TJ Searcy, 4-star defensive lineman, commits to Florida

The Florida Gators and Billy Napier picked up some good news on the 4th of July when 4-star defensive lineman TJ Searcy announced on Twitter his commitment to the Gators.

Searcy chose the Gators over Tennessee, Clemson and South Carolina. He was also Crystal Balled back in March to Florida State, but he never took an official visit to Tallahassee.

TJ Searcy, class of 2023

Searcy just finished up his junior season at Upson-Lee High in Thomaston, GA. He is listed at 6-5, 250 pounds and has a listed wingspan of 83 inches.

According to Max Preps Searcy played in nine games this past season and recorded 50 total tackles. That is down from his sophomore campaign when he also played in nine games and had 61 tackles, 9.5 of which were for a loss.

Searcy is currently ranked 153rd among all prospects in the class of 2023 and 20th in the nation among defensive linemen.

Searcy also participated in track and field during the spring, where he had an impressive mark in the shot put of 47 feet 9 inches.

State of recruiting

The Gators also picked up a commitment last week from fellow top 200 lineman Isaiah Nixon out of Lakewood High in St. Petersburg. Florida now has nine commits for the class of 2023, six of which are four stars.

As it stands Florida is ranked 38th in the nation for their 2023 recruiting class, though the Searcy commitment did bump them up from 44th.

Florida is still in the running for multiple top 200 recruits on the defensive side, including 77th ranked Derrick LeBlanc and 97th ranked Josh Walker.

Florida was hoping to get a second 4-star recruit to commit on Monday. 247 Sports has wide receiver Daquayvious Sorey favored to commit to the Gators. Sorey was originally going to make his announcement on Monday, but announced on Twitter over the weekend he was pushing his commitment date back.

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