Florida Gators Safety Drake Stubbs can Make Impact as a Freshman

For seven days, Florida Gators freshman Drake Stubbs looked like he would head to Los Angeles and play for USC. Then he decommitted from the Trojans and pledged to the Miami Hurricanes.

For roughly six months, he looked as though Coral Gables would be his new home. However a funny thing happened on the way, the Florida Gators embarked on a comeback for the ages. Left for dead in October, the Gators made a late-season surge to not only save Billy Napier’s job but their season.

Stubbs took notice and, decommitted from Miami and signed with Florida.

Skillset

247Sports ranked Stubbs the No. 4 safety in the country.

"Tracks the football well on the backend and has the ball skills to come down with takeaways. Isn’t the type of defender that’s going to win a ton of foot races, but has the short-area quickness to correct some mistakes. Projects as a potential multi-year impact defender at the Power Four level that can add value in a variety of different ways as he can match tight ends, cut down run lanes, and get home on the blitz,” wrote scouting director Andrew Ivins on 247Sports.

Stubbs profiles as a box safety that will batter ball carriers in and around the line of scrimmage. He relishes the chance to hit, making offensive players feel the impact. Now, this could hurt him against spread formations.

While Ivins and the rest of the high school scouting community were high on Stubbs, the lack of long speed could serve as a detriment. Ahead of him on the depth chart stand Asa Turner and Jordan Castell.

Turner, a super senior, maxed out his ceiling and provides leadership to compensate for a limited athletic palette. Castell possesses the range and ability to flow to the ball. Stubbs will struggle to unseat him.

Overview

Drake Stubbs can ascend the depth chart, if he plays at an equal pace to Asa Turner. What Stubbs lacks in experience, he makes up for with athletic pedigree. He gives the speed-conscious Gators secondary teeth.

Stubbs will roll down to the line of scrimmage and punish the ball carrier. Before that, he displays enough nastiness to discard receivers and running back blocks with little regard.

Meanwhile, he will need to use his quickness to evade lineman blocks if he's pinching down in the box. At the end of the day, the freshman can make a mark on the defense.

It’s a good problem for the Gators to have to be able to bring him along slowly and learn behind two experienced safeties. He’ll get his chances to make an impact over the course of the season. What he does with those chances will determine just how much time he sees as a freshman in 2025.