Florida Football continues to take a wait-and-see approach to the transfer portal. The Gators have signed just one player out of the portal and have seen virtually everyone they kicked the tires at commit elsewhere over the past week.
Wide receiver is one of the focal points for fans this offseason and there are three more notable prospects who just hit the portal.
Johntay Cook (Texas)
The former five-star prospect out of the class of 2023 will be taking a visit to Gainesville. Cook never fully cracked the rotation for Texas, and the Longhorns brought in three transfer wide receivers, all of whom would surpass Cook in 2024.
Cook only had eight catches in 2023 and in 2024, but he was effective with the limited opportunities he got. He had a yards-per-route run of 2.36 in 2024 and was 82nd in this metric out of the 701 wide receivers who got at least ten targets this year.
In other words, when Cook did get to play, more times than not, he got open and made a play.
UPDATE🚨
— In All Kinds Of Weather Recruiting 🐊 (@IAKOWRecruiting) December 18, 2024
Johntay Cook will now visit this weekend @Corey_Bender has officially confirmed. https://t.co/HUpORSTCK0
Zachariah Branch (Southern Cal)
On3 reported yesterday that Florida is a school to watch for the former number-one receiver in the country out of the class of 2023, but a lot of Florida fans don't seem to buy it.
Zachariah Branch had a lot of metrics in 2024 that would be in line with Eugene Wilson. Branch had 503 yards off 47 catches and averaged 8.3 yards after the catch. Of wide receivers with at least 50 targets, Branch had the 6th-best average yards after catch.
However, a big reason why his yards after catch were big was because he had the 9th shortest ADOT (average depth of target) in the country.
The asking price for Branch will be high, and the rumblings seem to indicate Florida doesn't think Branch is worth what he is asking.
Miami, Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Louisville are early schools to watch for USC transfer WR Zachariah Branch, per @PeteNakos_👀https://t.co/9wzGFoAHEs pic.twitter.com/RsDWuGYjyy
— On3 (@On3sports) December 17, 2024
Malachi Fields (Virginia)
If you are looking for a proven taller wide receiver with Power Four production, Malachi Fields might not be a bad option.
Fields is 6'4" and is coming off back-to-back 800+ yard seasons in the ACC. He had 10 contested catches this year, tied for 36th best in the country.
Interestingly, he has a lot of other metrics that are in line with what former Gator receiver Xzavier Henderson had with Cincinnati this year.
Fields had 55 catches, while Henderson had 58, and both had a reception rate of 58%. Both had an ADOT just shy of 12, and both had identical yards per route run of 2.01 (anything north of 2 is respectable).