Gators Freshman DE Princely Umanmielen Predicts Undefeated Season for Florida

As part of his YouTube Channel, D1Princely, Gators freshman DE Princely Umanmielen answers questions from fans on the upcoming season, and more.

With the players back at the facility for voluntary workout sessions, freshman defensive end Princely Umanmielen made a bold prediction as part of his Q&A on his YouTube channel, D1Princely.

Umanmielen, a four-star prospect as part of this year's 2020 recruiting class has already become a fan favorite thanks to his fun and candid YouTube videos in which he created to document his new life as a collegiate athlete. Yesterday, Umanmielen answered questions from fans who posed the questions via Instagram. with questions ranging from favorite teammates to insane hypotheticals, the Gators freshman answered them all.

When it came to a question regarding his personal prediction for the Gators in 2020, Umanmielen's answer was short and sweet: "We're going undefeated and we're winning the natty (national championship)." 

While, of course, there's no other answer for a student-athlete to give when asked about how they feel the team will perform, there's a certain intrigue involved when a player's mindset lines up with his head coach's. Earlier this month, Gators head coach Dan Mullen stated the same, adding that he assumes that every year he gets his hands on the schedule - as he should.

Umanmielen spoke at length regarding his decision to choose the Gators over his hometown team in the Texas Longhorns in aa video made earlier this year, but he reiterated his love for Florida yesterday. When posed with the question of if he would be given "infinite money" to play for any school in the nation, the freshman still insists he would choose Florida.

Since the Gators began their voluntary workouts with strength and conditioning coach, Nick Savage, Umanmielen has had to adapt to the new regime at the next level of football. "Workouts are pretty hard, I'm not gonna lie. Just know Coach Savage - I don't even know what to say about him - he's just crazy," he said with a laugh. "Workouts [have] been pretty hard, they're not too hard, it's just a different level of football."

The Gators have had a lot of success with coach Savage over the past couple of seasons, often reshaping players who would expect to take at least two years of development into their ideal playing shape in just one season.

While none of the incoming players have been assigned their permanent numbers, Umanmielen says he prefers No. 8 or No. 33, whichever he is able to snag. The freshman defensive end sported both numbers during high school, picking the number eight to wear during his visit to the University of Florida earlier this year.

Last week, much controversy occurred when Florida president, Kent Fuchs announced the team will no longer use the "Gator Bait" cheer during games, officially banning it from being played by the team's band. The tradition, which was popularized by former Gators safety Lawrence Wright in 1995, is now coming to an end due to the racist way the term was used long before it was adopted by the Gators fandom.

Umanmielen was asked his opinion on the subject and said frankly that he felt it was "kinda unnecessary" and a bit of a "reach". The difference in the way the term is used today throughout the University and how it was used in the past isn't even close, he argued.

"I feel like the President just wanted to do something so that he can show that he supports the movement," said the freshman. "But, I feel like it was a little bit of a reach. I saw the post of what it meant for back then or what they used to use it for, but, I think that the chant was totally - it's like a whole different thing from that. The person who made it, I bet you he didn't even know what that was when he made it, and also he's a black, African American individual."

While he understood the historical context of the phrase, due to the way it is used today, Umanmielen felt the two shouldn't be compared.

Umanmielen will continue to chronicle his life as much as possible during his time with the Gators, however, he did specify he might not be able to always talk about football as the team gets closer towards the season.

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