Entire Florida offensive line signs NIL deal with Sonny's BBQ

The Florida offensive line will be eating good this season. The entire line has signed an NIL deal with Sonny’s BBQ, the barbecue chain spread out throughout the SEC footprint that started in Gainesville, Florida.

The Gators invaded Sonny’s on Thursday night for their first appearance as part of the agreement, and they scored some free food in the process. The contracts were signed three weeks ago, with every athlete compensated the same amount.

As part of the deal, the offensive line will make stops at Sonny’s BBQ throughout the season. Florida’s offensive line includes: Jalen Farmer, Christian Williams, Austin Barber, Riley Simonds, Kingsley Eguakun, Jake Slaughter, Richard Leonard, William Harrod, Kamryn Waites, Ethan White, Kaleb Boateng, O’Cyrus Torrence, David Conner, Michael Tarquin, Joshua Braun, Mark Pitts, Richard Gouraige, Yousef Mugharbil and Jordan Herman.

Former Florida All-American offensive lineman turned Sonny’s BBQ pitmaster and ambassador Shannon Snell helped execute the deal. Sonny’s first opened in 1968 in Gainesville by Floyd “Sonny” Tillman and his family. Since then, the BBQ restaurant has grown to 96 locations across the country.

Florida enters Saturday’s game with a 1-1 record, coming off a 26-16 loss at home to Kentucky. The 18th-ranked Gators host USF on Saturday night in The Swamp. Through two games, Florida’s offensive line has helped produce 209.5 yards on the ground and five touchdowns. Anthony Richardson has only been sacked once, too.

Florida’s offensive line cashing in on NIL potential

Former three-star recruit O’Cyrus Torrence followed Billy Napier from Louisiana to Florida. Rated as a top 25 player in the portal cycle, he holds an On3 NIL Valuation of $530,000. The evaluation places him No. 82 in the NIL 100 and in the top 60 of On3’s college football NIL rankings.

The second-highest rated On3 NIL Valuation on Florida’s offensive line is offensive tackle Richard Gouraige. With an evaluation of $181,000, he ranks in the top 300 of the college football NIL rankings, thanks in large part to his 59,000 Twitter followers. He holds a per post value of $465.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market. It projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.