Spring camp is underway for Florida Football, and as is the case this time of year, we are largely relegated to videos of guys running against air while depending on the word of coaches to see who is doing well.
But that doesn't mean spring is meaningless for the team as a whole as the next month will go a long way in shaping the depth chart for the Gators ahead of the 2025 season. While astute followers of the program know the bulk of the roster up and down, casual observers might don't know much of the roster beyond DJ Lagway.
Last year, Jadan Baugh had a monster spring camp that grabbed national attention. It's with that in mind that here are three players who have the chance to be breakout players for Florida this spring.
Cormani McClain
It's been a never-ending saga with McClain, who looked like he would be a Florida commit, wound up committing to Miami, never signed and went to Colorado instead, played poorly and transferred to Florida, sat on the bench in Gainesville, had a pick-six against Kentucky, then mostly sat on the bench for the rest of 2024.
But if McClain is ever going to live up to his five-star billing, the 2025 season had a feeling of now or never. The pendulum seems to be pointing up as McClain has come to camp in great shape.
J.Michael Sturdivant
Of all the wildcards on the roster for Florida, Sturdivant is among the wildest of them all. Most fans have seen his second-half performance against Southern Cal as proof of what his potential is.
We here at Hail Florida Hail have pointed out his deeper metrics while at UCLA, which were bottom-tier at best.
But Napier highlighted in his press conference that Sturdivant had hit 23 MPH already this offseason, and if he can harness that speed into some consistent deep shots, he could start to get a lot of buzz this spring.
Aaron Chiles
Last year, Chiles was a summer enrollee, and while there was some early buzz for him during summer camp, he was used sparingly on the field in 2024.
That doesn't mean the hype train for Chiles has died off. At 6'2 "and 241 pounds, he looks like a prebuilt NFL linebacker.
Spring games are hard for linebackers to stand out sometimes, but if Chiles can look explosive throughout spring he is going to get attention come fall.