Is Heze Kent Changing Positions a Good Decision? Florida Gators Spring Football

0:00Do the Florida Gators need to move Hezzy Kent to offensive tackle? You are Lockdown Gators, your daily podcast on the Florida Gators. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team, every day. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Lockdown Gators, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Thanks for your Lockdown Gators, your first lesson of the day. Every day we are available daily and for you, it was the podcast and on YouTube. As always, I am Brandon Olson. Thanks for making my fun Gators, your first lesson. We're going to talk about Hezzy Kent today because yesterday was the first day of spring practice and he became a bit of a talking point before we talk about Hezzy. The biggest stretch of college basketball season is here, buzzer, beaters, bracket busters, those unforgettable moments that I've ever been talking about the next day, next week, next month, next year, next decade, next lifetime. Being there for

1:01something like that in life, bucket list stuff. Take the guesswork out of buying college basketball, take us with the game time, download the game time app, create an account, just go locked on for $20 after first purchase, term supply. Again, create an account where you could L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off download the game time app today. We're talking about Hezzy Kent because yesterday was the first day of spring practice and Hezzy Kent, by the way, listed at six foot six three hundred and thirteen pounds, which is a massive human being. That is as bigger than a good bit of the offensive lineman on this team. There were videos that came out, I think I want to say was Dylan Olive, the posted clip of Hezzy Kent going up for the ball and coming down. There were a lot of people Jeff Schwartz, Mike Goliak Jr. I mean non-Florida media was talking about it. There were a lot of people talking about what to do with Hezzy Kent and saying that a guy at that size needs to be

2:08playing offensive lineman. It sparks this weird conversation because it's the thing that we talked about a lot throughout his entire recruitment really. At that size, you're probably going to play offensive lineman at some point. You're a very large individual. You're probably going to do the play offensive lineman or make a position change of some kind. I know people talk about him playing potentially defensive lineman. Frankly, to me, that's a really tall defensive lineman. We'll see. I think that when you have the conversation, you need to talk about a few things. First off, I've always been in the camp of he should play offensive tackle. I have. I've always been in the camp of Hezzy Kent should be playing offensive tackle. My reasoning has always been the same. One, I think you have a higher ceiling at offensive tackle than tight end. Two, you can provide a lot more value to your team at offensive tackle. Yes, that does include pay.

3:14Like we've talked about before, an above average offensive tackle in the NFL is getting paid more than elite tight ends. They are offensive tackles make the world go around. That's a premium position in the trenches. Never get premium positions quarterback off the tackle wide receiver head pressure or past pressure outside corner. Tight end is way down the list of valuable positions. And so for Hezzy Kent, like the reason I've said off the tackle is because you provide a lot more value to your team in terms of what you bring to the table. I'd rather have a great offensive tackle that can do everything as a blocker than a tight end who is going to be potentially limited as a past catcher. And a really good blocker. Right. And I don't like like I get the comments from people whenever I talk about Hezzy Kent of like there's always people in the comments

4:19section that goes, well, he could be a great blocking tight end. Like he could provide so much value there. And it's like, well, if if you're only thing that you're bringing to the table is blocking, maybe you play offensive tackle. And I'm not saying that he can't be a productive receiver or a productive past catcher. But I am saying that we saw at high school and what we see from him now, I don't know if he's going to be that. I don't. I think there's question marks around it. And there should be question marks around it. Because he's a unicorn at his size. He's a great athlete for his size. But that's the thing that people keep doing is, oh, he's a great athlete at that size. He is. He's truly an elite athlete at that size. The thing is, it's the same thing is going, oh, you're great film as a freshman. He was a great freshman. Like that's cool. It is. It's cool. But you're not playing against an all freshman team in the SEC. You're playing against

5:19experienced upperclassmen. Has he kept a great tight end and a great athlete for his 313 pound frame? But he's not playing against other 313 pounders. He's running routes against 230 pounders, 220 pounders. Like he's not creating separation against 300 pounders. That's not who's in coverage on him. And I know that people can just say, oh, just go up over and say, it's not that easy. Are you going to be able to do that through contact consistently? If you can't create separation and I'm not saying he can't. I'm saying, if you can't, that's the conversation that you need to have about he can't. We're going to talk more about that when we get back with Lockdown Gators. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. Number one ranked Yukon dominated St. John's 85 to 49 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden,

