Florida Football: 3 reasons Lorenzo Lingard would be a perfect fit

1. Florida is closest Power Five team to hometown

When Lorenzo Lingard announced his intention to transfer from Miami, it came with a flurry of “which national power could he wind up at?” questions. He could give Ohio State a chance or even powers that offered him out of high school like Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oklahoma or Texas.

But one thing is different from all of the others: distance from home.

This transfer is not because of playing time, but it’s been revealed that he wants to move closer to home in Orange City, Fla., to be closer to his father because of his kidney/heart problems.

After doing a quick search, I found out that the closest Power Five program to Orange City is Florida. Gainesville happens to be 99.5 miles away which is just under two hours — about half of the drive that Miami was.

Florida State was a finalist in his initial recruitment so that would make sense, too, but Tallahassee is 247 miles away or about a four-hour drive.

If he was thinking about smaller FBS programs, FAU, FIU and South Florida are all further. The only one that makes sense outside of Gainesville is UCF which could be a solid option, but if he’s looking for a Power Five fit, this is the one for him.

Florida was also one of the first schools to recruit him and he may have passed the Gators up because of the coaching staff, which has since changed. Dan Mullen, get on your phone after the Orange Bowl and make that call. Lingard could be a game-changing pickup.