Kingsley Eguakun remains questionable for the Florida Gators
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators starting center Kingsley Eguakun remains questionable for the second week in a row. Eguakun suffered a lower body injury on Aug. 16 during fall camp and wasn’t able to practice prior to the Gators’ trip to Salt Lake City.
While he did travel with the team to Utah, Eguakun wasn’t able to play. That broke a streak of 26 consecutive starts for the redshirt junior.
Last year, Eguakun started all 13 games for an offensive line that blocked the run game to 5.5 yards per carry. That ranked fourth in program history and sixth in the FBS. In addition, UF’s 17 sacks allowed in 2022 tied for the 27th-fewest in the Power Five and fourth in the SEC. Eguakun has played in 40 games during his career.
With Eguakun out, the Gators turned to redshirt sophomore Jake Slaughter, who earned his first start against Utah.
“It’s hard to come in against a ranked opponent in a first start. My first game was Utah, I played seven snaps,” redshirt sophomore left tackle Austin Barber said of Slaughter. “It was just a big learning curve for Jake. I think he’s going to embrace it, going to learn from it. He’s a guy that’s always in the building watching film. He’s locked in. He knows he wants to do this. I have all the confidence in Jake.”
Gators offensive line struggled without Eguakun
Florida committed nine penalties with three false starts on the line. Monday, Barber was asked if not having Eguakun contributed to those penalties.
“No. I’ll take the blame, I had a penalty,” Barber said. “That’s nothing Jake did. I need to be more locked in. I think Jake played a pretty good game. First start, obviously you don’t want to go and have all these penalties in his first start. You can’t blame him for it. You didn’t see him have the penalties.”
If Eguakun is unable to play this Saturday, Slaughter will likely start his second game in a row. Florida will host McNeese on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
“We’re playing at home for the first time with this group of players. So there’s some new processes that we have to go through here. And then once the game begins, you know, we’re looking for clean football,” Napier said. “We’re looking for really good process, communication, alignment, eye discipline, technique and fundamentals, and then just having the discipline to execute and make the play.”
