USC transfer offensive lineman Jason Zandamela, who is widely regarded as one of the top available transfers in the nation, has committed to the Florida Gators.

A true freshman, Zandamela (6 foot 3 inches, 305 pounds) will have all four years of eligibility remaining. Prior to his enrollment at USC, he was a consensus four-star and was considered the No. 1 interior offensive line recruit by 247 Sports and Rivals. He was the Trojans’ highest-rated signee of the 2024 class.

Reports on April 11 indicated that he would be leaving the USC football program, and he officially announced his entrance into the portal on April 16. 

“I don’t want to speak for him, but he’s got a very unique background and that played a large part in this,” said USC head coach Lincoln Riley at the time of the initial report.

Zandamela originally is from Mozambique and spent his high school football career at Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International. He recently took an official visit to Florida from April 26 through April 28 after previously visiting UCF. 

Zandamela’s commitment fills a major position of need on the interior offensive line. Following the postseason transfers of 2023 starters Micah Mazzccua and Richie Leonard IV, the Gators were left depleted inside. 

Rising sophomore Knijeah Harris, who spent most of 2023 as Florida’s sixth man in the offensive line rotation, seemingly locked up the left guard position after a strong spring performance. 

Meanwhile, Damieon George Jr., who spent most of 2023 at tackle, made the move to right guard prior to Florida’s spring camp, a position better suited for the fifth-year junior. Despite spending most of spring with the first team offense, the uncertainty of his position change as well as a lack of experience at the position led Florida to look to the portal for another guard. 

With Zandamela joining the program, Florida is back up to the 85-man scholarship limit. The Gators previously saw the departures of linebacker Mannie Nunnery and corner Ethan Pouncey through the portal as well as the retirement of offensive lineman Riley Simonds, who is now a student-coach with the program. 

Florida also added former Air Force tight end Caleb Rillos through the transfer portal. He will be a preferred walk-on in 2024. The Gators also added  offensive lineman Enoch Wangoy, a 2025 commit who reclassified to the 2024 class. 

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – A Florida man has been arrested after he allegedly exposed himself to multiple shoppers while at Target, Walmart and Burlington stores.

Charlotte County deputies said Xavier “Pee Wee” Hearns exposed himself at least two times in one week.

On April 19, deputies met with a woman who claimed a man, later identified as Hearns, had been staring at her and touching himself inside a Neighborhood Walmart store in Port Charlotte the day before.

Investigators reviewed the store’s security footage and were able to identify the man as Hearns. 

Authorities said Hearns had also been arrested on April 2 for an incident that occurred in March for exposing himself inside a Target store in Port Charlotte.

Days later on April 25, deputies responded to a Burlington store after a woman said Hearns was “acting suspicious and making her uncomfortable” while exposing himself to her in plain sight.  

Hearns was found and arrested the next day on charges of exposure of sexual organs. He is being held at the Charlotte County jail without bond. 

Anyone who may have been exposed to Hearns’ actions is asked to call the sheriff’s office at (941) 639-2101. 

PLANT CITY, Fla. – It’s blackberry season, and a Hillsborough County strawberry grower said he’s among the central Florida farmers adding blackberries to their crops with the help of University of Florida agriculture researchers.

Blackberries are a new crop for Matt Parke. Now in their second blackberry growing season at Parkesdale Farms in Dover and Plant City, Parke said there was definitely a learning curve.

“Last year, I was kind of scratching my head thinking I made a big mistake. This is a big investment. I was like we might have made a mistake,” said Parke. “This year how everything happened, what the crop looks like, we’re going to do really well with it.”

The fruit needs a lot of cold days, so Parke said he had to learn some tricks with spraying.

“It triggers it into thinking it’s been through a winter. And now it’s spring, let me open up and every bud that breaks is going to be like five or six berries on it,” said Parke.

Researchers with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences are working to figure out which kinds of blackberries grow best in the Tampa Bay area. UF/IFAS’s Zhanao Deng, a plant breeder and professor at Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Wimauma, said they are looking at a couple of blackberry varieties for central Florida, developing new varieties, pest control and other technologies to help farmers.

READ: Celebrating the strawberry: Parkesdale Farm Market strawberry shortcake

“They will be born here. They will be evaluated and selected for Florida growers here,” said Deng.

He said they’re working with more citrus and strawberry growers.

“They face a lot of challenges and competition from other countries, so they are interested in diversifying their crops,” said Deng.

Parkesdale Farms has some rows of UF’s blackberry breeds, and it could become more common.

“I think it could be an emerging crop. There’s still some work that has to be done with it to fine tune the process for central Florida,” said Parke.

After the rise and fall of other fruit crops in Florida, blackberries show signs of a steadier future.

READ: How Plant City’s ‘Strawberry Sue’ became a champion for Florida’s strawberry industry

“The blueberry market has totally crashed. Peru has flooded our market with the way they’re producing them year-round. You know, there used to be a lot of blueberry farms around here, but that’s all declined,” said Parke. “This is not over saturated yet. This commodity is not over saturated, and I want to capitalize on it while I can.”

Parke said the agriculture industry is always changing, and blackberries could make central Florida’s future in agriculture even sweeter.

“You always gotta be looking forward and trying to evolve with the industry, and I think this is one way that we can evolve moving forward,” said Parke.

Parke said Parkesdale Farms fills about 4,000 to 5,000 boxes a week, and up to 15,000 boxes a week of blackberries during peak season. Parke said they currently ship blackberries to Canada, but they will look into adding Publix and Walmart into the mix.

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