Florida football got some bad news on Thursday when fifth-year senior tight end Keon Zipperer went down with an apparent knee injury during spring practice. According to a post made on his personal Facebook page Thursday night, it appears that the damage might be more severe than we hope as he simply wrote “2024 shake back year” without any further clarification.
Zipperer’s 2022 campaign saw a drop-off in playing time after seeing action in all 13 games the year prior, getting onto the field just eight times — the same number of games as his freshman year — due to a knee injury that ended his season early. It is unclear if the current injury is related to the previous one.
He did make the most of his fourth year in Gainesville, tallying 177 yards on 13 catches — all collegiate highs — despite the limited action. Zipperer’s offensive production led the Gators at tight end last season, while also standing out as the group’s top performer in pass protection and run blocking.
The absence of Zipperer leaves [autotag]Jonathan Odom[/autotag] and [autotag]Dante Zanders[/autotag] as the veteran players at the position, while [autotag]Arlis Boardingham[/autotag] and [autotag]Hayden Hansen[/autotag] — neither of whom received meaningful reps as true freshmen last year — will get plenty of opportunities to step up ahead of the opener against Utah.
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