There is one on offense and one on defense, guys that not many, if any, thought would do much in 2019… their coaches and fellow players think otherwise. That’s what we get from redshirt junior receiver Rick Wells and redshirt sophomore linebacker Lacedrick Brunson.

Wells has been a spring warrior at the receiver position in the spring drills that he’s been available. Injured as a true freshman, he missed that year due to the injury. As a redshirt freshman he was involved in a credit card scandal on campus and missed the entire year because of it.

Last season, he showed up in the spring and made some plays, but when it came time to play he was passed over by a group of guys that all had played a lot more college football.

This past spring, Wells was back to his old self, making acrobatic catches, more than any receiver on the roster, and still running on the third team.

I posed a question to redshirt senior starting receiver Van Jefferson on Thursday at Florida’s Media Day, asking who is a guy in the receiver group that doesn’t get enough attention and who could show up big. It took about two seconds for Jefferson to say “Rick Wells”.

“I think Rick Wells is up and coming,” Jefferson said matter-of-fact like. “I think he’s going to make some plays for us this year. Sometimes he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. He’s been coming on. He had a great summer. His routes are looking nice. I think he’s going to have a good year and do a lot for us this year.

“He has some of the best hands I have seen. He is going to have a really good year.”

Senior starting receiver Joshua Hammond was asked about his thoughts on Wells and they mirrored a lot of what Jefferson thinks of the guy that came to Florida in the same class as Hammond.

“He’s a great guy,” Hammond said. “He definitely has grown a lot. From when we first got here our freshman year and he tore his ACL, he bounced back from that. Then he got in trouble and you see him bounce back from that. His game has elevated so high and I think he’s going to be ready to be good.

“I think another thing that speaks for Rick is he had the ability to watch and learn the offense and kind of take his time and learn from our mistakes. So when he came out in the spring, everything we screwed up on, he didn’t have those issues, because he already saw us go through it. He really excelled and looked good. I think he’s underrated and a lot of people don’t know about him.”

As mentioned, it’s my opinion that Wells has made more big plays in spring drills than anyone over the last couple of years. Hammond says that Wells has the tools to be one of the best in the unit.

“He’s very explosive and he’s not afraid to go deep and make the big play,” Hammond said. “He’s very competitive, he might not talk much but he’s very competitive. He’s just like Tyrie. They were best friends since they were little and they have the same mindset towards things and football and just want to be great.”

And on defense there is Brunson. He’s been seemingly umpteenth on the depth chart, but he did make some plays last spring, of which were noted at the time, but not talked about in a cumulative manner.

The linebacker position was recruited heavily in the 2019 class and even with the loss of Diwun Black to not qualifying, there are quality and numbers coming in. But, the Gators also lost four linebackers from last year’s squad that were supposed to still be around and competing. Kylan Johnson and Rayshad Jackson both transferred out, Vosean Joseph left school early and was drafted in the NFL, and Nick Smith took a medical hardship and gave up football.

There is room for Brunson to make a move and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham expects it to happen. He was asked Thursday if there was anyone making a move on defense that we haven’t seen much of. He singled out one person.

“The one guy that's impressed me is Brunson,” Grantham said. “Last year Brunson was a guy that wasn't, didn't get a lot of snaps on defense, really didn't say a lot, was kind of feeling his way, both in our off season program he first got here and through the spring and all that. And as things moved, sometimes you can get left. But he kept working and grinding and he showed up in special teams, which guys that play on special teams always indicate to me they can probably play on defense, but we got to continue to work with them.”

Grantham started to make the point that sometimes you have to listen to other coaches that coach the players and in this case it seems he listened to Greg Knox, who is the special teams’ coordinator at Florida and loved utilizing Brunson in that aspect of the game.

“I think he's made the biggest jump since we’ve been here from being a guy that wasn't quite ‘with it’,” Grantham said. “What I mean by ‘with it’ is, wasn't maybe keeping up and kind of got left a little bit. But he kept working hard and he got into special teams and making plays.

The hard work paid off and the expectations for Brunson are big.

“Now he's a part of our rotation with our inside backers and he's a guy that we're going to count on to give us some snaps at some point this year. That's probably a name that a lot of you haven't heard about that I'm excited to see what he can do in training camp, because that would give us some snaps that have been left with Vosean leaving and that kind of thing.”

Two unexpected names, from teammates and a coach that should add depth to a squad that is pretty deep already. If it pans out, we heard it first at UF’s Media Day on Thursday.