Florida’s staff is expecting a big season from sophomore edge rusher LJ McCray, who totaled 13 tackles, one tackle for loss, and half a sack across 181 snaps during his freshman campaign. While McCray played in all 13 games, he didn’t have as large of a role as many outsiders expected as the No.1 defensive lineman in the 2024 class.
Everyone adjusts to the college game differently, even if highly touted out of high school. For McCray, it seems as if his time is coming in year two after a productive offseason in the weight room.
“He probably had one of the best offseasons out of anybody,” Strength and Conditioning coach Tyler Miles said on McCray. “He gained like 40 pounds in each one of his lifts, PRed by 40 pounds. You can see it now in his arms. He’s more thicker with more muscle. He had a phenomenal offseason.”
“I’ll say this, last season, offseason, LJ was in his first year. The weight room wasn’t his favorite, but he really attacked it this year,” Miles added on McCray. “Whether he likes it or not, he didn’t show it because he took every day seriously. At the end when we kind of started testing things, he wanted to go after bigger numbers. LJ had a phenomenal offseason.”
McCray switched to the ‘JACK’ position in the offseason, but head coach Billy Napier believes that McCray can provide depth at the ‘F’ spot as well.
“LJ got some experience last year. So it’s time for him to take a big jump. And we need him to. And he has position flex at Jack and F. I think he can play both spots,” Napier said on McCray. “I think [he] did a great job of taking the feedback from the weight room and nutrition from the spring semester, really bought in in that regard and changed his body comp. He’s starting to look like a guy who’s ready to play in this league and be a factor.”
McCray totaled seven pressures in 84 pressure snaps last year while posting a win rate of 14.3%, which ranked 4th among Florida edge rushers last season according to Pro Football Focus. Defensive coordinator Ron Roberts notices the body transformation and improvements on the football field.
“He’s got a tremendous skill set. Very talented. Yeah, you can see the growth, potential what he did. He changed his body and all that stuff,” Roberts said. “What I see on the field, I’m hoping, again, I think it’s sometimes to this point you can jump ahead, and not trying to put pressure on a player. And you want to see them do it in the season and do that. But I would suspect and I’m hoping he has a break-out season and he’s an impact player that we all think he can be. I think he can do that.”
The 6’6, 268-pound edge rusher is expected to compete with George Gumbs Jr. for the starting JACK position.