Gators' Princely Umanmielen Is 'Gifted' Says Turner, Still Learning

The Florida Gators will need a big year-two jump from its young defenders, including sophomore Princely Umanmielen.

The man with perhaps one of the most intriguing names on the football roster, defensive end Princely Umanmielen is getting high praise from Florida coaches this spring.

Now able to participate in spring training, Umanmielen is able to focus on his fundamentals, realizing that the game is not the same as it was when he was in high school, but a whole lot faster, and much more dependent on technique, rather than brute force.

Florida defensive line coach David Turner recently met with the media and spoke highly of the young defensive lineman, stating that he is a "gifted young man," but still needs work as most players coming from the prep level to the collegiate level oftentimes do.

“Princely has a lot of tools. He is a gifted young man. He’s still got to understand the college game. It’s not high school, you can’t just run around and kind of freelance at your leisure," Turner said frankly. "You’ve got things and responsibilities within the defense. Princely’s learning."

He's still learning. Last season Umanmielen was a fan-favorite whenever he entered the contest. While he was not one of the team's starters or even significant role players in big-time matchups, he would make the most of his snaps, absolutely.

Seeing action in six games, Umanmielen totaled three defensive stops, two tackles-for-loss and two sacks. While those numbers aren't exactly eye-popping, it is still impressive for a player who didn't see much action and was not able to go through spring practice, typically afforded to young freshmen first entering the program.

"I mean, those guys overcame a lot, and it wasn’t typical—obviously—a typical year. So, the development of the freshmen, really didn't happen," Turner explained.

"You know, you're talking about practicing in the fall when you getting ready to play, play a game on Saturday, and you really don't have as much time with those guys like you do in spring practice now, where you're really concentrating on the fundamentals."

Fundamentals are key. There are times when a defensive end is tasked with simply holding the point, not allowing an offensive player to get outside of his shoulders. This is in order to bring the play back to the front side, or backside depending on the route they take, allowing the linebackers and interior to swarm. As a pass rusher, this can be a tough task, which is why it is key to hone in on ones fundamentals.

The team's young defenders are currently working on just that, Turner says. That includes second-year players like Gervon Dexter and Jalen Lee. Both are big-time defenders that were brought in with last year's springless class.

"You know it's hard to play fast when you don't know, not real sure what you're doing. And so those guys feel good in the defense now, they've been exposed to it, they've been in it. They've played, and now it's really starting to settle down and play a whole lot faster which allows them and their natural ability to take over.”

They have played, and that means something. They have real-world experience at the collegiate level. With more practice and teaching, the expectation is that they could rise to an even greater level. Some feel that Umanmielen is "up next," but it appears one of his teammates, Dexter,  feels the defender is "up now."

Up now !! https://t.co/SkGZ5AH7rI

— Gervon Dexter SR (@GervonDexter) March 13, 2021

Only valuable time will determine whether or not he's correct.

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