Gators Football Absent in ESPN’s Transfer Portal Rankings

The Florida Gators were unranked in ESPN’s top 10 college football transfer classes. They miss out while notable rivals and conference opponents made the cut: LSU, Ole Miss Miami, Missouri, Auburn, FSU and Texas A&M. Oregon was another top program to make the cut.

While there is a desire from fans to see the Gators be part of every top list for football, this shouldn’t be that shocking. They only have five incoming transfers, one of which is a punter and another is a backup quarterback. That leaves three players who could make an impact on either side of the ball outside of special teams or the occasional subtitution.

Meanwhile, here are the sizes of the transfer classes of each SEC school that was ranked.

LSU: 18
Ole Miss: 28
Missouri: 22
Auburn: 19
Texas A&M: 14
Each of these schools have sizable transfer classes. The smallest class in the top 10 was Oregon with 11, still double the size of the Gators’ class. The Ducks also brought in players who were in the top 10 in the portal at their positions.

The highest-ranked player at his position for the Gators is safety Micheal Caraway Jr. (No. 12). Wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant is the only other top-25 player at his position coming to Gainesville.

In the eyes of some of the experts, this was not an area of recruiting that the Gators exceled at.

However, Florida did better in other areas of recruiting, such as their incoming freshman class. Only Oregon is ranked ahead of them in that regard. That recruiting class brought reason for excitement, especially in the passing game.

It’s not a good thing that Florida wasn’t winning in the portal, but they also had returning talent as well that can still make an impact. Should Florida continue to turn things around, they’ll have an easier time landing more talent in the portal.