Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Florida Gators have gotten a lot of attention for their quarterback situation for 2015. But the focus may need to be shifted over to who sits in front of the quarterback. The offensive line situation at Florida is one of the worst seen in college football right now. The Gators lost five offensive lineman after last season. Those players had a combined 47 starts for the Gators in their career. Now with all of those men lost Florida will have some serious damage control until this fall.
The Gators went into the spring with just eight scholarship lineman. They want to increase that number to 12 by fall. But so far it looks like those hopes have been torn down at every turn. Recently Florida lost sophomore Roderick Johnson, who was looking to be the big impact on the Gator’s roster. Johnson ended his football career with a spine injury called congenital cervical stenosis, which prevents enough fluid gathering around the spinal cord to properly protect it from injury. With this condition, doctors told Johnson to retire from the sport immediately. Johnson was one of two offensive lineman who actually had collegiate experience going into 2015.
The other Offensive lineman that would give the Gators any shred of hope was Trip Thurman, who started in 10 games for the Gators in 2014. Thurman went down with a chronic shoulder injury in the spring. It’s not certain whether the redshirt senior will get to go back on the field this fall.
This leaves zero offensive lineman with any Florida Gator experience. Zero. Of course there will always be more walk-ons and transfers that Florida will be able to add to the roster, considering they need all the help that they can get. But this is such a startling predicament here for any Florida fan. First year head coach Jim McElwain is under a lot of pressure to begin with for 2015, and this just adds to it. There is almost no possibility that any offensive lineman with no collegiate experience can come into the SEC and perform well. That’s just not gonna happen, folks. So expect to see early struggles for Florida this fall, and pray that things don’t go from bad to worse when the Gators take the field against the New Mexico State Aggies on September 5. Be prepared to see the Gators drown in their own swamp.
