A lot of things were puzzling about Florida’s post-2008 nosedive on offense. Most of them have been litigated to death by now.
One that has flown relatively under the radar is the general disappearance of quality wide receivers. The dearth of star quarterbacks drown that out and was perhaps even a contributing factor, but it is kind of stunning how the Gators stopped producing playmakers out wide.
I mean, the program is in the state of Florida. Good, fast wideouts almost literally grow on trees.
Even when the Steve Spurrier era saw a relative drop off behind center following Danny Wuerffel’s graduation, the program was boasting of the likes of Travis McGriff, Travis Taylor, Darrell Jackson, and Reche Caldwell. Then things got cooking again when Rex Grossman took over in 2000 with Jabar Gaffney and Caldwell leading the way, with Taylor Jacobs stepping up in 2001.
Were those names all the best of the SOS receivers? Well, a couple were. But, can you imagine how transformative it would’ve been for the Muschamp teams to have anyone that good? No offense to now-NFL cornerback Quinton Dunbar, but any of those guys would’ve been the top dog on the 2011-13 teams.
Maybe Demarcus Robinson in 2014 could’ve beaten a couple out for the top wideout spot, and Antonio Callaway was good when he was actually on the field. However, Florida was largely a wasteland of wide receivers after Riley Cooper graduated following 2009.
It’s easy to pile on Will Muschamp for not building a good offense, but his receiver recruiting was remarkably unfruitful. Both 2011 signees transferred out quickly. The only signee in 2012 was the lowest-rated player in the class according to the 247 Composite and later transferred to play baseball in grad school. Facing a shortage, Muschamp signed six receivers in 2013; Robinson was the only one to make an impact. Then, all three 2014 signees didn’t pan out.
Quick: who was fourth on the team in total receptions in 2016? Answer: Jordan Cronkrite. Yeah, that’s the kind of hole that Muschamp left behind.
While Callaway was a star for Florida from 2015 until he wasn’t, it took until the 2016 class for things to really start to turn around. That was when Tyrie Cleveland, Freddie Swain, and Josh Hammond all signed as a part of a five-man haul. JUCO transfer Dre Massey never did much, with injuries slowing him down initially, and I guess with the eligibility mulligan for 2020, Rick Wells has two more seasons left to do something.
Still, it took Dan Mullen and Billy Gonzales coming in for the potential to turn into production.
Florida led all colleges with three receivers drafted in 2020. Ole Miss transfer Van Jefferson has turned heads in Rams as a second-round pick, and it was just announced last week that Freddie Swain made the Seahawk’s roster out of the sixth round. Denver announced its 53-man roster and 7th-round pick Cleveland was on it. One big reason? His excellence on special teams, a role Cleveland played for Mullen but not Jim McElwain.
Hammond wasn’t drafted, but he did make the Jaguars’ practice squad. All four senior receivers from 2019 are in the pro ranks for now.
As for 2020, Florida is set at the top of the rotation with Trevon Grimes, Jacob Copeland, and Kadarius Toney. They have complementary skill sets that should, with Kyle Pitts, give the Gators a formidable front row of pass targets.
It’s unmissable from fall camp reports, however, that Mullen and staff have set up a good pipeline for the future of the receiving corps. The turnaround out wide is not just the wave of 2019 upperclassmen.
Redshirt freshmen Ja’markis Weston and Trent Whittemore have been getting good reviews, something I covered in an article on the GC main site. Their fellow ’19 signee Dionte Marks has already transferred out, but those two appear ready to contribute in their second years following inevitable first-year redshirts.
On top of that, some of the more excitable buzz has been for 2020 true freshmen Xzavier Henderson and Jaquavion Fraziars. Henderson was always going to be one to watch as a borderline 5-star prospect who Florida beat Clemson for. He’s been exactly as advertised.
Fraziars didn’t get as much attention in the ’20 class, probably because he committed on December 1, 2018 — shortly after Mullen was hired — and never decommitted. The recruiting racket, for better and worse, turns on drama and change. Guys who commit early and don’t waver necessarily get lost in the shuffle.
Nevertheless, Fraziars is making plenty of people around the program excited too. I’ve been following the (unfortunately, fairly few) leaks of practice information and Fraziars is getting just as many whispers of praise as Henderson does.
We’ll see what happen with the extra year of eligibility following 2020, but I figure at least Grimes will leave for the NFL. He has NFL-ready size and speed and probably should go get paid after being WR1 for a year. Given how many reports there were last year about Toney being tempted to go even without any guarantees of being drafted, I wouldn’t be surprised if he left too.
Florida needs younger players to step up in whatever this year turns out to be because the team is likely to lose one or two of its veteran receivers. From the sounds of it, there are four such guys who will be jockeying for playing time.
UF appears to be a quality wide receiver factory again. It’s about time.