
Florida spring game standouts
2025 - Dallas Wilson
Last year, the five-star wide receiver busted onto the scene with a 10-catch performance for nearly 200 yards. His ten catches set a spring game record for the Gators, and he looked like the real deal in the process.
When he was healthy against Texas, he looked like every bit of what we saw in the spring. His problem is that he was hurt for the bulk of the year and only played in four games.
2024 - Jadan Baugh
Unlike Wilson, Jadan Baugh didn’t have a ton of hype surrounding him prior to Florida’s spring game. But his informal debut not only impressed Florida fans, but national pundits took note of just how dynamic he looked.
Baugh was kept mostly under wraps for the first four games behind Montrell Johnson, but eventually injuries increased his role and he looked like the stud we saw in the spring.
2023 - Deuce Spurlock and Shemar James
This game was about as ugly a spring game as one could have conjured up and finished 10-7. On the defensive, Deuce Spurlock and Shemar James were the tackling leaders of the game and one of the few players who could walk away happy.
James went on to have a decent season until the turf in Jacksonville caused his kneecap to dislocate. Spurlock was essentially never used again and only appeared in three games in 2023.
2022- Anthony Richardson
In advance of his one and only season as the sole starter for the Gators, Anthony Richardson went 18-24 for 207 yards and two touchdowns as part of a 34-0 blowout. Richardson’s Blue Team would score on every possession in the first half.
Richardson’s actual 2022 season was complicated to evaluate, as accuracy issues never improved, but Florida would have had a better fate had its defense been better. His talent profile still led him to be the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
2021- None
Still coming back from the fallout from Covid, Florida did not have a spring game in 2021
2020 - None
Yeah, we are just going to keep hitting rewind and forget this time period.
2019 - Feleipe Franks
The vibes were high on Feleipe Franks following the 2019 spring game as he popped off for 13-of-18 passing for 327 yards and 4 touchdowns. Any notion that Kyle Trask was going to take his job was squashed following this game.
But even before his gruesome injury that ended his season and gave the reins to Trask, he wasn’t quite the elite dynamic player fans were hoping for, and notably, the Gators were trailing to Kentucky before he went out.
2018 - Jordan Scarlett
For such a high-scoring spring game (35-30), there weren’t that many monster individual performances that carried the day. Probably the most notable from a skill player was the 57 yards and two touchdowns Jordan Scarlett had on ten carries.
He parlayed that spring performance into 776 rushing yards and five touchdowns in 2018 before getting drafted in the 5th round of the NFL Draft.
2017 - Kadarius Toney
Another spring game where that wasn’t close and ended 31-0. The headliner was the QB battle, but the player who grabbed everyone’s attention with the limited snaps he got was Kadarius Toney.
Toney would be used sparingly for the next three seasons before he finally broke out and put it all together during the 2020 season.
2016 - Duke Dawson
Duke Dawson made a name for himself at the 2016 spring game when he had two interceptions on Franks, one of which was a pick-six.
He did have a solid 2016 season playing nickel and led the team with seven pass breakups. He could have left for the NFL after 2016, but he came back for his senior season.