When it comes to 2025 recruiting the Gators’ link to Cameron and Cayden Boozer might have most of the attention but they look to be in the driver’s seat for another recruit they’ve been eyeing–6’6” wing CJ Ingram.
If you’re a football fan, there is a chance you’ve heard Ingram’s name for one of two reasons. First of all, Ingram was considered a top football recruit long before he started getting basketball attention, and he was someone SEC schools thought could come in and make an impact. Or, you will be familiar with his name because his father Cornelius Ingram was a tight end for the Gators who contributed to a National Championship.
Given his father’s football legacy, Ingram initially was focused on the gridiron until recently. How recently? In 2023 he won the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1R player of the year as a quarterback, throwing 38 touchdowns while throwing just 7 interceptions. Thought to be a football recruit, most basketball programs didn’t have much interest in recruiting him and he held just low-major offers on the hardwood. That was until after football season where he announced he would focus exclusively on basketball, a decision that shook the football recruiting world and had basketball coaches scrambling to put in their offers.
Ingram’s recruitment heated up even further after his team made it to the prestigious Peach Jam event in Georgia where he had arguably the best week of basketball in his career leading to high-major offers flying in.
As a player, Ingram is extremely athletic at 6’6” and he loves to play fast where he can push the ball after securing a rebound or sprint the wing and finish with powerful dunks. He’s probably best on the defensive end right now where he is particularly skilled at turning opponents over, especially on the ball where he can use his long arms to get deflections that often turn into him dunking the ball on the other end. While jump shooting isn’t yet a strength, he’s a willing catch and shoot player who sees potential as a professional three-and-D athlete down the line.
Following the Peach Jam and the surge of top offers, Ingram released a list of his top schools consisting of Kansas, Michigan, Texas A&M, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Mississippi State, and of course–Florida.
Now, this list might seem long and you might think a player considering ten schools isn’t close to making his decision but by all accounts the Gators are the leaders here. This won’t be a big surprise given the connection the Ingram family has to the University Of Florida, and it has also meant Ingram has already taken unofficial visits to the Gators and is familiar with the current staff. He is yet to take any visits to the other schools in his final list, but he is expected to take several and go through a full recruitment–even though the Gators are currently thought to be the clear choice.
Ingram currently attends Oak Ridge in Orlando, meaning he is close by for Florida’s staff to come by and maintain the relationship.
According to the current rankings Ingram is the 149th ranked player in the class of 2025. However, those rankings haven’t been reflected in several weeks, meaning Ingram’s tremendous summer and shift to focus on basketball haven’t yet been accounted for and when the rankings are next updated he is expected to take a huge leap, with On3’s Joe Tipton suggesting he could be as high as top-50 in their rankings.
There is currently no timetable for Ingram to make a decision and he will likely take several visits in the fall.