Friday, July 2, 2010

Gators Looking for Defensive Ends...

Two areas of prime concern for Florida in 2010 are finding a replacement for Joe Haden and replacing the two starters at defensive end, Carlos Dunlap and Jermaine Cunningham. All three were drafted by NFL teams in the first 54 picks.

As you can see on the graph below Florida has defensive ends to work with this year, they aren't running on empty.

Justin Trattou is a fine football player and a playmaker. He has 15 tackles for a loss, 7 sacks and 2 INTs, and 3 pass deflections. Trattou tore a tendon in his shoulder and played through the agonizing pain. He chose not to have it repaired and has one left. If it holds up Trattou will be the MAN at one DE spot. He's an exceptional player...

William Green is a true junior out of Hoover, Alabama. Green is blessed with a lot of speed, he has five tackles for a loss, one QB sack and one blocked punt. His sack came in Florida's 2010 Sugar Bowl victory. Green is poised to have a coming out season, he has all the tools this is the position Jermaine Cunningham was in a couple of years ago. Generally Green is regarded as an athlete with more talent than Cunningham had yet Cunningham ended up being the 53rd player taken in this year's NFL draft.

Florida has a veteran back up for Green and Trattou in Duke Lemmens a three-year letterman. Lemmens has three tackles for a loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. Not a guy who has a future playing football after college but a guy you can rely on coming off the bench to give the starters a blow.

The chart below: Player's name, height, weight, class, games played, games started, L - stands for letters won
Player
Ht
Wt
Cl
Gp
St
Comment
Justin Trattou
6-3
252
Sr
39
18
3L - stay healthy
William Green
6-3
250
Jr
27
12L - Speed +
Duke Lemmens
6-3
253
Sr
32
1
3L - exp backup
Earl Okine
6-6
280
RSo
5

now or never
Lerentee McCray
6-2
240
RSo
11

1L loads of speed
Kedric Johnson
6-4
230
RFr


redshirted unknown
Ronald Powell
6-4
250
Fr


top recruit country
Lynden Trail
6-7
230
Fr


animal, needs wt
Dominique Easley
6-2
253
Fr


could play DE? DT


Florida is three deep with experience heading into the season. If Earl Okine doesn't make some sort of push this season he probably never will, don't know much about Kedric Johnson other than he had an amazing 24.5 sacks at Palmetto High School and ran a sub 4.7. Lerentee McCray was recruited and played at Florida as a LB, he switched to DE in the fall of 2009. He had blazing speed in high school was clocked at 4.53 in the 40.

In school is Ronald Powell, ranked the #1 national recruit at any position by Rivals and #2 by Scout. Powell is a freak athlete, much is expected of him but DE is a position that takes a little bit of OJT. It will be exciting for Gator fans to see how quickly and how often he gets on the field.

Joining Powell are two more freshmen who could help Florida early on at DE. Lynden Trail and Dominique Easley are two exceptional prospects.

Easley is another highly ranked national prospect who's has that 5-star ranking by the services. He's expected to become a DT but could play a strong side DE, the Gators cross train a lot of their defensive linemen, Trattou has a start at DT under his belt.

Trail is an interesting talent, he has nice feet for a big guy and is really strong. Now he'll need to bulk up and get college strong, and he'll get a lot of coaching to make the best use of his God given talents. If he turns out good enough to start one day he's going to be a nightmare, he's good at getting his hands on the ball be it knocking down a pass or stripping it from a ball carrier. He has a chance to be a really good one.

Make no mistake about it, the Gators aren't boxed in a corner at this position, their backs aren't against the wall. Like the strong recruiting team they are, the Gators are simply in a transition season. That will happen when you lose juniors to the NFL draft.

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