Billy Gonzales confirms Florida WR, former 4-star recruit, has opted out of remaining 2025 games
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The Florida football program isn’t in need of any more bad news following a 38-7 road loss to Kentucky on Saturday night, but Gators’ interim head coach Billy Gonzales revealed that a piece of the team’s receiving corps will miss the rest of the season.
After it was first reported during SEC Network’s broadcast that sophomore receiver Tank Hawkins would be opting out of UF’s remaining games this season, Gonzales was asked about it after the fact.
The interim coach explained that Hawkins had approached him earlier during the week in hopes of preserving his redshirt, as the Virginia native had only appeared in two games this season, the opener against Long Island and the ensuing loss to South Florida.
Gonzales says he and the staff were more than happy to adhere to Hawkins’ request.
“Tank came up, very professional. He came out and asked if he could preserve his redshirt,” Gonzales said during a postgame press conference. “Absolutely. I said I 100 percent honor it. So, at this point, yes.”
It remains to be seen if Hawkins just intends to preserve another season of college football for himself in Gainesville, or if this is a sign that he intends to enter the transfer portal and doesn’t want to burn a year of eligibility he could use elsewhere.
Hawkins was a 4-star recruit in the Class of 2024 out of the notorious IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He tallied 10 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown as a freshman last year, but he had only hauled in a pair of passes for 16 yards thus far this season.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
