For Gators to continue turnaround, freshman receivers must continue to stand out

Through the first four weeks of Florida’s 2025 season, freshman receiver catcher Vernell Brown III had ascended into a starring role. He was pacing the Gators in receiving yards with just more than 200. Each week, social media has buzzed with his latest one-handed reception or shape-shifting juke.

So what Dallas Wilson did Saturday — somehow showing up his freshman counterpart by setting almost every record for a UF debut (think receiving yards, receptions and receiving touchdowns, to name a few) — was a revelation in Gainesville. But Andrew Ivins, 247Sports’ director of scouting, was not surprised. Three weeks ago, he outlined how Florida might have two 19-and-under stars.

His belief spun within the rapidly moving breeze of a college football trend of skill position players, especially receivers, taking the field and starring as freshmen. In past years, the likes of Jeremiah Smith, Ryan Williams and Tetairoa McMillan became All-American candidates before turning 19. This season, two of the top three teams in the nation are led in receiving by freshmen: Malachi Toney has become a national star for the University of Miami, and Dakorien Moore is leading No. 3 Oregon in receiving.

And Saturday, Wilson and Brown will guide Florida into a season-defining contest at No. 5 Texas A&M, which could eliminate the Gators (2-3) from the College Football Playoff.

“We’re kind of in a generational run of pass catchers,” Ivins said. “I think it’s one of the easier positions to get those guys involved from the jump.”

The reason is much more convoluted, tracing through location, glorified flag football, player payments and Chip Kelly’s dreams.

Both Wilson and Brown are Florida men, born and raised, and college recruiting has always gravitated toward warmer climates. Players in places like Texas and Florida play year-round, and the more focused noncontact training benefits skill players more than linemen.

But in recent years, offseason training has shifted. It has transformed from singularized work to a competitive, national outlet. Florida — specifically Miami — is the hotbed. OT7, a 7-on-7 nonpadded football league founded by media brand Overtime, is the primary of several noncontact leagues. These leagues let receivers train competitively in the offseason.

“For as much as people may criticize 7-on-7 and outside position-specific training,” said Allen Trieu, a 247Sports national recruiting analyst. “I do think that there are lots of good organizations in those lanes that are contributing to development in high school.”

Brown and Wilson played competitively in the arena, winning a national championship together early in high school. But the likes of Smith, Moore and Toney were all similarly involved. The result: more developed collegiate newcomers and, subsequently, greater production.

When Plantation American Heritage and Orlando Jones met in the FHSAA Class 4A Championship last December, Toney’s and Brown’s skills were on display. Brown ended with more than 100 yards despite the loss, and Toney, who made the transition to quarterback late in the season after an injury to his team’s starter, tallied two touchdowns. High school offenses are also becoming more advanced, with programs like American Heritage and Jones implementing college-like offenses with a greater number of plays and more route concepts.

And in 2015, 90 college teams used 26 or fewer seconds per play. In 2025, there are only 60 doing so. The era of up-tempo offenses, the likes of which Kelly at Oregon shuttled in and Oklahoma fine-tuned, has come to an abrupt, almost COVID-19-induced end. So freshmen have more time to consume play calls and gather themselves, when in the past, to maintain pace, teams leaned on older players who better understood offenses and wouldn’t find themselves out of place.

Those veterans are also disappearing in the day and age of Name, Image and Likeness, though, replaced by the freshman receivers who now dominate college football.

“I think if you got them, you got to play them,” Ivins said, detailing how college programs feel pressure to play freshmen in order to retain them. “Someone else is going to be coming after them.”

But no matter the understanding of offenses or talent preservation, a freshman’s ability to play all comes down to talent, and Brown and Wilson ooze ability.

“I think tracking the ball is a skill, so just getting catches and making the routine plays throughout the days, and practice kind of translates to Saturday,” Brown said. “I don’t think anything changes but the stage and the game, so it’s just routine plays.”

Dribbling the opponent like “a bowling pin,” as UF linebacker Myles Graham eloquently described Wilson’s highlight-reel touchdown last week, isn’t something just anyone can do. The skill — it comes from extensive training, which Florida coach Billy Napier said is to the credit of Wilson’s and Brown’s maturity. Ivins emphasized the same for those like Smith, Williams and Toney, and expects to see more similarly committed youth flourish at the position throughout the remainder of the season.

So as UF travels to College Station, Texas, seeking to maintain any spark from defeating No. 9 Texas, it will rely on Wilson and Brown. Maybe it’s for the best. With top schools across the nation leaning on freshman pass catchers more than ever, Florida is at the forefront.

“I think they’re the best freshmen in the country,” Graham said. “I think they’re second to none. VBIII and Dallas, they’re special.”