Gators Looking to Combat Influx of Texas A&M Youth Led by WR Evan Stewart

The Florida Gators will look to combat the influx of youthful talent Texas A&M deploys, led by wide receiver Evan Stewart, when they head to College Station.

When the Gators travel into hostile territory for just the second time this season, they will face a unique task with Texas A&M.

Just an offseason removed from compiling the best recruiting class in modern history, the Aggies are failing to amount that talent into wins in year one with the group. Despite entering the contest as a 3-5 (1-4 SEC) squad, the influx of elite youthful talent that is seeing increased time each week can prove exacting for Florida (4-4, 1-4 SEC) in front of the 12th man on Saturday.

Head coach Billy Napier acknowledged that fact on Wednesday.

"There's a lot of players that are contributing as young players for them," he said. "To me, I sit around and think about it and it's a good thing because rookies can impact your team. There's no question they evaluated well; they recruited well. Those players, they were midyear players, and they've made the most of the competition there and they've got a role on their team, for sure.

"This is as talented a group, depth-wise, in the front seven, that we've seen. They're an impressive group. We're going to have our challenges that comes with this opponent, for sure."

Namely, freshmen defenders like Walter Nolen, Shemar Stewart, Bryce Anderson, Jacoby Mathews, Jarred Kerr and others have contributed to the Aggies in varied roles this season. Napier pointed out how that talent has bolstered the defensive line, specifically, this year.

However, emerging star wideout Evan Stewart is the supreme beneficiary of the plugging-and-playing of young talent in College Station. He's the most daunting weapon to the Gators' gameplan as a pass-catching option — alongside slot wideout Moose Muhammad III — given his impact in uplifting a sputtering Jimbo Fisher offense over the past few weeks.

He's also a familiar face for the University of Florida.

Recruited heavily by former head coach Dan Mullen and wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales, Stewart showed legitimate interest in the Gators during his recruitment process in the 2022 cycle.

At the time, Stewart marveled at the dominant passing offense Florida operated in 2020 and the potential to play with close friend Nick Evers, who was committed to play quarterback at Florida before decommitting and pledging to Oklahoma when Napier and Co. took over the program.

He even named Florida as the leader in the summer of 2021. However, instead of making his way to Gainesville, Stewart elected to remain in his home state, joining a record-breaking amount of talent in Texas A&M's class.

Now, the once-coveted wideout prospect is producing at the elite level many expected him to when he arrived on his eventual college campus, presenting a struggling Gators secondary with a difficult matchup to handle.

"I've seen him," UF defensive end Princely Umanmielen said on Wednesday. "I feel like he's been making a name for himself. I feel like our DBs have to keep an eye out for him."

Umanmielen is right.

Accounting for 38 receptions, 478 yards and two touchdowns this season, Stewart leads the Aggies offense in receiving through 10 weeks. In the past three contests, the wideout — possessing elite speed, crisp movement into and out of his breaks and contested catch ability to be a safety blanket for whichever A&M quarterback that's aligned behind center this year — is drawing ten-plus targets for 95 yards or more.

Despite the lapses that are bound to arise as a freshman, his reliability is flashing as one of the nation's best and more versatile wideouts. 

His explosiveness adds an element to the offense that fellow true freshman Conner Weigman can exploit as he steps in to make his career second start against Florida.

As a result, Florida's defensive backfield will key in on Stewart in an attempt to limit his production, likely deploying Jason Marshall Jr. in press-man coverage — which Patrick Toney called more of against Georgia and found some levels of success relative to the off-man zone they operated earlier in the year — when Stewart is on the boundary to restrict his overall impact.

Even Gators wideout Xzavier Henderson is intrigued by Stewart's talents as Saturday approaches. He played a role in recruiting the former top 15 talent to Florida.

"That boy is a speedster," he said on Wednesday. "He's a nice player, a real explosive player on offense. I can't wait to watch him play."

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