Finals week has consumed the more than 50,000 students at the University of Florida. Lines at Starbucks are long and seats in the library are scarce as everyone tries to cram in that last bit of information before the semester ends.
For a few Florida Gators football players, finals aren’t the only thing on their mind.
After 15 spring practices the coaching staff and players have had a good chance to feel each other out and like many cases where a new staff comes in, some players see the writing on the wall and will be looking to transfer schools. This happened when Urban Meyer took over for Ron Zook and again when Will Muschamp took over after Zook’s tenure. It appears that history will repeat itself with McElwain.
“We’re still kind of waiting on grades on some guys as far as to see where our roster is going to be when it’s complete,” McElwain told reporters before speaking to the Jacksonville Gator Club. “A couple of guys have asked to explore their options, which I totally support if this isn’t going to be the place for them.”
McElwain said that he would put restrictions on players in terms of prohibiting them from transferring to certain schools or conferences.
“If they don’t want to be here, I don’t want to keep them here. It’s totally up to them,” he said. “We have a lot of great things here and a lot of great things are going to happen. So, it’s an exciting time to be a Gator.”
The Gators have only 78 scholarship players on the roster so the Gators will be playing well below the NCAA’s 85-man roster limit even before any transfers. Florida can hardly afford to lose too many players but after sitting down with most of the team individually, McElwain doesn’t seem too concerned about the potential to have a few players transfer away from Florida.
“Well see what happens moving forward, but nothing earth shattering by any stretch of the imagination.”