UPDATE (12 P.M. MONDAY): Florida head coach McElwain confirmed Monday that kicker Austin Hardin and offensive guard Travaris Dorsey are no longer with the Florida football program.
After Hardin completes his classes and internship, he will graduate at the end of the spring semester in May, McElwain said.
McElwain added that Dorsey will transfer to Tuskegee (Ala.) University, a Division II squad.
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Inside the Gators can confirm that kicker Austin Hardin and offensive guard Travaris Dorsey, who both weren’t at the Gators’ first two spring practices, are set to leave the program.
For Hardin, the writing was essentially on the wall after McElwain spent plenty of his effort recruiting top-rated JUCO kicker Eddy Pineiro, who eventually flipped from Alabama to Florida.
Jim McElwain expressed his frustration with Hardin’s struggles in 2015 plenty of times, including after the SEC title loss to Alabama when he said, “We’ll get worked on this kicking thing, and somebody will get it up over the line far enough that maybe somebody doesn’t block it with their armpit.”
The next day, McElwain visited Pineiro.
Hardin, who was set to enter his redshirt senior season at UF, went 5-of-14 (35.7%) on field goal attempts – dead last of any kicker in the FBS - and 24-of-27 on PATs as a redshirt junior. Early on in the season, Hardin battled a hip flexor injury that sidelined him for three games.
At kicker, UF now has Pineiro and walk-ons Jorge Powell and Neil MacInnes, who are both currently recovering from knee injuries they suffered during the 2015 campaign.
Meanwhile, seeing Dorsey transfer means Florida’s offensive line loses one more body. Last season, Dorsey appeared in 11 games but saw a minimal role on offense as a good chunk of his snaps came on special teams. He was set to compete this offseason with redshirt freshmen guards Brandon Sandifer, Nick Buchanan and Richerd Desir-Jones for playing time to round out the rotation, but instead he opted to take his career elsewhere.
A Jacksonville, Fla., native, Dorsey joined UF as a three-star recruit and a member of its 2014 recruiting class. Hardin, who hails from Atlanta, arrived at Florida as a two-star recruit in 2012. Now, the departure of both frees up two scholarships for the Gators moving forward.
ITG recruiting analyst Blake Alderman contributed to this report.
We will have more on this news later during McElwain's Monday press conference, which will begin at noon ET.
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SPRING FOOTBALL CONTENT:
ITG Mailbag: Answering subscriber questions about Florida spring practices
ITG Spring Practice Update: Week 1
Florida Spring Practice: Day 1 Quick Hitters
Florida Spring Practice: Day 2 Quick Hitters
An early unofficial look at where UF's spring depth chart currently stands
VIDEO: Open portion of Florida's second spring practice
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