Princely Umanmielen’s college career didn’t begin the way he had envisioned as a four-star recruit from Texas.
The defensive end made two sacks as a freshman in 2020, but he was buried on the depth chart behind veterans like Zachary Carter, Dante Zanders (formerly Lang) and Andrew Chatfield. Even edge rushers like Brenton Cox and Khris Bogle moved over to the strongside and played ahead of him at times.
So, despite being highly productive when he was out there, he only played in six games.
“It was a little tough on me mentally,” Umanmielen said. “I wasn’t thinking about anything like transferring or anything like that, but it was a little hard because I felt like I had the ability to play like at least on third downs. I know I wasn’t the best run stopper, but I felt like I could have had more opportunities. It was a little frustrating, but I just stuck with it and kept my head down.”
Then, Carter decided to take advantage of the NCAA’s extra year of eligibility and returned to UF for a fifth year.
It would’ve been understandable for Umanmielen to feel upset about Carter coming back and making him wait another year to become a starter. Instead, he views Carter’s presence as a blessing.
Carter is currently tied for second in the SEC with four sacks, and he’s regarded as one of the team’s biggest leaders. So, he’s earned a ton of respect in the locker room, and Umanmielen is excited about getting to study his practice habits for one more season.
“It’s good being behind Zach because he can teach me a lot,” he said. “Everybody wants to play at first, but it was kind of a good thing that Zach stayed because I’d rather have him stay and learn from him this year than just get thrown into the fire this season. It was good that he stayed so I could develop more and learn more from him this season.”
Whatever magic Carter has is starting to rub off on Umanmielen. He’s played in every game this season as the top backup at strongside end. He’s notched eight tackles, 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble and two quarterback hurries.
Umanmielen has displayed one of the quickest get-offs on the team when it comes to pass rushing, and his run defense, a self-diagnosed area of weakness, appears to be much improved.
He’s pleased with his start to this season, but he’s far from satisfied.
“I feel like versus FAU I could have performed a little better,” he said. “I feel like I was doing a little too much instead of sticking to what I know. I was doing a little too much versus FAU. USF, I think I did pretty good. Every game, I’m really hard on myself and always want to make a lot of plays. I think the best I’ve made an opportunity out of was the Tennessee game. I think I made the best of my opportunity versus Tennessee.”
Umanmielen tied his career high with four stops against the Volunteers and recorded his first solo sack of the season.
Perhaps the most impressive part of his sack against Tennessee was the way he bounced back from a bad play. On the previous play, he was flagged for grabbing Tiyon Evans’ facemask.
Instead of being angry at himself for costing his team 15 yards or worrying about how that mistake might affect his playing time, he just flushed that play from his memory and made a big play a few seconds later.
He said that balancing aggressiveness and discipline has been one of the biggest things he’s learned in college so far.
“I think that penalty, I was just a little frustrated,” Umanmielen said. “I was just a little frustrated, like, maybe one of the O-Linemen had just got in my head a little bit. But I just calmed down and stayed in my game. So, me staying in my game helped me on the next play to make that play.
“You have to really learn because, in camp, I know that sometimes I could be a little overaggressive. And being overaggressive will take you out [of] your game, so you’ve got to learn how to stick with the fundamentals and techniques to play the game and not be overly aggressive.”
Umanmielen didn’t make the instant impact that he expected to make last year, but he’s carved out a significant role for himself in 2021.