Analyzing what Ole Miss transfer Princely Umanmielen's recent comments mean for Florida, Billy Napier

Former Florida Gators defensive end Princely Umanmielen took his talents to Ole Miss via the transfer portal earlier this offseason, and it’s evident he believes the right decision was made.

In praising the Rebels defensive staff, Umanmielen took what could be perceived as a shot at the Gators coaches, explaining the differences between the two SEC programs while speaking with the media earlier this week.

“I feel like here I’m getting coached harder for things like that,” Umanmielen said. “I feel like at Florida, like, the way I was coached it was kind of like, it was almost as if like they was just telling me to go out there and use my talent, if that makes sense.”

On Wednesday, On3’s Andy Staples and J.D. PicKell had some fascinating reactions to Umanmielen’s comments, which they shared via Andy Staples On3 on YouTube.

“Wow. Wow. Throwing the old staff under the bus,” Staples responded, after hearing Umanmielen’s comments. “Now, Florida’s has had some staff changes. …  So I’m not sure who he’s throwing shade at here, exactly. Other than the entirety of the Florida defensive staff. Much of which is still there. But that’s, that’s rough.

“And you said this to me when we saw the clip, ‘Billy Napier needs the season to get here,’ just like, really quickly.” 

In response, PicKell stated his belief that Umanmielen wasn’t trying to completely throw shade at the Gators, but that’s just how it went down.

“It’s tough, because I don’t know that Princely Umanmielen —  I don’t think he went to the podium saying like, ‘Alright, I’m about to just hook this Florida staff,'” PicKell added.

Staples believes Umanmielen was, “trying to complement Pete Golding and his staff at Ole Miss,” and it just went sideways. Regardless, it adds a little juice to the Florida-Ole Miss rivalry moving forward.

As a junior at Florida in 2023, he recorded 39 tackles, 11.5 tackles for a loss and 7.0 sacks. In his four-year career at Florida he tallied 99 tackles, 24.5 tackles for a loss, 15.0 sacks and three forced fumbles. He’s been quite productive up front.

Nevertheless, Staples believes the Umanmielen situation is simply proving the pickle Florida is in as it relates to the transfer portal.

“Florida is in that situation where, this is the problem you get into, when I think the transfer portal area era exacerbates this problem,” Staples added. “Where if you have bad news, if you have — if you’re coming off a not great season, and you have some bad news, it just compounds and compounds. There’s not really a way to create good news, unless you just spend like a drunken sailor on the transfer portal, and get some very different players that gets everybody excited.

“What the problem is, when you’re in this situation where Billy Napier is right now,  it’s hard to get those guys to come because they don’t know what the future holds.”

Alas, it’ll be fascinating to see how much Princely Umanmielen can improve moving forward, but it’s evident the former Gators star turned Rebels transfer has a lot of motivating factors on his plate that he’ll be carrying with him as Ole Miss enters the 2024 season.