Florida Gators 2020 DL Signee Johnnie Brown to JUCO, Will Not Enroll at UF
With another set of freshmen heading to campus, it is that time of year when we find out who exactly made it through admissions and who did not. Unfortunately for the Florida Gators, 2020 defensive end Johnnie Brown will instead enroll with Copiah-Lincoln Community College (Miss.), as Corey Bender of GatorsTerritory reported late last night.
Losing Brown will be tough to deal with in the long term, but as of now, the Gators are not going to be hurting for strongside defensive end depth which is the position Brown would have played at Florida.
Redshirt Junior Zachary Carter seemingly has the starting spot locked up after a flashy 2019 season, and redshirt sophomore Andrew Chatfield will also be behind him on the depth chart. It is also a possibility that Georgia linebacker transfer Brenton Cox could slide to strong-side defensive end if need be.
For another recruiting cycle, Dan Mullen has had at least one non-qualifier who never suited up to play for UF at the college level. This was most notably an issue with 2019 athlete Diwun Black, although Black has pushed through the JUCO ranks and intends to enroll at Florida in December for 2021.
A similar situation occurred with offensive lineman Devayie Hammond, who did not qualify in 2019. However, he is still listed as a commit for the 2021 class and should be suiting up in orange and blue next year.
Although it is a concern for the staff about certain players not making it into school, UF is a challenging program to get into and Mullen has had to adjust to getting players in despite the vast difference in requirements from his old stomping grounds of Mississippi State to Florida.
Also, Mullen is clearly willing to take chances and reap the consequences if they don't make it through admissions. As we have seen recently, Mullen will keep in touch even if they don't qualify in hopes to bring them back to UF after their JUCO requirements have been completed.