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Florida adds players to official football roster for 2015 season, two signees not among them

There's plenty of news to glean from Florida's update of its official 2015 roster — like the continued rebuild of Florida's offensive line.

By Andy Hutchins
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Florida's official update of its 2015 football roster with Summer B enrollees has gone live — and two players who signed with Florida in February aren't on the list.

Athlete D'Anfernee McGriff and defensive end Keivonnis Davis, both not among the initial wave of signees reporting to Gainesville, are unlisted. Fellow missing man Camrin Knight, on the other hand, is on the roster, after reporting to Florida over the weekend.

Knight also posted an Instagram picture of the National Signing Day ceremony at his high school on Sunday, writing "Gainesville here I come" as part of the caption. Landon Watnick of Inside the Gators reported ($) (and tweeted) late in the week that Knight had earned the necessary test score to qualify for enrollment at Florida; given that Florida has neither his height, weight, or number listed, it's safe to say his enrollment happened prior to measurements being taken.

With the May transfer of early enrollee Daniel Imatorbhebhe, Knight is the only remaining tight end in Florida's 2015 recruiting class.

McGriff is likely headed to prep school or Eastern Arizona College, the junior college he signed with in February, shortly after signing with Florida. Davis, on the other hand, remains unaccounted for and out in the cold. Florida's Summer B term begins Monday, and the Add/Drop period — essentially the registration window for a new enrollee — ends Tuesday at midnight, so Davis would need to enroll by late Tuesday to make it in for the summer term. The prep school and JUCO routes might be the way forward for Davis, but if all he's missing is a single high school credit, as 247Sports' Luke Stampini reports, Davis could also delay his enrollment until the fall while taking classes online or in a summer school program.

The rest of Florida's 16 remaining February signees who had yet to report as of last week are on campus and beginning classes this week. Wide receiver Kalif Jackson enrolled with Imatorbhebhe in January, while offensive lineman Tyler Jordan enrolled in the Summer A term.

They're joined on the roster by five more additions via transfer: Quarterback Luke Del Rio, a graduate transfer walk-on from Oregon State whose college career started at Alabama, likely to redshirt this fall; quarterback Josh Grady, whose graduate transfer from Vanderbilt was reported and acknowledged by Florida in May; linebacker Anthony Harrell, a graduate transfer from Georgia Tech who had news of his transfer break late Friday; offensive lineman Mason Halter, a graduate transfer from Fordham; and offensive lineman T.J. McCoy, a freshman who spent the spring semester at N.C. State and transferred to Florida to be closer to his ailing father.

And Florida is also bringing in a slew of walk-on freshmen. Punter Jack Spicer is the only punter on the roster behind Johnny Townsend, long snapper Jacob Tilghman is one of four long snappers listed, and offensive linemen Nick Villano (6'2", 312 pounds) and Donavan Welch (6'4", 286 pounds) have the size to be valuable big bodies in practice. Five other walk-on freshmen are also listed: Linebacker Isaac Brinson, offensive lineman Marcus Givens, linebacker Jahim Lawrence, wide receiver Isaac O'Neal, and linebacker Darius Singletary.

The unit most helped by the infusion of new blood is Florida's much-maligned offensive line, which was down to six healthy scholarship linemen at the time of the Gators' spring game in April. Now, granting that both Halter and McCoy should be scholarship players, and excepting the medically disqualified Roderick Johnson, still listed on the official roster, Florida has 15 scholarship offensive linemen, and 22 total offensive linemen, counting walk-ons.

While inexperience will remain a major issue for the Gators, with only the oft-injured Trip Thurman, of all of those 22 players, having ever started a game at the FBS level, Jim McElwain's work to produce depth on the offensive line has been essentially Herculean. Florida signed seven linemen — including Martez Ivey, a consensus five-star player — in February, and has since added two more via transfer, one of them, McCoy, a freshman who essentially becomes part of that 2015 recruiting class.

McElwain's tenure at Florida may be defined by his ability to identify and eradicate deficiencies in a program that has ebbed from its time on top of college football in the latter half of the 2000s. His rapid rebuild of Florida's offensive line is promising, and if it can be repeated in other areas, the Gators may be "back" sooner than expected.

Johnson isn't the only player unlikely to suit up for the Gators this fall who remains listed on the official roster. Cornerback J.C. Jackson, arrested on counts of felony armed robbery in April, retains his place on the listing, with his court case still listed as open by Alachua County court records. (Jackson was freed on $150,000 bond and has entered a plea of not guilty in the case.) And quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg, set to transfer to Columbia, appears on the roster, too.

Update, June 30, 11:40 a.m.: Watnick notes that Jackson has been removed from GatorZone's roster page. In other additions since Monday afternoon, Knight now has a listed height and weight, though he and several walk-ons still don't have numbers listed, and every player has a linked bio page.