Former Auburn DL Daquan Newkirk announces SEC transfer destination
Less than a week after Daquan Newkirk announced “forever in my heart, war eagle” as news emerged that he would enter the transfer portal, the former Auburn defensive lineman has announced his transfer destination.
An Orlando, Florida native, Newkirk tweeted that was “coming home” and that he would join the Florida Gators. He thanked several Florida coaches and added, “It’s a honor to be coming home, thank you … let’s get to work @GatorsFB !!!”
This past season, Newkirk had 28 tackles, including 3 TFL, 1.5 sacks and 3 quarterback hurries. The 6-foot-3 and 317-pound defensive tackle was a JUCO transfer to Auburn from Mississippi Gulf Coast CC.
Newkirk will be a graduate transfer for the Gators. He started all 10 regular season games for Auburn at defensive tackle after he battled injuries earlier in his career. He did not play in the Citrus Bowl game against Northwestern.
This is the second addition to the Gators defensive line after Penn State transfer Antonio Shelton made the move to Gainesville.
While a 247Sports 3-star prospect, he was nationally ranked as a top 10 overall JUCO prospect by 247Sports.
It’s a honor to be coming home, thank you @CoachDanMullen @coachdt48 @CoachTGrantham @coachcrimedawg let’s get to work @GatorsFB !!! pic.twitter.com/okLPdtWKvR
— Daquan Newkirk (@holdthat_2) January 14, 2021
To be continued… I got more dawg in me. pic.twitter.com/6CKipanWLJ
— Daquan Newkirk (@holdthat_2) January 12, 2021
oh better look out next year could be a great year for my Gators with all this help on D line coming in.
Don’t expect too much. Newkirk has great strength but has been mostly a disappointment, even factoring in injuries.
If he was a disappointment, why did he start every one of Auburn’s regular season games this year? And his stats certainly are not disappointing.
We only had 2 healthy DT’s until late in the season.
We had to play an OT there because we were riddled with injuries.
Nature, you had to expect to see auburn fans coming here claiming he sucks. Had he announced he was coming back, they’d be singing a different tune.
Nobody said that he sucked. He’s had a disappointing career (always injured) but was more than serviceable this season.
We will be okay without him though.
Nobody? Not sure how else you can interpret what SatOnThePlains said. “Don’t expect much, he’s been a disappointment”. Seems pretty clear to me.
He was the primary backup to Brown on the DL in 2019 and started every game in 2020. Therefore, if he stays healthy, I am expecting good play from him next year at UF in what is now a solid rotation of interior DL.
Where are you getting your info on that he started every game? For the first few weeks the starters were Truesdell and Wooden.
But yeah he will definitely be a solid rotational piece on yalls DL.
What kind of injury problems did he have?
He had achilles injuries in 2018 and 2019. He was banged up this year too but played through a lot due to depth issues.
Natural Gator, Newkirk was injured most of 2019 and was not DB’s primary backup. You’re thinking of Coynis Miller.
Thanks beach
Fills a depth and experience need on the DL. Need an OL transfer as well, or for Reese to return for another year. And one more recruit. Terion Arnold, please.
Welcome home, big man! Looking forward to watching you play for The Mighty Gators!
Two 300 plus dl men with him and the Penn st transfer. Mullen looking to shore up that porous run defense. Two big bodies to take up space. With those two additions i would expect FLA’s run defense to be quite a bit better next year.
Just filling in some gaps. He could be a good inside for us. Go Gators!
Mullens had good results with promoting skill and name value of previous transfer players at Florida. Makes sense portal players who think they can do/show more would consider the Gators.