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7:27pay for the five ever energy flavor draft, right? It's great. It's always been great. I'm on crumple the post it like in draft day. Take great no matter what. It's great. We're doing that. Find your new favorite flavor of five hour energy shots available online at fivehourenergy.com or on Amazon. Nice get for a lot donators. You're first listen of the day. Every day we are available daily and free as the podcast end on YouTube and we are talking about Hezzy Kent here, right? And with Hezzy Kent, there's always going to be the conversation about whether or not he should have been recruited as a tight end or recruited as an offensive tackle. And the reality of the situation for Hezzy is he wants to play tight end. Okay. The reality of the situation for Hezzy Kent is that at least the previous coaching staff told him you can play tight end. And the reality of the situation is

8:30that the current coaching staff is at the very least going to let him try playing tight end. Which was something that throughout his recruitment again, like I've said multiple times. I think he should play off of their tackle, but I understand giving him the opportunity and the shot to play tight end. I do. I do think that there's value in saying, you know what? This guy might be a unicorn. And if he's a unicorn, that's a massive benefit for us. Okay. And so if he's a unicorn, if he's a unicorn, that's a big benefit. And I think you can take that and you're all right, well, we gotta at least take the shot. There's certain things you got. We have to at least try it. If he ends up being able to be a four or five hundred yard tight end while being a good blocker, like that's good value for someone that size. That's it. All right. But the important part about managing this situation is

9:40if he doesn't work out that way, you have to know when to cut bait. You do. You have to know when to cut bait there and when to pull shoot or whatever saying you want there, you have to know it's time. And so I'll say this, I am fully on board with giving him a year. He's currently six foot six, three hundred and thirteen pounds. Tide end coach Evan McKissick has openly said we want to get him down to at most two hundred ninety five pounds, right? So two hundred ninety five pounds or lighter. So we wanted to drop a lot of weight. John Somerall in the press conference after the first day of practice said, you know, he's in January, he was dealing with an ankle injury that limited him from going through conditioning and all that. And so that didn't help with his weight loss, right? Which all makes sense. I can understand all

10:42of that. I think you give him a year and you say, all right, it's been a year. This this vision of you playing Tide end is not coming to fruition right now. It's time to make the move to get you into offensive tackle. And I know that there's going to be a lot of people that hate saying that or hate hearing that and hate talking about it. And I get it because it does suck to say. And I know there's people that are going to go, wow, a year is not a long time. And it's really not like a year and football is not a long time. However, I think you have to, at that point, be the adult in the room and say it's been a year. And I'm not saying, you know, the production needs to be there. I don't think that matters at all. I think you can gauge this through practice and you can gauge this through through all that, right? And the weight room, right? See what his diet habits are like, are you putting in the work to drop to what we need you to drop to to play Tide end here? Because if you're not, then you're not going to play Tide end.

11:46And so I think you could do all that. But I think at a certain point, you need to be an adult and say, all right, it's been a year. It's not working out. You need to make a decision. You are either going to change positions, whether that's off, it's tackled, the offensive tackle, whatever, that's up to them. But you're either going to change positions or you can transfer. And it sucks to say, right? But it's the reality of the situation. Like, you want to try to be the unicorn. We'll let you try to be the unicorn. But if it's not working for your career, you need to figure something else out. And that's really it. And then the reason I say a year is because if you make that move to offensive tackle, it's not an easy position to learn, right? And so you're going to take at least another year to try to learn how to play offensive tackle. That's two years of your college football career already gone.

12:49And again, I'm saying at least another year could be another two years. You can take a while. So I do think that you got to say, hey, if you're making that transition, you can make that transition. If you're not making that transition, you got to go somewhere else. Can as you can play tight end, who the hell knows? I think the best argument was made by Josh Schwartz, which is at that mass jumping up her passes, that's going to destroy your knees. I think that's the best argument. It is. I think that's the best argument. I'm not comfortable saying that you can't be a successful productive tight end. I'm not. I've never seen someone that big played tight end before. I've also never seen someone fail. At that time, I've never seen someone that big fail playing tight end. So I'm not going to say that you can't do it. I'm not going to say you can do it. I'm going to say, I don't know if you can do it, but if it's a year and we're not seeing the progress, maybe it's time to make a move and make a change so that you can actually

13:50have a future in football. That's it. It's not that harsh. It's nothing brutal. It's strictly business. And that's what football is. Thanks for making a lot of doggators. You're versus us in of the day. Every day, we are available daily and free rivers and podcasts and on YouTube. As always, I am Brandon Olson. Thanks for listening. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for supporting. And I will see you all next time.