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Turner remaining patient with sophomore defensive linemen

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One was the second player to commit in his class, the other joined on National Signing Day. They both arrived in Gainesville with the kind of hype reserved for offensive playmakers or quarterbacks.

Gervon Dexter was the well known five-star prospect from a couple of hours south and Princely Umanmielen was a signing day surprise, as he picked Florida over the hometown Texas Longhorns.

The duo felt a lot like when Sharrif Floyd, Dominique Easley and Ronald Powell committed to Florida a decade prior. Lost in the hype surrounding two great signings for Dan Mullen and the Gators' was the need for proper development, something that simply wasn't possible due to the circumstances with COVID and a bizarre offseason.

"The development of the freshmen really didn't happen. You know, you're talking about practicing in the fall when you getting ready to play, play a game on Saturday, and you really don't have as much time with those guys like you do in spring practice now, where you're really concentrating on the fundamentals," defensive line coach David Turner said. "You're not getting ready for game, you're really just concentrating on making your team better. So that's where those guys, that's where they suffered a little bit, you know, just from learning what to do with not getting thrown into the fire."

So the pair went into their freshmen seasons just winging it against an all SEC schedule and playing college ball is a lot different than it would be in high school, especially against 10 SEC offensive lines.

Dexter is also new to playing football.

"This is only his fourth year playing football," Turner reminded reporters on a Zoom call. "He’s still relatively young to the game. We got some things just fundamentally he was so raw that we’re still working on, but the flip side of that is there really aren’t a whole lot of bad habits. We just have to develop him."

Without that time to truly learn and develop Dexter still got on the field as a freshman. He appeared in all 12 games and made two starts. Dexter even hauled in an interception in the opener against Ole Miss, leading the team in the category for a month until Florida picked off Georgia three times in October. Dexter got a lot of run as a freshman, but there's still a lot of work to do.

"Everybody wants him to be great now and I’ve talked to him a little bit about that. I said, ‘hey man, you can’t walk around here with the way everybody looks at him just from a physical standpoint and expect him to just wreck shop every Saturday,'" Turner said. "That’s really not what he can do yet because he’s still new to the game. Everything is new to him. Sometimes you have to block out the noise."

Dexter certainly hears that and he's a determined young player. His best football is ahead of him still.

"He’s such a great kid. He wants to be coached. He wants to be great. He takes everything you say to him and he tries to do it. That’s all you can ask of a kid as a coach. I’m pleased with where he is. we still have a long way to go but we’re working to get there.”

Umanmielen didn't get the same playing time in 2020, stuck behind several other, older defensive ends. He saw action in six games, totaling four tackles, and two sacks. He has the potential to be a problem for opposing quarterbacks, but like Dexter, needs time according to Turner, and it was hard in 2020 given their first weird offseason.

"It's hard to play fast when you don't know, not real sure what you're doing," Turner said. "Those guys feel good in the defense now, they've been exposed to it, they've been in it. They've played, and now it's really starting to settle down and play a whole lot faster which allows them and their natural ability to take over.”

With a full spring practice this year, it will be fun to watch how much both can develop and what they can do this coming season.

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