Kyle Pitts, Keon Zipperer headline Florida tight end room
In Dan Mullen’s first season as head coach, tight ends saw seven more catches for 152 yards and two touchdowns more than the year before. And from last year to this year, catches by Florida tight ends have nearly doubled - adding 273 yards and two touchdowns from last season.
Florida doesn’t have anything to worry about when it comes to the tight end room.
Even with Lucas Krull’s transfer to the University of Pittsburgh, the Gators will still have four veteran tight ends at their disposal, including Kyle Pitts, who led the team in receiving during the regular season this year.
After catching only three passes his freshman year for 73 yards and a touchdown, Pitts had a career-defining season with five touchdowns and 649 yards on 54 catches. He had unmatched chemistry with quarterback Kyle Trask and together the two really turned this offense around. He was Trask’s number one target, getting five more catches than senior receiver Van Jefferson.
Florida will also see the return of Keon Zipperer. The former 4-star recruit came to the Gators as a product of the Lakeland pipeline and made big plays in several games during his freshman year, both blocking and receiving. Against Towson, he saw his first touchdown as a Gator and also recorded three catches for 31 yards. Looking ahead to the 2020 season, Zipperer stands a good chance to secure that backup tight end spot behind Pitts and become a more active member of this Florida offense.
Kemore Gamble will return for his fourth season with the Gators as a redshirt junior. Gamble came to Florida as a 4-star recruit and the seventh-ranked tight end in the country in the 2017 class. He redshirted his freshman year and didn’t see any playtime, but then in 2018, he started to hear his name called. He played in all 13 games that season on special teams and also caught seven passes for 58 yards as a reserve tight end. But this past year, he didn’t see any playtime. With Pitts running the show and Zipperer as the shiny new reserve, Gamble was looked over.
He was even in line behind Lucas Krull, even though the two put up very similar numbers in the 2018 season. After it became apparent that Krull just wasn’t meshing with this new Florida offense, Gamble could’ve been given a few chances to show off his skill, but those chances never came.
A third tight end vying for that backup spot is redshirt freshman Dante Lang. In 2018, he played in only two games and didn’t see any playtime this past season. He was ranked number 29 in the country at tight end in the 2018 recruiting class and will be working hard this offseason to get noticed and earn some playtime.
On top of those four returners, the Gators also look forward to welcoming 3-star recruit Jonathan Odom to the squad for next season. So far, he is Florida’s only tight end commit in the 2020 class.
It’s clear that Dan Mullen has a lot of confidence in his tight ends and is determined to work them into this offense more than they have been in the past.