Florida
Gators 2022 Enrollee Profile: DT Jamari Lyons
Jamari Lyons, defensive deal with
College: Viera (Melbourne, Fla.)
Peak/Weight: 6-foot-3.5, 298 kilos
SI All-American Rating: No. 11 inside defensive lineman
Recruitment Historical past
Jamari Lyons was coveted nationally as a member of the 2022 recruiting class, choosing up 23 gives from each main program within the state of Florida in addition to Georgia, Texas A&M, Penn State, Auburn, South Carolina and Indiana, to call a couple of.
However one college all the time stood out amid his recruiting course of, that being UF. Lyons paid the Gators three unofficial visits and two officers — granted a second by NCAA guidelines attributable to Florida’s head teaching change — whereas visiting different applications not more than as soon as.
Lyons dedicated to the Gators in October 2021 and held agency on his pledge regardless of Dan Mullen’s November firing, signing with Florida throughout December’s Early Signing Interval as one of many core members of latest head coach Billy Napier’s transition class.
Sports activities Illustrated All-American was increased on Lyons as a prospect than most different shops, giving him the No. 11 rating amongst inside defensive position recruits in his class. Comparatively, Lyons completed because the No. 25 defensive deal with and No. 207 total prospect within the On3 Sports activities consensus rankings.
The place Lyons Matches
Lyons was an immensely productive defensive lineman in highschool, incomes significant taking part in time as a freshman and thriving in a beginning function by the top of his senior season.
Throughout 38 profession video games, Lyons tallied 289 tackles, 41 sacks, 81 tackles for loss, three compelled fumbles, three interceptions and 12 go breakups. Lyons’ dominance started with 9 sacks as a freshman, and he posted profession highs as a senior with a freakish 13 sacks and 37 tackles for loss.
Standing at practically 6-foot-4, 300 kilos with an 81-inch wingspan, Lyons possesses a body that’s not solely college-ready however can proceed to be molded with extra muscle to enhance his energy whereas trimming down physique fats to reinforce his explosion off of the road of scrimmage.
You could find SI All-American‘s scouting report for Lyons beneath.
Scroll to Proceed
Jamari Lyons is an athletic, disruptive defensive finish with a knack for sacks. He’s a improbable soccer participant and reminded our workers of [Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman] Chris Jones, the best way he makes use of his relative size to sidestep his blocker. Ankle mobility is price nothing, short-area lean could be very spectacular. Good imaginative and prescient and he’s a violent finisher. Lengthy arms that he makes use of very nicely; he is developed a superb long-arm transfer. Disciplined together with his method. Crosses face on down blocks, though he may simply use his pace to backdoor these. Performs with nice leverage and retains his palms inside to regulate the blocker’s chest plate. Very excessive ceiling for Lyons together with his finest ball nicely forward of him.
Lyons and fellow 2022 defensive deal with Chris McClellan, who enrolled at UF in January, may contribute fairly instantly given the Gators’ lack of depth on the defensive position.
Co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney’s scheme will definitely transfer defensive linemen across the three-man (plus the JACK edge rusher) entrance. That being mentioned, given their measurement and skill-set, Lyons and McClellan are most definitely to tackle inside roles at three-technique and perhaps even nostril deal with.
This projection may lead to taking part in time for each gamers as true freshmen in 2022, as lengthy they’re ready bodily and inside the scheme to take the sphere.
The Gators are lucky to have junior Gervon Dexter, already projected as a second-round caliber prospect ought to he declare early for the 2023 NFL Draft, main the cost at defensive deal with. He is more likely to begin at three-technique and might be a cornerstone of Florida’s protection this yr.
Set to begin subsequent to Dexter at nostril deal with is Desmond Watson, an intriguing sophomore who performed in each recreation in 2021. He is an efficient run-stopper given his huge body at 6-foot-5, 415 kilos, however the second side of his measurement is certain to restrict his utilization.
Watson merely will not be capable of play on an every-down foundation till he trims down fairly considerably, which opens the door for different defensive linemen to rotate in at nostril deal with. Contemplating Watson’s strengths as a run defender, a lineman that may go rush will finest match this function.
The problem? A succesful defensive deal with for the gig has but to emerge.
Junior Jalen Lee is probably the most skilled member of UF’s defensive deal with depth, with 13 appearances underneath his belt and one sack to indicate for it. Redshirt junior Jaelin Humphries has performed in two video games, and redshirt freshman Chris Thomas Jr. has performed in a single.
The Gators might need to rely on Lee this season attributable to his taking part in expertise, however Lyons and McClellan needs to be thrilled with the chance to rapidly stand up the depth chart in entrance of them.
McClellan could have a leg up on Lyons since he participated in spring camp, however Lyons isn’t any stranger to stepping right into a program and instantaneously making an impression. If the Gators find yourself asking their younger defensive tackles to step in and play in 2022, who’s to say Lyons cannot do what he did in highschool once more?
Keep tuned to AllGators for steady protection of Florida Gators soccer, basketball and recruiting. Comply with alongside on social media at @SI_AllGators on Twitter and Florida Gators on Sports activities Illustrated on Fb.
Florida
3 most underrated signees in Florida State football's 2025 class
Florida State football had an embarrassing 2024 campaign where it finished with a 2-10 record. This is not the expectation of what the Seminoles are all about.
Head football coach Mike Norvell understood the urgency as he could not allow the program to snowball into a laughing stock after a productive 13-1 season in 2023. Norvell was heading into a pivotal sixth season with his job on the line.
