With the transfer portal closing fast, another Gator makes a late exit

The deadline for players to enter the transfer portal in college football is this Friday. Players don’t have to have a new home by Friday, but they have to be in the portal.

So, as that deadline is approaching, Florida just had another member of the team enter who many thought was out of eligibility in the first place.

Brien Taylor Jr. enter the transfer portal

On Tuesday, Brien Taylor Jr. put his name into the transfer portal. The move is a bit surprising, considering that Taylor Jr. was listed as a senior in 2025 and, in theory, this was his final season of college football. Taylor Jr. spent two seasons at Blinn College, a JUCO in Texas, before spending the last two seasons with the Gators.

Taylor Jr. will be hoping to get extra eligibility in the same way through the waiver that the NCAA granted junior college athletes a year ago.

During his time with the Gators, he took 119 snaps in 2024 before seeing an increased role in 2025 when he took 268 snaps as a rotational piece along the defensive line. In 2025, he was credited with 24 total tackles and two sacks. 1.5 of those sacks came during the upset win against Texas.

He finished 2025 with a PFF rating of 65.9, which was basically in line with the rest of Florida’s defensive line in 2025.

If Taylor Jr. is granted an extra year of eligibility, he is a player that Florida would have probably liked to have back for 2026 to once again be a rotational player along the line, but the Gators do have other options heading into the new year.

Brendan Bett announced last week he would be coming back, and Florida picked up Emmanuel Oyebadejo and DK Kalu out of the transfer portal. Throw in Jamari Lyons, Joseph Mbatchou, and Jeramiah McCloud, and the Gators should still have some options to play with heading into 2026.