Florida-Miami game: Gators release Week 0 depth chart vs. Hurricanes

Football

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The No. 8 Florida Gators on Monday released their first official depth chart of the 2019 season ahead of their Week 0 showdown with the in-state rival Miami Hurricanes. While there were no major surprises on the depth chart, it remains notable to see where head coach Dan Mullen has his players slotted with the season about to begin.

While Mullen on Monday said that no Gators would miss the opener due to injury — other than those ruled out for the season — he refused to budge on potentially announcing suspensions. Rather, Mullen said, suspensions would be announced in the Florida-Miami pregame. As such, this depth chart should be looked at as “ideal” as opposed to what UF will put on the field on Saturday.

Notable as always are the “OR” designations. There are a whopping 15 on this depth chart, including two at tight end and three at wide receiver, though the latter speaks to the Gators’ incredible depth at the position. Expect to see myriad combinations of receivers to give various looks to defenses, especially early in the season.

Many backups from 2018 have moved into starting roles on the defensive side of the ball, and injuries have clearly heart the secondary depth the hardest. The four “OR” designations there show that the backups are still being shaken out by Mullen, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and the rest of the staff.

Let’s take a look at the complete depth chart ahead of Florida’s first game of the season.

Offense

QB: Feleipe Franks, Kyle Trask OR Emory Jones
RB: Lamical Perine, Malik Davis, Dameon Pierce, Iverson Clement
TE: Kyle Pitts OR Lucas Krull, Kemore Gamble OR Dante Lang
WR (X): Van Jefferson, Jacob Copeland
WR (Z): Josh Hammond OR Freddie Swain OR Kadarius Toney
WR (Y): Tyrie Cleveland OR Treon Grimes, Rick Wells

LT: Stone Forsythe, Richard Gouriage
LG: Brett Heggie, Ethan White
C: Nick Buchanan, Tanner Rowell
RG: Chris Bleich, TJ Moore
RT: Jean Delance, Michael Tarquin

Defense

DE: Jabari Zuniga, Zachary Carter
NT: Kyree Campbell, Luke Ancrum OR Tedarrell Slaton
DT: Adam Shuler, Elijah Conliffe OR Marlon Dunlap
Buck: Jon Greenard OR Jeremiah Moon
MLB: David Reese II, James Houston OR Lacedrick Brunson
MLB: Amari Burney OR Ventrell Miller

CB: C.J. Henderson, Jaydon Hall OR Chester Kimbrough
Star: Trey Dean III OR Amari Burney
CB: Marco Wilson, Kaiir Elam
S: Jeawon Taylor OR Brad Stewart
S: Donovan Stiner OR Shawn Davis, Quincy Lenton

Special teams

K: Evan McPherson, Chris Howard
P: Tommy Townsend, Jacob Finn
H: Tommy Townsend
LS: Jacob Tilghman
KR: Freddie Swain, Kadarius Toney
PR: Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond