Gators land commitment from Tulane transfer D.J. Douglas
More help is on the way for Gators secondary coach Will Harris, as Tulane cornerback D.J. Douglas committed to Florida on Saturday night.
Douglas, who started his career at Alabama as a walk-on, was offered by UF on Dec. 30 and then started his official visit on Wednesday. That experience in Gainesville wrapped up on Friday afternoon.
After spending two years with the Crimson Tide, Douglas transferred to Tulane and made 36 game appearances over the last three seasons.
During his time with the Green Wave, Douglas logged 80 tackles, four interceptions and three pass breakups. Most of that production came in 2023, including 54 tackles (39 solo) and three interceptions.
According to the 2019 On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, Douglas was unranked coming out of Alabaster (Ala.) Thompson.
Earlier this week, the Gators also landed South Carolina linebacker Grayson Howard, Arkansas offensive tackle Devon Manuel and Northern Illinois EDGE George Gumbs Jr.
The group of transfers that committed to Florida in December were Penn defensive lineman Joey Slackman, Oregon defensive back Trikweze Bridges, San Diego State offensive lineman Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson and Wisconsin wide receiver Chimere Dike. UF also signed JUCO EDGE Brien Taylor.
Transfer portal background information
The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.
The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.
Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.
The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.
A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.
He currently does not have an On3 NIL Valuation publicly listed. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.
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