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.
Slaughter wasn’t planning on making an announcement.
“I didn’t realize it was a thing you do, where you say you’re coming back or not. I was just going to show up in January. But yes, I’m coming back for my fifth year,” Slaughter told GO’s Keith Niebuhr.
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 shared his reaction to the honor in Tampa.
“It’s really about as special as it gets, being able to call the old man and tell him, ‘I did it.’ Accomplished a lifelong dream. I’ll be able to take my kids to the stadium one day and we’ll go look at the brick,” Slaughter said.
Slaughter is just the third Florida 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 former UF centers Bill Carr (1966) and Maurkice Pouncey (2009) in the exclusive club.
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.
Slaughter, a redshirt junior out of Sparr, Fla., shined throughout the 2024 season in his second year as a starter. He logged 728 snaps, the highest total of any Gator this fall, and 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 after 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.
“His impact on the rest of the team, his example, his selflessness, his humility, I think he’s just a guy who has care for his teammates,” UF coach Billy Napier said of Slaughter on Monday. “Just a very consistent, dependable, durable worker and just a blue-collar guy. But he’s a great communicator and I think he has a way about him that inspires confidence to the players around him.”
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).
Slaughter and the Gators (7-5, 4-4 SEC) conclude their 2024 season against Tulane (9-4, 7–1 AAC) on Friday at 3:30 p.m. in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl.
