Members of the Florida football team’s 2020 class put pen to paper and cleared up expectations for the future of the program Wednesday morning.
Signing 21 players throughout the day and adding a transfer (and one on Tuesday due to the time difference in Australia) meant 21 “#GatorGangXX” tweets from coach Dan Mullen welcoming each new player to the program.
As of Wednesday evening, UF had the No. 8 class nationally and sixth-best in the SEC, according to 247 Sports.
Mullen was pleased with his staff’s haul.
“I think our coaching staff, both our recruiting staff and our coaching staff did a great job getting players,” he said. “We had players from not just -- a lot of players from the state of Florida, which is really important to me in this program, but a lot of players from around the nation and this year around the world.”
Anthony Richardson, a four-star dual-threat quarterback from Eastside High School in Gainesville, is one of three early enrollees in the class. Richardson is joined by four-star offensive tackle Joshua Braun from Suwanee and Richard Leonard, a three-star offensive guard from Cocoa. All three are already practicing with the team.
The bulk of the early signees were on the defensive side of the ball, highlighted by four stars Derek Wingo and Gervon Dexter. Wingo, an outside linebacker from St. Thomas Aquinas, was previously committed to Penn State before committing to Florida in June. Dexter, a defensive tackle from Lake Wales, has been committed to the program for over a year.
“He's a really good player,” Mullen said of Dexter. “He has size and athleticism. There's not many -- he walks in a room and you can say this guy has been blessed with certain athletic skills.”
In the secondary, Florida netted three four-star cornerbacks in Ethan Pouncey from Winter Park, and two out-of-staters in Jahari Rogers from Arlington, Texas, and Mordecai McDaniel from St. John’s College High School in Washington D.C. McDaniel was originally committed to Tennessee and flipped to the Gators.
Mullen went out of state again to nearby Marietta, Georgia, to get Rashad Torrence II, a four-star safety.
UF received National Letters of Intent from a trio of three-star secondary players, further bolstering a unit that will lose presumptive first-round pick C.J. Henderson to the NFL Draft. Cornerbacks Avery Helm from Fort Bend Marshall High School in Texas and Fenley Graham from Lakeland High School signed along with safety Tre’Vez Johnson from Bartram Trail High School in Jacksonville.
Also on the defensive side of the ball are three four-star defensive tackles in Johnnie Brown from Sebring, Florida, Jalen Lee from Live Oak High School in Louisiana, and Lamar Goods from St. Thomas Moore High School in Connecticut.
Rounding out the class’ defense is Antwuan Powell, a four-star weak side defensive end from Indian River High School in Virginia.
The Tuesday signee was two-star punter Jeremy Krawshaw from Australia. Mullen said he believes Krawshaw was the earliest signee period because of the time difference.
On offense, Florida added four-star wide receiver Jaquavion Fraziars from nearby Dunnellon High School, three-star tight end Jonathan Odom from Jesuit High School in Tampa. On the line, the Gators received NLIs from two south Florida tackles: four-star Issiah Walker Jr. from Miami Norland and three-star Gerald Mincey from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale.
Ethan Pouncey’s brother, Jordan, a wide-receiver transfer from Texas, will join the team as a graduate transfer. Besides Pouncey and Fraziars, the Gators did not sign any other receivers to a room that will see great turnover after this season. There are also currently zero running backs in the Gators’ 2020 class, despite the impending departure of starter and senior Lamical Perine.
Still, as of now, the class is one spot ahead of Mullen’s first full cycle at the helm at Florida and the upcoming Orange Bowl against Virginia in the recruiting hotbed that is South Florida could be a major selling point for current and future targets.
Follow Kyle on Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at Kwood@alligator.org
