If you don’t follow Florida recruiting, you’ve missed a wild few days.
The news early Saturday wasn’t good. QB commit Austin Simmons — who was originally a 2025 recruit while being the age of a 2024 recruit with the option to reclassify to 2023 because he graduated high school after one year and is now taking college courses — flipped from the good guys to Ole Miss. He’s going to reclassify all the way up to ’23 even though the Rebels already have incumbent starter Jaxson Dart and borderline 5-star LSU transfer Walker Howard on the roster.
Simmons was always going to be a redshirt lock for this season, so Oklahoma State transfer Spencer Sanders isn’t really an obstacle to him. Still, his father was quoted as saying of Florida, “the schedule is too tough and they want DJ Lagway”. If Lagway, an elite 2024 quarterback prospect and UF commit, was a problem, then I don’t see how Ole Miss’s situation is much better.
In light of that happening, Billy Napier must’ve made some hard sells or bumped up some timelines or something because a recruiting dam burst later in the day.
Once the dust had settled, Florida had four new commitments: DL Nasir Johnson, DL Amaris Williams, TE Amir Jackson, and LB Aaron Chiles. Johnson is the lowest-rated in the 247 Sports Composite at No. 250 overall, but Jackson is knocking on the door of the top 100 at No. 108, and Chiles is in the top 100 at No. 80.
All of these commitments were at positions of need. The Gators didn’t have any defensive line or tight end commitments prior to the weekend, and linebacker has been a problem spot for years. If you don’t keep up with DL recruiting, like Dan Mullen didn’t in 2018-19, you set yourself up for problems three-to-five years down the road. And while Florida has a lot of numbers at the tight end spot by now, it doesn’t have any high-end talent like what Jackson could be.
Chiles is the third top 100 linebacker in what’s shaping up to be a terrific haul there. Also committed are No. 51 overall Adarius Hayes and No. 53 overall Myles Graham (son of former UF running back Earnest).
But things didn’t end Saturday. After a quiet Sunday, things heated up again yesterday.
First thing in the morning, Florida secured a commitment from massive nose tackle prospect Michai Boireau. He’s already somewhere around 6’5″ to 6’6″ and north of 350 lbs. He just visited Georgia and was a guy the Bulldogs wanted, but Napier got the verbal. He’ll be a drop-in replacement for Desmond Watson, though he’s not as heavy as Big Dez.
Then late in the morning, UF beat out another SEC rival for OT prospect Marcus Mascoll. Also from the state of Georgia like Boireau, Mascoll was a battle between the Gators and LSU. Both are mid-to-upper 3-stars, but both also will need a year in college to work on their physiques to get into SEC shape. That’s fine, as Florida doesn’t need an immediate contributor at either position this cycle, but not being college-ready does tend to push down a recruit’s rating all else equal.
The headliner of the day didn’t land until the evening. No caveats are required to get excited about top-100 edge rusher Jamonta Waller, either the No. 1 or No. 2 rated player in Mississippi depending on who you ask. He’s a high 4-star and No. 71 overall in the Composite, and he plays one of those positions of need. The portal decimated UF’s numbers at Jack linebacker, so getting someone who may contribute early is a big plus there.
Are more coming? I can’t say since I don’t have sources. Some folks have hinted at such, including incoming true freshman DE Kelby Collins, but it’s hard to tell what’s a real hint and what’s just people being excited. There’s a lot to be excited about, after all.
A few observations. First, this reminds me a bit of last summer when Gator recruitniks got really bummed out after Jaden Rashada committed to Miami. Not long after, UF went on an absolute tear of great commitments lasting the rest of the summer. The timeline here is far more compressed, as it took hours and not days for the first post-quarterback disappointment commitment to pop. The commit spree this time has been over the course of a few days and not weeks as well.
However, I know some folks were disappointed that it had been a while since Florida had gotten a commitment, and there was some frustration that some big official visit weekends in June hadn’t borne fruit yet. That anxiety is long gone now.
Second, it’s hard not to notice how big the defensive side has been so far. Lagway is still the jewel of the class, but seven of the top ten most highly rated commits are on the other side of the ball. Five of the seven who’ve just popped were over there as well. In the 247 recruiter rankings, LBs coach Jay Bateman is No. 2 and new DC Austin Armstrong is No. 8. I’ve seen it suggested that players are really buying what Armstrong is selling in terms of changes over last year, and the results would seem to agree.
Finally, it’s much less a in-state group. Florida had the plurality of the transitional class with six players out of 20 signees, but that count more than doubled in the 2022 cycle to 14-of-20 as Napier and staff really focused hard on a smaller area.
The current commit group has only two in-state players out of 16. Most are from the SEC footprint or southeast proper, depending on how you define the latter. North Carolina (1 commit) definitely is in it; Maryland (2) probably isn’t, though it was below the Mason-Dixon line. The Gators also have a commitment from a player from Germany, and he’s appropriately enough from the southern part of the country. South-central, kind of like Texas, but definitely still south.
The 2024 class has been massively upgraded over the last few days, though it’s still unbalanced and lacking in some areas. That’s not a dire problem since it’s June, but don’t think that the Gators are done by any stretch.
What the past few days have done is firmly establish UF as a destination school. Napier’s been working up to that, with him striking out on a ton of highly rated talent since his hire. The point is not that he didn’t land a lot of those blue chippers, but rather that he got them to look at Florida where his predecessor didn’t.
If you get enough top talent to seriously consider the school, eventually it will start to turn into commitments. Having Lagway working tirelessly as a recruiter from an early date (he committed December 7th of last year) was crucial, as the Gators have too often lacked the pied piper of a top commit drawing others to him.
The kind of breakthrough that fans have so long wanted on the trail appears to have finally materialized. This is happening. This is for real life. It is still just June and players need to fax something in about six months, but the long, hard work is beginning to seriously pay off.