During the beginning weeks of the offseason, Inside the Gators will take an in-depth look at how last season went for Florida's 2016 signees who redshirted with our Redshirt Report series. Today, we focus on how last season went for defensive end Jordan Smith.

Midway this past season when Florida’s defensive line took a number of hits due to the injury bug, there was a point where freshman defensive end Jordan Smith was close to seeing the field.

After the month of September, with defensive tackle Joey Ivie (thumb) and defensive end Jordan Sherit (knee) sidelined - and defensive end Bryan Cox Jr. nagged by various injuries - Florida needed to turn to a freshman for additional help at Vanderbilt. However, Florida chose to burn the redshirt of five-star defensive end signee Antonneous Clayton rather than Smith, an early enrollee and three-star signee out of Lithonia, Georgia.

One reason why? Around that time in the 2016 campaign, Smith suffered a high-ankle sprain and then missed the next couple of weeks of action, according to Lithonia High School head coach Marcus Jelks. Once Ivie and Sherit were back, Florida had plenty of depth along the defensive line, so it opted to set Smith on the redshirting path.