Florida Gators center Jake Slaughter returning for senior season

TAMPA, Fla. — Florida starting center Jake Slaughter is returning for his senior season, he told Gators Online on Monday upon the team’s arrival for the Gasparilla Bowl.

The news comes hours after Slaughter was named an AP First-Team All-American selection on Monday. The accolade officially earns him a brick outside The Swamp.

Slaughter is just the third center in school history to claim a first-team All-America honor from one of the five current NCAA recognized publications for consensus and unanimous distinction; AP, American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), Sporting News (SN) and the Walter Camp Foundation (WC). He joins Bill Carr (1966) and Maurkice Pouncey (2009) in the exclusive club.

Slaughter, a redshirt junior out of Sparr, Fla., shined throughout the 2024 campaign. He logged 728 snaps, the highest total of any Gator this season. In those snaps, Slaughter Graded out as the Gators’ top offensive player, best pass blocker and best run blocker per Pro Football Focus (PFF).

PFF rated Slaughter as the best overall center in the Southeastern Conference, and tabulated that in his 728 snaps, he allowed only one sack, one QB hit, and six QB hurries and eight pressures while committing only three penalties. His sacks allowed, hits allowed, and penalty totals are improvements from last season, despite playing over 150 more snaps.

He also earned honors of PFF All-American First Team, CFN All-American Second Team, AP All-SEC First Team and USA Today All-SEC First Team.

Jake Slaughter is Florida’s 13th first-team All-American offensive lineman in program history, joining a class of O’Cyrus Torrence (2022 NFL Draft first-round selection), Maurkice Pouncey (5x NFL All-Pro, 9x Pro-Bowler), and Lomas Brown (5x NFL All-Pro, 7x Pro-Bowler).

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

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