Florida’s appearance in the Las Vegas Bowl on Saturday feels like it’s coming up much too soon. Finishing out a postseason game before the early National Signing Day even happens just feels wrong.
Nevertheless, Billy Napier will put a bow on his inaugural season with an eye towards next year. Enough high profile players have chosen to opt out — though not all, as Gervon Dexter and Richard Gouraige will be on hand — that it’s not completely going to be the same team we saw all season long.
While it’s too bad we won’t see some familiar faces one last time, it does mean that some players have one last chance to impress before starting the long offseason. One game’s performance won’t make or break a career, but showing out will make a statement to fans as well as the coaches that someone is serious about competing for a top spot in 2023.
Here are five guys looking to make such a statement this weekend.
Jack Miller
Perhaps the most obvious player here is Miller. He has only appeared on the field in orange and blue once, a generally panned spring game performance. It wasn’t near as bad as some made it out to be on a close rewatch; he really was close on a lot of plays in keeping with how Napier defended him during the telecast.
Florida will probably take a portal QB this offseason regardless since Napier has said he likes to have four scholarship signal callers. Only two are on the roster and only one is in the recruiting class, so that leaves the team one short.
A great performance from Miller in Sin City will announce that he’s not just going to be the backup by default to someone UF might land over the winter. It could also be his way to tell everyone that he’s not merely going to keep the seat warm for 2023 commit Jaden Rashada or 2024 commit DJ Lagway. Top quarterbacks must be top leaders, and this weekend is his chance to try to turn the ’23 Gators into Jack Miller’s team.
Derek Wingo
Nick Marcinko has already written a terrific piece on the way that Wingo has stepped up during bowl practices, so I won’t belabor that point. The defense needs a new leader with Ventrell Miller finally moving on to the pro ranks, and Wingo as an inside linebacker is a real candidate.
Wingo’s career hasn’t progressed as quickly as you might expect for someone who was the second-highest rated signee of the 2020 recruiting class. Guys don’t usually get top-100 ratings like Wingo did if they’re not ready to contribute a lot early. UF linebackers coaching hasn’t been great in recent years, though, and a number of players at the position have left an immediately done much better elsewhere.
But Wingo didn’t leave, and now his number is coming up. It’s possible to have locker room leaders who don’t play a ton of snaps, but it’s best to have leaders show up big both on and off the field. Wingo’s chance to show he can be both is arriving.
Caleb Douglas
Douglas was not one of the headliners of Napier’s transitional class, but he worked his way into some playing time late in the year with sure hands and crisp route running. He caught a touchdown against Texas A&M, one of seven receptions in November, and provided some much needed depth.
But then in the regular season finale against FSU, with a walk-on showing up on the depth chart because the team was so shorthanded at receiver, Douglas came up empty. Some passes went his way, but he couldn’t hold on as the physical Florida State DBs broke up the receptions.
It will take another offseason in the weight room to develop more strength, but in the meantime, Douglas needs to bounce back from the rough outing in Tallahassee. With Justin Shorter opting out to prepare for the NFL, Douglas has an opportunity to get plenty of snaps in Vegas and end the 2022 season right.
Kamryn Waites
Two of the transfers Napier took with him from Louisiana, O’Cyrus Torrence and Montrell Johnson, made big impacts. Waites is literally the biggest of the three, as he’s listed at 6-8 and 373 lbs, but he’s scarcely played outside of special teams so far.
His future is probably at tackle, but he’s getting the nod at right guard in the bowl. Torrence has opted out before becoming a first round pick, and the top backup guard, Richie Leonard, has been ruled out with what Napier called a lower body injury.
Waites got a little work in against South Carolina in garbage time, but this will be his first extended action with the offense. It’ll be a good test to see just how much progress he’s made in two years of college football. He played basketball but not football in high school, so that’s why you won’t find any recruiting ratings for him. Napier wouldn’t have brought him along if he didn’t have promise, but we need to see how much of the promise has become real.
Jordan Young
Young is the only player on this list not to sit on a starting line on the depth chart, but he will see the field plenty. He’s the backup at star behind Jadarrius Perkins with Tre’Vez Johnson out due to injury, and he’s also Jaydon Hill’s backup at one of the outside corner spots.
Young has looked good in his limited play this year, but there are so many older defensive backs who play that he hasn’t gotten a ton of snaps yet. There will be a rotation on Saturday as always, so Young will get a shot to get more substantial playing time during a meaningful stretch of the game. Proving something during the game would give him a leg up heading into the battles for playing time in the spring.