Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #40 DT Jacob Merrifield
The Bulls brought in a ton of transfers on the defensive line. Let's meet another one.
PLAYER: Jacob Merrifield
POSITION: Defensive tackle
YEAR: Redshirt senior
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6'2", 285 lbs.
HOW DID HE GET HERE? Merrifield was rated as a low three-star recruit out of Winder-Barrow High School (in Winder, Georgia, about an hour outside of Atlanta) and committed to FAU over offers from Navy and Liberty. He played in a few games as a freshman in 2021, but became a permanent fixture in the Owls’ defensive line rotation starting in 2022. Over the next three seasons he played consistently at defensive tackle, appearing in 30 games and making 12 starts. After a productive but injury-plagued 2024, he entered the transfer portal and followed in the footsteps of former teammate Decarius Hawthorne by committing to USF. He signed on early signing day in December and enrolled for the spring semester.
HOW WAS HIS 2024 SEASON? After starting the season as the second-string defensive tackle for FAU, Merrifield worked his way into a starting role by midseason and was putting up the best numbers of his college career. Through seven games, he had tied his career high in tackles (15), and set a career high in TFLs (4) and sacks (2.5). But in the midst of an excellent game against UTSA (three TFLs and 1.5 sacks), he suffered a knee injury that kept him out until the last two games of the season.
Merrifield projects as either a nose tackle or defensive tackle in USF’s defensive scheme (see here for our quick overview). Per PFF, he played about 88% of his snaps on the interior of the line for FAU in 2024.
WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025? As we’ve mentioned, there is a bit of a void in the interior of the USF line, which lost starters Doug Blue-Eli and Bernard Gooden to the transfer portal. In turn, the Bulls have pulled a handful of theoretical plug-and-play seniors out of the portal themselves, with Merrifield among them. Merrifield has a very similar profile to Dre Butler, who we covered earlier in this countdown - a veteran defensive tackle who’s already performed adequately against AAC competition.
Merrifield and Butler, along with Vanderbilt transfer Devin Lee (who committed to USF, but isn’t on campus yet) will likely get the first shots to replace Blue-Eli at nose tackle. Merrifield doesn’t have the big-name school on his resume that some of the other incoming transfers do, but don’t sleep on him. His 2024 numbers are a bit deflated by his injury, but he was on a hot streak before he got hurt.
It should be noted that Merrifield has received quite a bit recognition for his leadership and service: in 2024 he was named to the watchlist for the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy, which recognizes college football’s leaders in community service, and he was named a captain at FAU in 2023, his redshirt sophomore season. He’ll be a great addition for the Bulls no matter where he ends up in the defensive tackle rotation.