Envisioning Roles for Florida's Transfers: OL Damieon George Jr.
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When Billy Napier arrived in Gainesville, he made his plans for Florida football clear: Tear everything down and rebuild the Gators from scratch.
If Napier's transparency throughout his first offseason in charge wasn't enough to convince UF fans of that reality, his last two months as the program's head coach certainly should.
Since the second half of November 2022, Florida completed its first repeat losing season in the SEC since the 1950s, saw 22 scholarship players enter the transfer portal, welcomed ten FBS transfers into the university after acquiring six last offseason and signed Napier's first complete high school recruiting class, a haul including two or more signees at six different positions.
Florida football is going to look different in Napier's second year at the helm, undoubtedly. Whether it will be improved or not remains to be seen, but the incoming transfers — the majority of them, at least — will be expected to push the Gators in the right direction sooner rather than later.
All Gators is projecting roles for every Florida transfer acquisition ahead of the 2023 season. Having covered quarterback Graham Mertz, running back Cameron Carroll and guard Micah Mazzccua already, next we'll cover the Gators' second of three offensive line portal additions this offseason, former Alabama tackle Damieon George Jr.
Mazzccua's and George's paths to Florida through the transfer portal couldn't have been more different.
While Mazzccua emerged as one of the nation's better offensive linemen last year en route to a conference upgrade, George spent three seasons with the powerhouse Crimson Tide and was knocked off of the path toward a starting role in 2022 after filling in at right tackle for the final three games of the 2021 regular season.
In those matchups — against New Mexico State, Arkansas and Auburn — the 6-foot-6, 339-pound George allowed a combined three sacks and seven quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus. His PFF run-blocking grade across all of his nine offensive appearances that year was 64.8 out of 100, considered below average.
George would only go on to appear in three more contests for Alabama and did not earn a snap after Week 2 of the 2022 campaign. Looking for a fresh start, the former consensus three-star prospect went on to enter the portal on Nov. 28.
His career under Nick Saban may not have panned out as hoped, but Florida saw the same potential in George that Alabama saw in the 2020 recruiting class. Where better for George to go than to play for one of Saban's former assistants in Napier?
And, while George may need to continue sharpening his game, there is ample opportunity in front of him to improve and earn a starting role like the one he fought for in Tuscaloosa.
George's experience is a commodity on Florida's offensive line, a unit that lost four of its five starters this offseason with left tackle Richard Gouraige and right guard O'Cyrus Torrence entering the NFL Draft and both left guard Ethan White and right tackle Michael Tarquin transferring to Southern California.
Upon his enrollment, George was already the second-most experienced offensive tackle on Florida's roster, only behind 2022 First-Team Freshman All-American Austin Barber.
They could very well make up Florida's offensive tackle tandem in 2023 as a result, with Barber viewed as a lock to start on one side and George at least competing on the other side with Kentucky transfer Kiyaunta Goodwin and rising junior Jordan Herman.
Should Goodwin or Herman snatch the tackle spot opposite Barber, George would be a candidate to play on the interior opposite Mazzccua, who has spent his entire college career at left guard. We'll cover Goodwin's projected role with Florida in our next story of this series.
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