Florida’s QB Flip Commitment Jaden Rashada Likely To Cause Seismic Shift In Its Recruiting

" I believe Florida was headed to a Top 10 recruiting class in the rankings mentioned above. But what was thought to be out of reach just a week or two ago, a Top 5 class, may be something that is very reachable."

By BOB REDMAN

Gator Collective

This thing was already headed in the right direction. But when the Florida Gators got a huge flip from previous Miami committed quarterback Jaden Rashada in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, things really took a turn for the better.

That shake felt around the recruiting world could be felt immediately when Florida and Miami swapped places (No. 8 and No. 9) in the team composite recruiting rankings on both the major services, On3 and 247Sports. But the tremors that I believe will likely result from landing Rashada are going to change the shape and direction of this 2023 recruiting class.

Make no mistake. I believe Florida was headed to a Top 10 recruiting class in the rankings mentioned above. But what was thought to be out of reach just a week or two ago, a Top 5 class, may be something that is very reachable. Not only that, Florida is now poised to poach some more top talent from the Miami class and maybe one or two that many thought was headed there.

To say that the recruiting battles between the two have been contentious is an understatement. The No. 17 player overall and a five-star prospect according to 247Sports was the main target in a huge recruiting battle back in late June. He started out favoring Miami and then Florida got involved with Rashada based on some longtime relationships with the family and head coach Billy Napier along with a couple of others on staff.

Rashada visited Gainesville twice in a two-week period including an official visit. A week later he took an official visit to Miami and committed to them shortly after the visit. It wasn’t pretty in Gainesville shortly after that in terms of recruiting talk around the water cooler.

In another storyline between the two programs and this recruiting cycle, five-star offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa from the IMG Academy in Bradenton (FL) also visited the Gators around the same time. Another real need position for Florida, Mauigoa was also pretty close with Rashada.

Although he never seemed as close to the Florida staff as Rashada, he visited Gainesville in March and April and then took an official visit to Gainesville on June 16. Three weeks later and a week after Rashada did so, Mauigoa committed to Miami.

And yet a third highly rated prospect, four-star linebacker Malik Bryant of Orlando (FL) Jones, was a Gator lean for a long time. He made at least three unofficial visits to Gainesville and took an official visit to Florida on June 10.

Bryant seemed to visit a ton of places but Florida seemed the most likely. He did visit Miami unofficially twice and then officially on June 24, the same day Rashada committed to the Hurricanes. A little more than a month later and on July 27, Bryant surprisingly pulled the trigger for Miami.

The Gators won some battles, too , between the two programs. Prominent names in the recruiting class like receivers Aiden Mizell and Andy Jean (previously committed to Miami), defensive linemen Kelby Collins, Kamran James, Isaiah Nixon, and Gavin Hill, and defensive backs Dijon Johnson, Ja'keem Jackson, Sharif Denson, and Bryce Thornton are all highly regarded prospects but outside of Jean there wasn’t that much of a head-to-head battle with any of them and as it turns out, the three Miami commits were all higher-rated making it hard to swallow for Gator fans that follow recruiting. Until now.

Rashada changes that. He’s a Top 60 consensus player and that makes him the highest-rated prospect in the Gators class in both recruiting services to this point. The real story moving forward however will likely be what Rashada will do in terms of helping Florida add to the class.

That is hard to measure at this point, but at a quick glance, Rashada has a chance to be a magnet to some of the top talent in the entire country. I think it should likely be expected.

Who are we talking about?

Well of course we can start with the two that were already mentioned in offensive tackle Mauigoa and linebacker Bryant. Two positions where the Gators need the help and two prospects that have relationships with the Golden State quarterback.

The offensive line is a position where quarterbacks should be able to help recruit and staying with the position Florida is expecting an official visit from five-star offensive tackle Samson Okunlola from Brocton (MA) Thayer Academy who has been favored to follow Rashada to Miami. While Mauigoa is considered the top tackle in the country, the uncommitted Okunlola is considered the third-ranked prospect at the position.

Miami also has commitments from three-star offensive tackles Tommy Kinsler of Ocala (FL) Trinity Catholic and Frankie Tinilau from Miami. Kinsler lives just 40 miles from Gainesville and was a one-time commitment for the Gators. Kinsler has been on the Florida campus a lot and earned his offer at camp in Gainesville. Tinilau visited a few weeks ago for a game and the staff likes his game.

One last name to talk about now is five-star receiver Jurrion Dickey from Palo Alto (CA) Menlo-Atherton. The Oregon commitment is a consensus Top 15 player nationally and played off-season 7-on-7 ball with Rashada. They will be looking to set up a visit with Dickey moving forward. If the Gators could secure his services he would be the highest-rated receiver to sign since Percy Harvin in 2006.

This won’t be the full list of prospects that Rashada is connected to. These are the highest-rated or the guys at need positions that we know of right now. The names listed above could turn a No. 8 class into a Top 5 class easily. There is still a good bit of work ahead to make that happen, but this wasn’t even a thought not too long ago.

Bob Redman has worked covering Florida Gators football, basketball, and baseball for various publishers since the summer of 2004. Before then he was a part of the football staffs of Steve Spurrier and Ron Zook for a 10-year period. He's the father of three children and a loving wife that allowed the couple to be married in the Touchdown Terrace at Ben Hill Griffin back in 1996.