{"id":100704,"date":"2025-06-03T12:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T12:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/100704\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T12:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T12:57:09","slug":"pff-ranks-florida-gators-d-line-no-4-in-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/100704\/","title":{"rendered":"PFF ranks Florida Gators D-Line No. 4 in college football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the hype with the Florida Gators in 2025 centers around quarterback DJ Lagway<\/a> and a potentially high-powered offense. But the defense has some players, too. And on that side of the ball, everything starts up front with a defensive line Pro Football Focus ranks No. 4 in the country.<\/p>\n

Wrote PFF\u2019s Max Chadwick<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The Gators return two potential first-round picks on their defensive line in edge defender\u00a0Tyreak Sapp<\/a>\u00a0and interior defender\u00a0Caleb Banks<\/a>. Sapp is my No. 7 edge rusher in college football and was ninth in the nation with a 90.4 PFF grade in 2024. Banks was my honorable mention defensive tackle and leads all returning Power Four interior defenders with 53 pressures since 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida also returned another starter in edge defender George Gumbs. Sophomore defensive tackle LJ McCray is also expected to break out as he was a top-10 overall recruit from the 2024 high school class.<\/p>\n

The Clemson defensive line, which returns multiple players projected by many to be first-round picks, came in at No. 1. \u201cTwo projected top-10 picks<\/a>\u00a0in defensive tackle\u00a0Peter Woods<\/a>\u00a0and edge defender\u00a0T.J. Parker<\/a> spearhead the Tigers\u2019 defensive front. Woods is\u00a0my top returning interior defender<\/a>\u00a0and leads all returning Power Four defensive tackles in run-defense grade (89.7) and pass-rush win rate (14.9%) since 2023. Parker is\u00a0my No. 3 edge rusher<\/a>\u00a0and led all returning Power Four edge defenders with 12 sacks last season,\u201d Chadwick said.<\/p>\n

The Florida Gators have top-five lines on offense and defense<\/p>\n

The full top 10 looks like this:<\/p>\n

1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. Texas Tech
4. Florida
5. Penn State
6. Michigan
7. Georgia
8. Miami
9. Oklahoma
10. Texas<\/p>\n

The Gators also were No. 4 in PFF\u2019s offensive line rankings<\/a>. Florida, Clemson, Alabama and Miami are the only schools to have both of their respective offensive and defensive lines in the top 10.<\/p>\n

Here is what Zach Abolverdi of Gators Online recently wrote about the players up front for the Florida defense:<\/p>\n

UF has plenty of talent at edge<\/p>\n

EDGE \u2014 Florida\u2019s deep EDGE room starts with\u00a0Tyreak Sapp<\/a>. His 90.0 PFF grade last season not only led the team but was the highest by a UF defender since\u00a0Jonathan Greenard<\/a>\u00a0in 2019 (90.5) and ranked as the third highest among SEC edge defenders and ninth in FBS. Sapp made 47 tackles and led the team in sacks (7.0) and TFLs (13.0).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fellow redshirt senior\u00a0George Gumbs Jr.<\/a>, who was second on the team last year in sacks (5.0) and TFLs (8.0), will become a starter this season at JACK (OLB) after the Gators\u2019 top two outside linebackers transferred. <\/p>\n

UF has an elite two-deep with\u00a0Kamran James<\/a>\u00a0(F) and\u00a0LJ McCray<\/a>\u00a0(JACK), both of whom will play big roles in 2025. The EDGE position also includes transfer\u00a0Kofi Asare<\/a>\u00a0and early enrollee\u00a0Jayden Woods<\/a>, who was a standout freshman during spring camp.<\/p>\n

Caleb Banks finished his junior season strong<\/p>\n

DEFENSIVE LINE \u2014 This group is led by\u00a0Caleb Banks<\/a>, who returned for his senior season and has already received early first-round projections for 2026. Banks had breakout performances in the final two SEC wins over LSU and Ole Miss, earning SEC\u00a0Co-Defensive Lineman of the Week against the Rebels. Banks finished with 21 tackles, 7.0 TFLs, 4.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a recovery before a foot injury at FSU sidelined him for the bowl game and spring camp. <\/p>\n

Florida lost its top two nose tackles in\u00a0Cam Jackson<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Desmond Watson<\/a>, and how well UF can replace them is the biggest question mark on defense. The projected starter is\u00a0Jamari Lyons<\/a>, who\u2019s back in action after a season-ending broken ankle in fall camp last year.\u00a0With Lyons still limited this spring,\u00a0Michai Boireau<\/a>\u00a0worked the first-team NT in camp and was named the team\u2019s top defensive lineman. <\/p>\n

The position also includes Bayler transfer\u00a0Brendan Bett<\/a>\u00a0and senior\u00a0Brien Taylor Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much of the hype with the Florida Gators in 2025 centers around quarterback DJ Lagway and a potentially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5781,1301,7,26135,26136,49,48,18117],"class_list":{"0":"post-100704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-caleb-banks-21-southfield","9":"tag-florida-gators","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-george-gumbs-21-simeon","12":"tag-lj-mccray-24-mainland","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-tyreak-sapp-21-st-thomas-aquinas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114619550563190861","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}