After recruiting classes light on offensive linemen the past few years, the Florida Gators are beefing up the unit in other ways.
Former Nebraska offensive tackle Tyler Moore told coach Will Muschamp on Thursday he planned to transfer to the University of Florida, according to Derek Tyson of ESPN.com’s Gator Nation.
Moore, a four-star recruit in 2011 out of Clearwater’s Countryside High School, played in nine games, including four starts, as a true freshman. Projected to be the Cornhuskers starting left tackle, he decided to return home this summer, citing personal reasons, and enrolled at St. Petersburg College.
Now enrolled at UF, Garcia will sit out this season and be a redshirt junior in 2013.
“Tyler fits their mentality of what they want to do,” said longtime recruiting expert Jamie Newberg of Scout.com. “He’s a nasty, old-school lineman.”
Moore is the second veteran offensive linemen to transfer to Florida, joining former Maryland starting left tackle Max Garcia, who signed with the Gators last month. Garcia started 12 games as a sophomore in 2011, but will sit out this season and has two years of eligibility remaining.
The decisions of Moore and Garcia should help coach Will Muschamp and his staff make up for a dearth of offensive linemen in Florida’s past three recruiting classes.
“It’s huge,” Newberg said. “It should help them out.”
The Gators signed just five offensive linemen in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 classes.
The Gators signed two offensive tackles in 2012 – D.J. Humphries, a five-star recruit from Charlotte, and Jessaman Dunker, a three-star recruit from Boynton Beach. Each are true freshman on the current team.
In 2011, Florida signed just one offensive lineman, Tommy Jordan, a three-star recruit from Ridgefield, Conn., and now a redshirt freshman.
The Gators signed two offensive linemen in 2010, including starting right tackle Chaz Green, who is expected back this week after an ankle injury sidelined him last week, and Ian Silberman, a redshirt sophomore who appeared in three games in 2011.
“A team like Florida should never be in that position,” Newberg said. “You should try to sign four or five (offensive linemen) every year, not five or six in the past three years.”
The drought of signings from 2010-12 on the O-line came on the heels of 2009 class that produced three current starters – center Jon Harrison, right guard Jon Halapio and left tackle Xavier Nixon – and another, Kyle Koehne, who started at right tackle last week and can play several positions.
Guard Nick Alajajian is the only among the group not on the team’s two-deep depth chart.
Of the Gators 19 current commitments, two are offensive linemen, tackle Octavius Jackson, a three-star recruit from Moultrie, Ga., and center Cameron Dillard of Canton, Mich.
Tyson reports Moore will attend Saturday’s visit from Kentucky, along with 16 of the Gators current commits.
