Florida Gators TE Room Showcasing Versatility, Gamble the Latest To Produce
No tight end Kyle Pitts, no problem for the No. 6 Florida Gators offense over the past two weeks.
While there is no true replacement for the star junior tight end, his replacements, Kemore Gamble and Keon Zipperer, aren't half bad themselves, and it's a credit to the team's Florida coaching staff including head coach Dan Mullen and tight ends coach Tim Brewster.
Florida has not had the services of Pitts for two-and-a-half weeks now after the star tight end was concussed during the first half of the team's contest against the Georgia Bulldogs, along with a nose injury that would require surgery. In his place, Gamble and Zipperer have filled in seemingly just fine, with both tight ends producing against Vanderbilt and Arkansas, respectively.
The latest to produce has been Gamble, who played a key role during the team's victory over Arkansas as a blocker. Now, he's been used in the passing game, producing three receptions for 66 yards and two touchdowns to boot against Vanderbilt. The previous week, Zipperer had his own two-touchdown performance, catching three passes for 47 yards and two touchdowns against the Razorbacks.
“I think you give a lot of credit, Coach Brewster’s done a great job getting those guys ready," Mullen said shortly after the team's 38-17 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday "Those guys have taken massive steps forward from where they were last year, both of those guys. You saw it in practice, you’d see it in games. You guys might not have seen a lot because we’ve got Kyle (Pitts)."
While the two have not been rotated in as much as other positions throughout the course of the season while Pitts was healthy, Mullen says the team has always known what they've had in its blossoming tight end room, seeing it each and every day during practice.
The unselfish nature of the tight end position in the Gators' offense is evident. While both backup tight ends may not receive the same number of targets or catches and overall offensive production, Zipperer understands the method to the madness and is completely fine with sharing the wealth with his teammate.
“I mean, he’s a real good teammate," Zipperer said of Gamble last Monday. "He never downplays nobody or me or Kyle or nothing. He just likes to get it whenever it comes because you never know when it’s going to come. It might be [my] game but the next one might be his. And it might not be mine, so you just gotta get it whenever it comes.”
Almost as if Zipperer predicted the future, Gamble was the next man up in line for more touches and receptions from the Gators' offense just one week after he got his touches. While it simply worked out that way, Brewster has known all along what he's had in his tight end room, one he said over the summer was one of the best in the nation.
"I coach them extremely hard on the field. It’s all about the details, OK. It’s all about the details in everything we do, and these guys have all embraced that mentality and it makes my job easy," Brewster said this summer.
"But I’m going to tell you what guys: I’d be hard-pressed to think that there’s a much better tight end room somewhere in the country than what I’ve got here at the University of Florida with the development Kemore has just … I can’t say enough about him, how he’s coming on."
Gamble now has three touchdowns on the year for Florida, including one against the Georiga Bulldogs earlier this season. His latest touchdown, thrown by Gators backup quarterback Emory Jones, drew kudos from starting quarterback Kyle Trask, who praised both of his teammates for their play on Saturday.
"He made the right read, and Kemore did the rest as far as execution goes, and like I’ve always said in the past, Coach Mullen does a great job of just having a lot of people that are ready to play, and Gamble did a great job today," said Trask following the game on Saturday.