As a result, he went out and hired a ton of new coaches on his staff, including Gus Malzahn, Tim Harris Jr., Herb Hand, Tony White, Terrance Knighton, and Evan Cooper. This was uncharted territory for Norvell since he had never had to fire multiple coaches like that.
Nonetheless, we were wondering how the Seminoles’ 2025 recruiting class would play out with new coaches as well as the struggling year in 2024.
The recruiting class did well, and it finished with the 20th-best in the 247Sports Composite rankings (prospects can still sign in February). In this article, I want to highlight three of the most underrated signees from Florida State’s 2025 recruiting class.
Florida
U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida
Noah Kent is heading home.
The 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up is transferring to Florida, he announced Saturday. The sophomore at Iowa, whose hometown is Naples, Florida, entered the transfer portal earlier this month, and he made his decision to join coach J.C. Deacon and the 2023 national champions come next fall.
Because of NCAA rules, Kent won’t be eligible to compete for Florida until the 2025-26 season, but he can finish his sophomore year with the Hawkeyes. This fall, he placed in the top 13 all four tournaments, his best finish being a T-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic.
And, of course, he has a tee time at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring.
Kent will essentially be the fourth member of Florida’s 2025 signing class, which ranked second in the country on signing day. He’ll join a talented roster that includes Parker Bell, Mathew Kress and Jack Turner, though with new NCAA roster limits coming, there’s bound to be some unprecedented roster turnover in college golf before the start of the 2025-26 season.
Florida
State Your Case: Do Panthers or Lightning own state of Florida? | NHL.com
There are two NHL teams in Florida: the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
They are separated by about 250 miles and have been fierce rivals since the Panthers joined the NHL for the 1993-94 season. The Lightning joined the League a season earlier.
Florida (21-11-2) and Tampa Bay (18-10-2) meet for the first time this season at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, CRIPPS, SN, TVAS).
The teams have played each other 157 times in the regular season; the Panthers have gone 77-51-19, and the Lightning are 70-64-13. There have been 10 ties.
For years, the rivalry was a parochial affair, deeply important to hockey fans in the state but under the radar nationally. Lately, though, Florida supremacy has often meant NHL supremacy.
The Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champions and defeated the Lightning in five games in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round last season to start that title march. They reached the Stanley Cup Final two seasons ago, going on a miracle run before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights. The season before that, they won the Presidents’ Trophy with an NHL-best 122 points but lost to the Lightning in a second-round sweep, marking the second straight time that their noisy neighbors ended their season.
The Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 before reaching a third straight Final in 2022, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2018-19.
This season, each team is on course for another appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and has a point percentage of better than .600.
So which team has the merits to claim bragging rights in this all-Florida showdown as the rivals face off for the first time this season? That’s the question debated by NHL.com senior writers Amalie Benjamin and Dan Rosen in the latest installment of State Your Case.
Benjamin: Let’s lay out what the Lightning have accomplished in their 32-season history: They’ve won the Stanley Cup three times, becoming the first team from Florida to win it when they took the championship in 2004. But that doesn’t come close to what they’ve accomplished during the past 11 seasons, starting in 2013-14, when they became a powerhouse. They’ve been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs 10 times in those 11 seasons, making the Stanley Cup Final in a whopping four of them. Let me repeat that: Four trips to the Cup Final in the past 11 seasons, winning twice, in 2020 and 2021. And if that’s not enough, they made two more trips to the Eastern Conference Final, in 2016 and 2018. Forget Florida’s team. They’re the team of the past decade in the entire NHL.
Rosen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what have you done for me lately? Florida’s team fluctuates. It was the Lightning. It is the Panthers. They’ve got the Stanley Cup. They went to the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row. Sure, a few years ago, this wasn’t even a debate. Florida’s team, the Panthers? Please. No shot. Even the top executives with the Panthers would tell you that. But things change. With success come the riches. Just think about the past three seasons for the Panthers: Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2021-22, Stanley Cup Final in 2022-23, Stanley Cup champions in 2023-24. The Lightning lost in the 2022 Cup Final, lost in the first round in six games the next season and lost in the first round in five games to the Panthers last season. Florida’s team is Florida.
Benjamin: OK, sure, you have a point. Florida has done pretty darn well lately. But let’s see how history will judge the state of Florida and its hockey teams. Hall of Famers? The Lightning have got ’em. Though Steven Stamkos has moved on to the Nashville Predators, the Hall of Fame is going to come calling, and the forward will go in as a member of the Lightning. Add in coach Jon Cooper, forward Nikita Kucherov, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and you’re talking at least five future Hall of Famers on a single team. That’s not just good, that’s historically good. It’s a group whose names are synonymous with winning, with the Stanley Cup, with the state of Florida. That’s powerful. That says the Lightning win this debate, no question.
Rosen: I have a question. Is Aleksander Barkov not paving his way to the Hall of Fame? Is Sergei Bobrovsky, with a Stanley Cup ring, 400-plus wins and two Vezina Trophy wins as the NHL’s best goalie, not a lock for the Hall of Fame? Is Paul Maurice, who could finish his career with at least the second-most coaching wins of all time, along with his Stanley Cup ring, not also a lock for the Hall of Fame? In the way-too-early department, could Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart be future Hall of Famers? I lied. That’s four questions. But you get the point. You brought up the Hall of Fame and I countered. That’s why the Lightning do not win this debate without question. Could they win it? Yes, certainly, if we were having this debate in 2023. It’s almost 2025. It’s a different world. It’s the Panthers’ world, at least in Florida. The Lightning are just living in it. At least the sun is still shining on them too.
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