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How many will UF sign this year?

Most people had thought UF to be looking to sign 22 to 23 players on the year. After Friday Night Lights and it's aftermath (5 committs in 5 days, 4 for 2013) UF stands currently holds 21 verbal committments.

In order to truly understand how many players UF can take we need to examine the current roster a bit more fully.

According to the most recent reports http://insider.espn.go.com/colleges/florida/story/_/id/8192962/florida-gators-football-scholarship-breakdown UF has 78 players on scholarship, which is 7 below the NCAA maximum. The SEC has a mandate of 25 scholarships a year (oversigning rears its head). 13 of this 78 are seniors. With 13 gone and 7 open slots, UF logically has 20 available spots, barring attrition through transfers, draft, or exspellusion (hope that one doesn't happen).

Personally I do not believe Powell, Easely, and Floyd could all leave early. Especially not Ro-Po coming back from injury. Matt Elam, Jelani Jenkins, and perhaps Andre Debose could also leave early. However the odds of all 6 going pro, is probably around 20% (totally made that up). My best guess says Elam, Jenkins, and either Easely or Floyd (but not both) will go pro, and so will Debose if he has a good year. That's 3 to 4 spots from the good kind of attrition.

From 20 to 23/24

There have been rumors of UF seeing somewhere around 2 to 3 more in transfers by the time the season ends. Who might be one of those candidates? If it is playing time: Kedric Johnson, Tevin Westbrook, Clay Burton, Cody Riggs, Valdez Showers, Jefoby Briskel or Tyler Murphy, Stephen Alli, and Ja'Juan Story are the all candidates that may wish to leave for more greener pastures in the PT department. One of the O-linemen could also be thrown in there too, but O-linemen trasnferring has been rare at UF (at least in the recent past years). Of the 9 to 10 guys I mentioned (OL included), could you see 2 to 3 of them moving on? I can. Stephen Alli and Tevin Westbrook seem like prime candidates to me. I have never been one on the a QB is transferring train, so I'll let that one slide. Alli has never done much besides play some special teams, and Westbrook is about to be burried to 4th or 5th string at TE. Alli is a junior and Westbrook is a sophmore. Westbrook could go to another FBS school, while Alli would be more quick to choose a junior college for more immediate playing time. So that's brings us to two and possibly that third, but we listed enough candidates for me to say it will most likely be 3.

From 23/24 to 26/27

Obviously that number is more than the 25 limit by the SEC, but early enrollees can count towards the previous class, and we had 7 early enrollees last year, which means we can have at least 7 again this year. Kelvin Taylor has already declared himself a early enrollee. I don't think Florida signs 26 to 27. But I wouldn't be surprised with 25.

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