Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #58 OL TJ Lawrence
Our march through the offensive line continues as my grip on reality weakens.
Folks, it is July and I am still writing about USF’s offensive line. This is not meant to be disrespectful towards offensive linemen, who are delightful to write about. Instead, I would like to issue a challenge for any other position to wear a number between 51 and 79. Back in my day, players had to EARN low numbers. A true freshman couldn’t just stroll onto campus and grab a single-digit jersey. And there was much less of this funny business with two or - God forbid - THREE players wearing the same number. And don’t even get me started on the number 0!!!! On USF’s 2005 roster, there were 22 players wearing numbers from 0-19. On USF’s 2025 spring roster, there are 35 such players. And that’s not even accounting for the fall enrollees! Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ugh. Life comes at you fast. One day you’re young and the next day you’re complaining about these dang kids who don’t know the value of an honest day’s number selection. My knees hurt.
Anyway, here’s TJ Lawrence.
PLAYER: TJ Lawrence
POSITION: Offensive lineman
YEAR: Redshirt freshman
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'5", 310 lbs.
HOW DID HE GET HERE? An interesting journey here. Lawrence played his high school ball at Fleming Island High School, not far outside Jacksonville. He was a low-to-mid three star prospect and got some power conference love with a Georgia Tech offer, but committed to USF and signed with the Bulls on early signing day in 2022. He didn’t join the team in the fall, however, and only started practicing with them during Boca Raton Bowl prep in 2023.
We never got an official statement on the delay, but one possible explanation is that Lawrence was grayshirted - a process sometimes used to help an athlete who’s injured or academically ineligible, and sometimes used for underhanded scholarship shenanigans. Here’s a brief explanation on how it works.
“A grayshirt is when a team offers a player enrollment on scholarship at the start of the second semester, after the upcoming season. The athlete then has five years to play four seasons, with the ability to redshirt at some point.
Athletes who grayshirt are allowed to enroll as students. They go to class for the first semester as part-time students, either at the school or at a junior college, without starting their eligibility clocks. Then they begin as full-time students on scholarship.”
HOW WAS HIS 2024 SEASON? Lawrence took a redshirt season - a thing that, as noted, above, you still can do after taking a grayshirt season. College football is filled with colorful shirts. He did appear in one game, making a late appearance with the backup units in the Tulsa blowout.
WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025? Lawrence is probably still too deep on the depth chart to expect much playing time this season. But he’s still a freshman eligibility-wise, so he’s got plenty of time to see the field. Given how hard he’s worked to join the team, I’d love to see Lawrence’s perseverance pay off and for him to have a long, successful career in green and gold.