I’ve noticed some increased optimism in a few places about Florida’s wide receiver room this year. Not the least of it was at SEC Media Days, where both some questions and answers had some embedded bullishness to them. It’s quite the turnaround from the immediate 2023 postseason assessment, where wideout was generally considered to be one of the weakest groups on the team outside of Tre Wilson.
I, myself, have been higher on this group of pass catchers than most for a long time in fact. After all, here’s what Florida is looking at now:
- Wilson, a returning freshman All-American with tremendous quickness and agility
- Elijhah Badger, a former No. 1 receiver for another P5 school
- Chimere Dike, a former No. 1 receiver for another P5 school who’s caught hundreds, if not thousands, of passes from UF’s starting quarterback across years of playing together
- Kahleil Jackson, a big dude with great hands
- Aidan Mizell, a fast deep threat who’s rounding into being a more complete receiver
- Andy Jean, an all-around versatile receiver if he can ever get healthy
- Tank Hawkins, the fastest of the bunch
- TJ Abrams, a guy who Montrell Johnson called out at SEC Media Days as being ready to contribute this year
- Marcus Burke and Ja’Quavion Fraziars, a pair of tall veterans who, if nothing else, you know exactly what you’re getting with them
It’s not the best wide receiver room in the country, but that’s not bad. A good coach has plenty to work with there.
Before the hype train gets too far down the tracks, though, let’s talk about what’s a reasonable expectation for this group looks like.
Wilson will be the centerpiece. I’m not sure how many guys will have many plays designed just for them, but Wilson definitely will. He’s just too good not to have some. We might see, for instance, Hawkins getting some work on the jet sweep to take advantage of his speed, but that’s just putting a specific guy into one of the staple plays of the attack.
Billy Napier’s offense is still Billy Napier’s offense, though, so don’t expect to see a bunch of four-wide receiver sets. Dan Mullen, eventually, became more pass-friendly than Napier is now, and even he rarely employed four true receivers. Napier will generally have three wideouts, and sometimes he’ll have two when he’s using his double tight end sets.
So, realistically, we’re mostly going to see the first four guys on that list: Wilson, Badger, Dike, and Jackson. I have generally been guessing that the first three of those will be the starters, but Napier stood up for Jackson at SECMD when asked about the wideouts. He likes Jackson’s reliability, so don’t count him out for major playing time.
I would bet that Mizell will be the first of the rest to get snaps, with perhaps Burke getting some run as well. Neither Burke nor Fraziars has gotten many looks under Napier’s regime, but they are older players who will be less variable in their play even if their ceilings aren’t all that high.
Jean is a wild card due to his injury history. I think he has the skills to crack the extended rotation, but getting and staying healthy has been a challenge for him. I wish the best for him this year.
And, despite the praise here and there, we probably won’t see a ton of the true freshmen Abrams and Hawkins. They certainly could see the field on special teams, but they probably won’t get a lot of snaps on offense. Again, Hawkins may get some touches trying to take advantage of his track speed, but they’ll be fairly simple things. There were some reports in the spring about how he’s still a bit raw as a football player, so he may not be ready yet to be a fixture in the regular offense.
We may end up seeing something like Napier’s receiving lineup from Louisiana in 2019. He had a featured guy with 60 catches, three more with between 25 and 34 catches, and then two others with 21 and 15 catches, respectively. I could see a repeat of that with Wilson alone at the top, followed by a second tier of Badger, Dike, and Jackson. Then there might be a couple of guys like Mizell and Burke who get a catch or two a game.
It won’t be a complete repeat of that, as I expect Arlis Boardingham to get more than the 15 catches that the leading tight end on that Ragin’ Cajun team had. He had 26 last year as a redshirt freshman, after all. Montrell Johnson also had 30 receptions out of the backfield in 2023, and he probably won’t see his usage rate fall with the other lead back from last year off to parts up north.
The point, though, is that there aren’t suddenly so many quality receivers that they’re all going to have 40 catches and teams won’t know what to do with the Gators’ dynamic passing attack. There are a few receivers who can play very well right away like Wilson did, but most don’t. It would be normal, not a disappointment, for the non-Wilson signees of the last two recruiting cycles to have small roles.
The first receiver I remember getting glowing spring reviews (due to the time frame in which I began paying attention) was Dallas Baker. He did catch five touchdowns as a sophomore, but he didn’t have a real lead role until his third year. More recently, it took Freddie Swain, Tyrie Cleveland, and Josh Hammond until their third years to really show they knew what they were doing. The coaching change from 2017 to 2018 may have helped there, too, admittedly.
It may take until next year for Mizell, Jean, Abrams, and Hawkins to mature into dudes ready to play major roles. That’s okay, since Wilson will still be around but Dike (for sure, graduation) and Badger (most likely, to the draft) will be gone.
The buzz this year is more a sign of a receiver pipeline being reestablished than anything. Which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong, but let’s keep some perspective. The catches are almost certainly going to be concentrated among the top four of Wilson, Badger, Dike, and Jackson. The others, while promising, aren’t going to get their times in the spotlight just yet.