If ever there was a Gator you didn’t expect to hit the transfer portal, it was Jack Pyburn.
A Bolles (Jacksonville) product who grew up a Gator fan, Pyburn overcame every single set of odds to make his lifelong dream come true. After battling his way to the top of the depth chart in late 2023, Jack Pyburn finally earned the first start of his career against Arkansas. He promptly tore his ACL.
Typically, the recovery from such an injury is 9-12 months. But Pyburn was determined to hasten it as much as possible. Between stadium step climbs, swimming, and even yoga, Pyburn did quite literally anything he could to get back out onto the field.
Fast forward to the 2024 season, and Pyburn was one of a host of athletes vying for time at the EDGE position. George Gumbs and Tyreak Sapp were too productive to keep off the field, but Pyburn contributed, too, racking up 60 tackles on the year. He even recorded a sack against FSU in the Gators’ 31-11 stomping of the Noles.
The tape of Jack Pyburn tells the story of a guy who is modestly talented, but gets more mileage out of that talent than most. There’s a lot of assignment-following he does on that field so that others can make plays around him; without Pyburn doing his job, a hole in the defense opens up. He’s been called a “glue guy,” a “love of the logo player,” and just generally a Gator who bleeds orange and blue.
Which made for quite the development on Tuesday when Pyburn announced he was entering the transfer portal.
Hours after the initial shockwave of his departure had been set off, a second one ripped through the Gator Nation. Pyburn, according to reports from Zach Abolverdi, wanted to be guaranteed not only more money, but more playing time as well. Citing sources, Abolverdi stated that Pyburn demanded $45K per month (which comes out to $540K per year), a guarantee that he’d be a starting OLB, a guarantee that he’d play more on third down, and a guarantee that he’d get more total snaps.
Does this make you mad? It should. But it’s not Pyburn who deserves to feel fans’ ire.
Because Jack Pyburn does not exist in isolation. He’s simply doing what the nature of today’s college football is giving him the ability to do.
We live in a world where players can taste the slightest sliver of success on the field, feel as though they deserve more money, and not play again until they get it. Just look at the case of UNLV’s Matthew Sluka. That’s the norm now. It’s not a Florida problem, and it’s not a football-specific problem. Greed is a vicious plague that never fails to ruin anything it touches, and now college football has become as much a hub for it as anything.
In other words, the silly sounding contract holdouts of NBA, NFL and NBA stars you sometimes read about on ESPN’s bottom crawl or on your phone have seeped into college sports. The only reason they’re not all out in the open is because schools and athletes alike would usually rather settle these disputes behind closed doors.
“How can the biggest athletes in the world not be happy with their salaries? God forbid LeBron James or Aaron Judge not be able to feed their families with $30M a year,” you might say. Well, guess what? The only reason college athletes aren’t being paid as much as the biggest superstars in professional sports is because the market says they don’t merit it—and it only takes one overzealous booster to change that. There’s no national salary cap, no rule that says boosters can’t pay athletes any amount of money the two sides agree on.
The argument for letting Pyburn walk is simple: he is a solid player, but he doesn’t merit $540K a year. Other SEC schools may disagree with that sentiment, pay him that much or more, and poach him. And if Florida has to watch Pyburn make a game-saving tackle for his new team to beat the Gators, well, then, that’s just how it goes.
Because no amount of love for a logo is going to talk louder than money. When presented with the choice to make more money or stick with the school he loves, every single player—who remember, has never seen this money ever before in his young life—is going to choose the money. And in cases where players genuinely don’t know if another suitor would offer them more or not, you better believe they’re going to be willing to find out and enter the transfer portal.
Is it greedy? Probably. Is it Pyburn’s fault? No. He’s just doing what the sport has given him the ability to do.
Just be sure to remember that when others follow in his footsteps.
