Gators' Lack of Sturdivant One of Many Offensive Shortcomings

After a recent string of successful transfers at receiver, Florida is having struggles getting J. Michael Sturdivant involved in the offense.

Florida Gators wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant has not had a big impact offensively this season. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

In what has been an anemic Florida Gators offense in 2025, the puzzling lack of transfer wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant is just another example of talent seemingly being wasted in Gainesville this year.

Sturdivant, a senior transfer receiver who spent four years at Cal and UCLA, committed to play for the Gators with the hope and talent to become their next success story at his position out of the portal. Following names such as Elijhah Badger, Chimere Dike and Ricky Pearsall, the standout deep threat looked to take the similar next step as those before him, possibly boosting his stock as an NFL draft pick.

Instead, the Billy Napier-led offense that had helped Badger, Dike and Pearsall ascend has done the opposite for Sturdivant, making the skilled receiver a forgotten name so far into the season.

In four games, Sturdivant has just eight receptions on 19 targets, sitting at just 76 yards and one touchdown as a Gator so far. Despite seeing more snaps per game than he has since his redshirt freshman year at Cal, he has had his lowest averages in receptions per game, yards per game, yards per perception and yards per route run in his career.

Lagway and UCLA transfer WR J Michael Sturdivant hook up for a crucial 4th down conv pic.twitter.com/cwwaUzEuni

— New Era Prep (@EraPrep) September 21, 2025

The struggle to get the athletic wideout involved comes as a surprise after an offseason where he seemed to be expected to have a huge role in the Gators attack. From the moment he stepped on campus, the belief seemed to be that Florida had found their leading wide receiver.

“I think much like Chim, he had an initial surge in production, then the production went away,” Napier said about Sturdivant ahead of the season. "He's got one year here to kind of prove himself and increase his value. And I think he knows he can help our team.”

What is most shocking about the disappearance of the exciting big play receiver is his usage downfield, once his bread and butter at the collegiate level. Despite a 93.9 career PFF grade on targets of at least 20 yards and almost 27 percent of his career targets at such distance, the new Gator has not recorded a catch on a deep pass this year while being targeted just three times.

What's worse, Florida has completed just two passes of at least 20 yards downfield on 10 targets this year, both coming in week one against FCS Long Island. Quarterback DJ Lagway, who last year was PFF’s highest graded deep passer and earned a 95.6 grade on such throws, currently has completed just one of his seven attempts, while being intercepted three times and holding an 11.9 NFL passer rating on such deep shots.

The lack of success downfield has made Florida’s offense one of the worst in the country, yet the usage for Sturdivant in a deep threat role he has always excelled at has continued to stay minimal. In the Gators most recent loss against rival Miami, the starting receiver saw just two targets, none deep down field, while Florida would only throw for 61 total yards and Lagway would finish with his lowest average depth of target of his career at just 3.7.

In dire need of a spark on offense coming out of the bye week, Florida will need to find a deep passing game that has been one of the more important parts of their offense under Napier, needing to unlock one of the better depth threats in the country in the process.

Though various reasons have stopped the success of Sturdivant, who also suffered an apparent head injury in the loss to Miami, time is running out for both the talented wide receiver and the Gators, making it now or never for both in the next eight games.