Portal Needs for 2025

Former Kentucky DT Keeshawn Silver will take an official visit to Florida December on 10th & 11th which is tomorrow and Wednesday. That will be followed by officials to Miami, USC and Michigan per Pete Nakos.

Silver is 6’4” 336 pounds from Rocky Mountain, NC and has 1 year of eligibility left. Was at UNC before UK and in his 2 years at UK he collected 24 games: 21 solo tackles, 43 total, 3 TFL, 1 sack.

Silver is the #25 player and #6 DL in the portal according to 247 Sports

 

Oh, you be talkin’ about constructive criticism. Yeah, I don’t know who’d be qualified to do that here on GC, but of course I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the endless power whining and bellyaching about the OL.

In the winter and spring there were like six threads on the OL. Doc started a good one, I started one about the depth chart, GC had a good article about it and others. You know, I remember you posting in those threads. The nonsense posted in those threads was just silly.

You can say “most criticism’ all ya like, but it’s not accurate. I could go into great detail about all the ridiculous criticism, but I don’t want to, and you saw it. Some of it’s funny. Like posters complaining about Slaughter getting run over in games he didn’t play in, or how George was no better at OG than he was at OT (On3 had something to do with that) and how UFs OL was in trouble because they wouldn’t be able to mesh- this one I actually did lol... It's been an endless barrage of hyper negative “criticism”.

 

Yet our line was terrible last year. The criticism was warranted and it looked to be starting out the same this year. They were definitely a surprise to me as was the turnaround on defense. Im not sure i was whining and being a chicken little but i had my doubts.

 

I guess we need to add some edge guys after the news today

 

The ultimate revenge is seeing the players come good. We saw some outstanding OL play this year, including from George. There wasnt a single atarter that didnt have a play that was worthy of a highlight. However, OL has to be such a difficult position to evaluate for long term success. I am encouraged by the development of players i saw this year.

 

Yeah, it looks like it. It's more about numbers than Pyburn. I think there's been four edge transfers so far. Pyburn is the only rotation player to leave, so UF doesn't really need a player to take his snaps. Another couple young prospects would be helpful though.

 

The threads I’m talking about were about what the 2024 OL looked like going into and out of spring. You know, you posted in them.

For the performance of this year's OL, other than Waites starting at RT against Miami, which was awful, the OL has been fair to very good all year. Do you have some specific criticism other than Waites at RT against UM?

 

That's a pretty fair assessment and you use the word fair as their play early which is also fair. The snap counts between the first few games and the last few games were completely different. They were rotating way too many players through and maybe they needed to do that to figure out who could play or not but a criticism that may be valid is that they were playing way too many people early and they should've known before the season started

 

Is TE not a position of need as well with Boardingham in the portal? Are we trying to hang on to him?

Same question about CB depth and Jakeem Jackson too!

 

I’ll expand on my fair comment. 2023 had bad OT play all year. A few games were neutral when Barber was healthy, but it was pretty much bad all year. This year the only time the OL was bad was when Waites was in at RT against UM. As has been discussed, I have no idea why the coaches started Waites over BCD. Thankfully they immediately corrected the situation.

Waites playing RT is the only poor rotation I can identify. Manuel was solid at OT until his injuries. Lovett has been a quality RG and looks set up to take over RG if needed in 2025. Waites has also showed he can be a competent OG. If George leaves, I hope he comes back for depth at OG.

 

CB - yes

TE - no, we got two guys who redshirted last season and a freshman recruit coming in. The freshman looks slower than Hanson.

 

I think that the inability of Boardingham and Livingston to be consistent receiving threats hurt the offense. Now Amir may be our only potential threat. If we got a stud who could be a blocker/receiver our offense would be seriously improved, and we would see even a higher percentage of 12 personnel. I don't understand our deficiencies in TE recruiting.

 

Arik Gilbert is available, lol. But I don’t think BN wants a headache.

 

He would be cheap.

 

I agree. It's baffling that Napier and his style of offense has not been able to attract a stud TE by now.

 

More to do with position coach and recruiting ability IMO

 

Amir Jackson would absolutely be considered a stud TE recruit

 

UF 7 sacks
LSU 0 sacks

 

Livingston seemed to come on strong starting with the LSU game