Kamran James returning to Florida for his senior season
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gators EDGE Kamran James is returning to school for his senior season. James has signed a new NIL deal with Florida Victorious, he announced Sunday social media.
James graded out as one of UF’s top 10 players on defense this year and tied Jayden Woods for a team-high 3.5 sacks. James logged 44 tackles, 4.5 TFL, two pass breakups, three quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.
James has played in all 37 games the past three seasons. Last year he registered 25 tackles (17 solo), one sack, three TFLs, one forced fumble and six quarterback hurries after recording four tackles as a true freshman in 2023.
James didn’t make any starts this season, but he started the first four games of 2024 before being benched for Tyreak Sapp. Sapp finished that year as the SEC’s top returning EDGE rusher with his 90.0 overall PFF grade.
“You can’t take it too personally. I mean, you can, because you want to be a starter,” James said. “But he got the hot hand. He found his way. I was young. Yes, I was producing, but he became the No. 1 ranked pass rusher in the nation, the highest grade on PFF.”
James was honest enough to admit that starting Sapp, who ended up leading the team in sacks (7.0) and tackles-for-loss (13.0), was the right move. James wasn’t bitter toward him or UF, and now he will take over for Sapp as the starter in 2026.
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“Envy can be the death of players,” James said. “I could have hit the portal. You can’t do that. You gotta stay down and grind. Just the same way as Sapp was an older player, and I started over him, he could have easily, ‘OK, I’m not going to do this. I’m not going for this.’ But he didn’t do that. He stayed down. I feel like both of us, having started so many games, just raised competitiveness in the room as a whole.”
James is the fifth UF football player to announce a new deal with Florida Victorious. Wide receiver Vernell Brown III, linebackers Myles Graham and Aaron Chiles and cornerback Dijon Johnson are the others.
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