There have been some very good football players who were walk-ons like Stetson Bennett, Baker Mayfield, JJ Watt, Clay Matthews, Hunter Renfrow. By the way Chris Doering was a walk on at UF and did well for himself. He just needs a chance. Not all star players live up to their hype. If he plays a lot it doesn't necessarily mean the wr's are trash. It may mean he has earned the right to play.
Completely missed the point. Stars mean nothing. If he is better than all the people listed above we have a major problem.
Good news is - with Spierto, Jakobi Jackson etc that they are creating depth and practice competition which we haven’t had
Never underestimate the determination of a motivated athlete. No one is stopping him in raising the bar. I will be routing for him! Also, his own drive to rise to the top, should force those above him to up their game.
Nope. I'm just saying Oliver was a walk-on. Nobody knew he will be a great player for UF including coaches. Just like we don't know how Spierto will turn out. It could be nothing or he could turn out really good.
I don’t know if the kid will get meaningful snaps or not, but he had a good game and that touchdown grab from Lagway was top tier. I loved his energy and chemistry. We talk about the Jimmys and Joes, and that applies to walk-ons too. At the very least, a guy like this should help our DBs in practice and motivate the other ‘more talented’ receivers to work harder. I’ll take that in spades all day long.
I love the pickup of Rillos as a pwo TE, but I am afraid we romanticize the walkons a bit much because of the extremely rare high performing walkons in the past. Spierto made some routine catches against the second team defense. Jackson made some routine catches against the first team defense and got tangled up looking over the wrong shoulder on a sideline pass. There is truth that opportunity is available for walkons at receiver because we haven't recruited there like we have with getting Baugh and Daniels at RB. Burke, who was somewhat highly recruited, made the most difficult catch of the game. Walkons are getting a chance because the bigger, faster, longer catch radius receivers aren't getting the job done yet. We will see if that continues to the fall.
Never under estimate the human spirit. The NFL is full of guys who were nobody coming out of high school and went to lower tier programs and developed.
To me it’s not a matter of knowing history … seems like walk ons starring (like Oliver) is mostly history. (Get it? lol ). Who was the last major impact walk on at UF? Chris Doering 30 years ago? I think recruiting advances or more opportunities or something has less players being over looked and going somewhere on scholarship vs walk-in on I guess.
