The Gators may be just five days away from kicking off their 2021 season against Florida Atlantic, but that didn’t stop them from tinkering with the roster on Monday morning.
Former Auburn defensive tackle Tyrone Truesdell has been added to UF’s roster. He will be eligible to play immediately, and he has one year of eligibility remaining.
“I think you’re looking at your depth, and that was a position, really, to me, it was a little bit of a recruiting gap in the middle that we’ve had from my first and second year here,” coach Dan Mullen said. “Then you have some injuries and some guys not able to perform.
“It was somebody that we looked at immediately at the start of training camp, and it’s just something that you look at the depth chart, where you’re at, the needs, and you got a guy that started a lot of games in this league.”
Truesdell played in 44 games in four seasons as a Tiger, with 19 starts over the past two years. The 6-foot-2, 326-pounder brings nine career tackles-for-loss and three sacks to the Gators.
His best season came in 2019, when he made five tackles-for-loss and all three of his career sacks. He added 2.5 tackles-for-loss last season.
Truesdell went through spring practices and summer workouts at Auburn but was absent from the program when training camp began.
He is the third graduate transfer defensive tackle to join the Gators this offseason, joining Antonio Valentino from Penn State and his former Auburn teammate, Daquan Newkirk.
Truesdell primarily played nose tackle at Auburn and ate up double-teams, which allowed the linebackers to run free and make plays.
After he gets acclimated to his new program and a new defensive scheme, he figures to compete with Valentino and Gervon Dexter for snaps at nose tackle this season.
“I know it’s kind of a late start, but being a veteran guy that’s started in the league, I think he’s going to adapt really quick,” Mullen said.