Florida OL Jalen Farmer to Enter Transfer Portal
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida redshirt freshman offensive lineman Jalen Farmer intends to enter the NCAA transfer portal after spending two seasons with the Gators, he announced on Monday.
From Covington (Ga.) Eastside, Farmer aligned with the Gators in Sept. 2021 as a member of the recruiting class of 2022.
He held firm on his commitment to the program through the cycle's National Signing Day, despite the program's change from Dan Mullen to Billy Napier at head coach and Farmer's late interest received from fellow SEC programs such as Alabama, Kentucky and Auburn.
"We were very impressed with the initial evaluation," Napier said on Feb. 2, 2022. "Certainly, it's a good thing when some of the best programs in the country come and try to recruit some of your commits. But we've got a ton of confidence in Jalen. We believe in him, and we're ecstatic [about] what he's going to bring to our team."
However, although he was likely to redshirt the year already following two appearances and 31 total snaps, an upper-body injury that required surgery prevented Farmer from playing in Florida's 2022 Las Vegas Bowl appearance, a game in which he would have been a candidate to start after guard O'Cyrus Torrence's NFL Draft declaration and an injury to sophomore Richie Leonard IV.
Kamryn Waites moved from tackle to guard with Torrence, Farmer and Leonard unavailable for the matchup.
Farmer continued to recover from the hurt throughout the 2023 offseason and returned to action during Florida's fall training camp. He opened the campaign as the team's third-string right guard, behind offseason transfer and starter Micah Mazzccua and freshman backup Knijeah Harris, but rose to the second-team spot with Harris shifting to left guard on the depth chart.
Still, Harris was favored as the team's swing guard as he went on to compile 150 snaps between the left and right guard positions throughout the year, as well as 20 at center. Farmer logged just 27 offensive line snaps over two appearances in 2023, against McNeese State and Vanderbilt.
Farmer is the 13th member of Florida's 2023 roster with known plans to transfer this offseason.
He joins defensive back Jadarrius Perkins, offensive tackle Jordan Herman, tight end Jonathan Odom, kicker Adam Mihalek, defensive back Kamari Wilson, defensive lineman Will Norman, quarterback Max Brown, wide receiver Caleb Douglas, wide receiver Thai Chiaokhiao-Bowman, defensive lineman Keenan Landry, tight end Andrew Savaiinaea and defensive lineman Chris McClellan as players to announce their intentions to enter the transfer portal.
This is a breaking news story that will be updated as further details emerge.
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