Florida Football Freshmen to Watch Against Campbell
By: Matthew Corn
Jon Sumrall’s new-look Florida Gators are looking to carry the momentum from last week’s dominant 66-21 victory over FAU into Saturday against Campbell.
In 2025, Campbell, an FCS team, was 2-10 and finished as one of the worst teams in Division I football. However, two games into 2026, Campbell has already matched its win total from last year, and it offense has looked quite explosive. Regardless of how Campbell appears, though, the Gators are 49.5-point favorites entering Saturday, and are expected to be the hump that breaks the Camel’s back.
Typically in blowout games, younger guys with less experience get to see some game action and prove themselves in the second half. That said, here are the three young Gators to look out for against Campbell.
Offensive Tackle TJ Dice Jr.
What a college football debut last week for TJ Dice Jr.
In 20 snaps against the Owls, Dice logged a 76.8 PFF grade, slotting him as the sixth-highest-graded offensive contributor for Florida who saw over 10 snaps. Primarily at left tackle, Dice held up phenomenally in the pass game. He was functional in his transition to the pace of Division I college football, stopping edge rushers or running them past quarterback Aaron Philo. In the run game, Dice was solid, most notably sealing the left side on a 61-yard Jadan Baugh carry.
His performance received praise from new Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. “Man, he was awesome. But he has been trending upwards since probably right after the first scrimmage. That week of practice, you started to see it,” he said. Another great performance from the former 4-star recruit against Campbell could increase his role going into SEC play with Auburn next week.
Edge Rusher KJ Ford
Prior to Florida’s season opener, Ford was listed as tied for the second JACK (edge rusher) spot with fifth-year senior Kofi Asare. Due to an impressive spring, most Gator fans expected Ford to be Jayden Woods’ backup at JACK and the true freshman with the most impact. However, against the Owls, Asare was Florida’s highest PFF-graded defensive player on 31 snaps. Woods is Florida’s linchpin on the defensive line, so the rest of the snaps at JACK will be limited. But with Asare playing at the level he did, it’s safe to expect that he will continue to see a lot of snaps as well. That leaves the former 4-star recruit as the odd man out, logging only 11 snaps last week during the opener.
This week against Campbell, Ford should be able to see the field a lot during the second half, which will give him the opportunity to make his case for snaps.
“He’s coming along really well. He still has those freshman mistakes,” outside linebackers coach Bam Hardmon said during spring practices. “If you see the big picture, he’s a high school student right now, he came in early.”
Tight End Heze Kent
Kent is one of the most polarizing players on Florida’s roster.
He arrived on campus at 6-foot-6 and 313 pounds, which is prototypical offensive tackle size, not the making of a tight end. So Sumrall tested Kent in the spring.
“I have him an ultimatum of some sort of… two or three different goals, weights by different timelines, or he could play offensive line, or who knows – he could make the decision,” Sumrall said. “[But] he’s decided he didn’t want to play offensive line or nose tackle.”
And entering the season, Kent looked like a completely different person, now weighing in at 288. Thus, Kent backed-up starter Lacota Dippre at the in-line tight end spot heading into Week 1, and he nabbed 18 snaps. In those moments, the ball never went his direction, but he was a valuable piece in the run game, using his size to aid as a blocking threat. If Kent is able to show off his ball skills, which Sumrall has said may be the best on the team, in addition to continuing to show his run-blocking prowess against Campbell, then he may carve out a bigger role.
Category: Football, Gators Football
