Florida Gators: Scarlett bringing his talents to Gainesville

The dominos are finally starting to fall for the Florida Gators as the Gators picked up their fifth commitment in the last three days when running back Jordan Scarlett (5-11, 205, Fort Lauderdale, FL St. Thomas Aquinas) committed to Florida over Florida State and Miami on Monday night.

“I’ll be attending the University of Florida,” Scarlett said on FoxSports Florida. “Go Gators.”

Scarlett gives Florida the big back that head coach Jim McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier have been looking for this recruiting cycle as McElwain’s offense needs a big back and the Gators lost Matt Jones to the NFL draft.

The St. Thomas Aquinas running back grew up idolizing former Alabama running back Trent Richardson who was coached by McElwain at Alabama.

“Coach McElwain has been telling me that I’m the kind of running back that he needs for his offense,” Scarlett said. “I know he has coached a lot of great backs at Alabama and that means a lot to me because it shows a lot about him and his track record. I want to be the next great back.”

Scarlett could very likely come to Florida and be the back-up to junior Kelvin Taylor as the back up running back position is up for grabs and Scarlett is both physically and mentally ready for college.

McElwain has made it clear to Scarlett since he was hired that Scarlett was a priority but running backs coach Tim Skipper has also done a great job of recruiting Scarlett and talking about his resume to Scarlett.

“Coach Skipper has just telling me about the backs that he has coached and that he wants to be able to coach me. He said that he could help me out a lot,” Scarlett said of Skipper.

The Army-American and state champion Scarlett rushed the ball 143 times for 1,224 yards this year and 24 touchdowns while catching three passes for 68 yards and another touchdown.

Scarlett is the first running back commit for the class of 2015 and 15th commit overall.