Justin Watkins announces he’s leaving Florida

Justin Watkins career as a Florida Gator is over before he ever played a down.

The former four-star recruit from nearby Clermont was arrested for the second time in three months this past week and was just released from Alachua County Jail on a $40,000 bond Wednesday.

In May Watkins was arrested in Ocala after he allegedly broke a woman’s phone and kicked her car. Watkins was also charged for trespassing at Vanguard High School, where the incident occurred after school hours. He wasn’t a student at the school.

Tuesday a woman came forward alleging that Watkins pinned her down against the bed, choked her on three occasions and wouldn’t allow her to leave his dorm room at Keys Residential dormitory until she was able to use mace spry to get passed him.

Dan Mullen made clear that one of his program tenets is that there is a zero tolerant policy for violence against women. Watkins hasn’t been convicted of anything but will leave the program.

A former Under Armour All-American, Watkins was one of Mullen’s highest rated recruits in the last cycle. The athlete was set to start his career at cornerback, where Florida is pretty set with Marco Wilson, C.J. Henderson and Chauncey Gardner but will be looking to develop depth behind those three.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC