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ESPN names key player retained by Florida before 2025 season
By Andrew Olson
Published:
ESPN released a new story on Wednesday highlighting one key returning player for each top-25 team in its way-too-early ranking for the 2025 campaign.
With the increasing popularity of the transfer portal and rampant tampering tied to NIL offers, it’s harder than ever to keep an established player on your roster. ESPN’s latest piece focuses on players who would have been sought-after in the transfer portal or could have entered the NFL Draft, but instead decided to remain with the program another season. There is, of course, a spring portal coming up in April.
As for the Florida player who stayed put during the fall portal window and NFL Draft deadline, In Florida’s case, it is center Jake Slaughter Here’s some analysis from ESPN’s Max Olson:
The Gators’ standout center earned a first-team spot on ESPN’s All-America team but insists he did not give much thought to entering the NFL draft. The team captain is coming back as a fifth-year senior to help his team take the next big step in 2025. Slaughter is entering his third season as a starter at Florida and graded out second best among all Power 4 starting centers last season according to Pro Football Focus.
Slaughter is entering Year 5 at Florida, having redshirted in 2021, his first season with the program. After being a special teams contributor in 2022, he started 8 games in 2023 and held onto the starting center job for the 2024 campaign.
Slaughter and the Gators will be back in The Swamp on April 12 for the Orange & Blue spring game, an early look at the team in Year 4 under Billy Napier.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
