Gouriage. I have no idea about him. He reminds me so much of Patchen and Sharpe. Super talented guys you expected to be elite but just were not.
I don’t know. I’m probably wrong.
Let's hope that's not the case. As a Gator fan, it feels like we have had more than our share of disappointments with highly touted linemen, and a lot of pleasant surprises.
I remember from a radio show, before the season started, where a caller who was associated with Gouraige's high school called in and asked if hey would be playing as a true freshman. The answer was basically that he was looking good so far for a true freshman, but that we had enough depth that he was going to be able to redshirt and develop.
So he wasn't ready to play OT in the SEC, or was just not better than the guys ahead of him. But after a year in Savage's program, a year the training table, and with about 5 guys leaving, I'm looking for him to vie for a starting tackle job.
I found this quote, from this article:
Florida freshmen may get opportunity vs. Idaho
"Richard Gouraige, OL: Offensive line coach John Hevesy said Gouraige is a tackle who has really started coming on in recent weeks. Seeing playing time the rest of the season could set him up to compete for a possible starting role in the spring."
He saw action against Charleston Southern and Idaho. I don't see it as a bad thing that he didn't play more as a true freshman. For all of his failings, Butters didn't fail as badly at OL roster management as Muschamp, who failed as badly as it as you can fail. You shouldn't have to play freshman on the OL.
Meyer's last year, while mailing it in:
2010: Chaz Green, Ian Silberman (Only two, it was Meyer's last year of recruiting, but Muschamp should have compensated by recruiting OL harder)
Muschamp:
2011: Trip Thurman, Tommy Jordan (Only two again, could still be blamed on Meyer as it was Muschamp's first class, but now you have recruited 4 prospects in two years at OL)
2012: D.J. Humphries, Jessamen Dunker (Only two again! By now, Jordan is about to be out of football for medical reasons and Dunker is about to be kicked off the team for stealing a scooter, leaving 3 OL on the roster for 3 yeas worth of recruiting)
2013: Trenton Brown (JUCO), Roderick Johnson, Cameron Dillard, Octavius Jackson, Trevon Young (finally 5 warm bodies at least, but the best prospect was Trent Brown as a 3 star JUCO. Rod Johnson was promising before medical issues, but he was still a 3* prospect)
2014: David Sharpe, Nolan Kelleher, Andrew Mike, Travaris Dorsey, Kavaris Harkless, Drew Sarvary (6 this time and Sharpe was a 4*, but still not much effort shown here based on overall quality - both by recruiting ratings and how they panned out in real life)
Butters takes over:
2015: Martez Ivey, Tyler Jordan, Brandon Sandifer, Fred Johnson, Nick Buchanan
2016: Brett Heggie,
Jawaan Taylor, Stone Forsythe
2017: Kadeem Telfort, T.J. Moore (two 4* guys)
Taylor was a gem and there was nobody on the roster better than him when he arrived because the situation sucked. As roster management and the player development gets fixed permanently, I think that we'll be redshirting a lot of our offensive linemen. Maybe not top rated guys who are being recruited based on early playing time, but that will be to appease them more than just because they are more ready to play than the guys ahead of them.