Tag: CJ McWilliams

Full depth charts for Florida Gators vs Ole Miss Rebels

Depth charts for both teams were tweeted out on Saturday morning ahead of kickoff. Florida’s had a few interesting items of note. 

There are less than two hours before the start of the Southeastern Conference’s 2020 10-game football schedule with the Florida Gators and Ole Miss Rebels getting geared up to face each other on the gridiron starting at noon EDT.

Nathan Gabler, an Ole Miss and SEC writer for Sports Illustrated, tweeted out the depth charts for both teams on Saturday morning ahead of kickoff. Florida’s had a few interesting items of note.

At the STAR position, it had been expected that redshirt senior CJ McWilliams would get the starting nod, but a bit of a surprise came with Brad Stewart Jr. sitting second on the depth chart after being used in the box last year. We here at Gators Wire had incorrectly projected Amari Burney for the starting STAR spot, but instead, he finds himself as a starting linebacker.

Additionally, Florida did not name a long snapper ahead of the game, though presumably, it will be redshirt senior Brett DioGuardi.

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WATCH: DC Todd Grantham, Kyle Pitts sound off on STAR CB CJ McWilliams

McWilliams missed all of the 2019 season with a torn Achilles, but he’s back and has had a strong camp, according to the coaching staff.

When Florida released its opening day depth chart on Monday, the defensive lineup featured a bit of a surprise. Starting at the STAR position, Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s equivalent of the nickel corner, was fifth-year corner CJ McWilliams.

McWilliams missed all of the 2019 season with a torn Achilles, but he’s back and has had a strong camp, according to the coaching staff.

Grantham told the media on Tuesday night that McWilliams has worked hard to secure playing time now that he’s healthy.

“CJ’s a guy that quite honestly, he’s always gotten hurt when you kind of look at it, he’s gotten hurt and not being able to finish, and to the guy’s credit, the guy’s really busting his tail,” he said. “He’s worked hard, he’s been healthy through this whole thing, he’s really done what we’ve asked. He’s done a nice job, so he’ll be a part of our roster, our players, and he’ll be able to contribute to what we do.”

Despite being on the roster since 2016, McWilliams has appeared in just 16 games, starting two of them in 2018.

When tested by some of the best offenses in the SEC, he struggled, especially against Georgia in 2018. Kyle Pitts said that his struggles in that game gave fans the wrong idea bout him. The real McWilliams, Pitts maintains, will be on display this season.

“CJ is a guy that people kind of overlooked after that Georgia game, everybody was just bashing him, but they don’t know the real CJ,” tight end Pitts said. “The real CJ is how he’s playing now, 100 percent. He’s sticking, he’s hitting people hard in the open, he can guard, he can do everything that when he came here he’s doing now. Like I said, first game, everyone’s gonna be kind of shocked seeing him out there making plays.”

With a guy in Trey Dean III on the roster, who has experience at the STAR position, it says a lot that McWilliams, who many didn’t expect to be much of a factor on defense this year, has already secured a starting spot.

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