Despite Injuries, Gators Coach William Peagler Impressed With TE Group

The Florida Gators will head into the end of spring with an injury-riddled group of tight ends.

Photo: William Peagler; Credit: Zach Goodall

From an outsider's perspective, the attrition within the Florida Gators roster, and specifically its tight ends group, is dire.

The team has already lost one of its young up-and-coming players with Gage Wilcox suffering what was described by head coach Billy Napier as a career-ending injury, and other players such as Jonathan Odom and Nick Elksnis have been out with shoulder injuries.

That's led to the team being forced to get a bit creative, moving players around from all areas of the gridiron, including linebacker Noah Keeter, long snapper Rocco Underwood and defensive linemen Dante Zanders and Griffin McDowell to the tight end position.

Still, despite all of the attrition and a lack of depth at the position, Florida's tight ends coach William Peagler isn't as concerned as many would be in his position. That's because he has faith in the team's current group, and as he told reporters last week, both Odom and Elksnis are expected to return, not in danger of missing the season.

"Obviously, I think there's some things probably publicly out there, but, you know, it is what it is," Peagler told reporters last week. "It's football, you're gonna have some guys getting nicked up, but I've been proud of the guys that we have and the guys that have stepped over and made plays for us.”

That group includes the aforementioned converted players, along with veteran Keon Zipperer. Florida is also expected to bring in three freshmen for the fall that will certainly help the group as a whole, including Tony Livingston, Hayden Hansen and Arlis Boardingham.

The infusion of those three players will certainly help the program's depth at the position, and Peagler is excited to see them get to work, with tempered expectations, of course.

"I'm excited to see how they go," he said. "You know, I don't like to place expectations on guys, but I do like to see– I am excited by how those guys are gonna come in and, you know, mingle with our room, because they all have three different skill sets, and that's exciting to me.”

The three skillsets Peagler is referring to are what the incoming freshmen can provide. Below is what Peagler gave as sort of scouting reporters on all three players:

Livingston:

“He was already signed before I got here, so I didn't really know him quite as well. But, you know, really a freak athlete. You watch him play basketball, and he's a heck of a basketball player. And to see him as big as he is moving down the field, like he did. He's got 11 inch hands, and he's got giant mitts on, he's really got a unique skill set for it.”

Hansen:

I think I think Hayden's a lot better athlete than maybe people realize. We were pretty fortunate here that Coach Napier and them had him in camp at UL. So we had some ground-level film of him. Yeah, he's a little bit raw, but he's got the movement skills that we're looking for the position — and he just he played quarterback, so that's kind of a hard transition. Maybe you don't see the physicality on tape that you want, but I think he can come because you can see from the first time he did something to what he became later, it was way better.

Boardingham:

Arlis is just kind of unique. Arlis is probably more in that Zip (Zipperer) world, at least probably what people think, but really an impressive track athlete. Made a lot of plays on defense, and we're excited to get the ball in his hands and see what he can do.”

The influx of talent will certainly help the Gators when it comes to finding out how much depth they truly have at the position. Of course, the team will still scout the transfer portal to find a player or two to help out, but there isn't a real concern, at least from the team's position coach, about the current group they have.

“I don’t think I’ll ever turn down a great player," Peagler said about the team potentially bringing in a player via the transfer portal. "But I really liked the group we have, I just think, like we were talking about earlier, it takes time to develop. And I think we have the body types that we need to have a chance of success.”

Meanwhile, the veteran player of the group, Zipperer, has continued to impress Peagler as he closes out the final year of his collegiate career. 

“I’ve seen Keon, I thought he had his best day of the spring today," Peagler said after practice on April 7.  "I've seen him get incrementally a little bit better. You know, I think anytime you're in a new system, there's a little bit of a learning curve, but I really liked the way he attacked today. I thought today was his best day.”

Now, Florida will get a good chance to see what the offenses has, one that will certainly rely on the TE position as a whole this upcoming season.

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