Florida Football: Deion Sanders to USF would have impacts to Gators

Rumors continue to swirl about where Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders is going to coach next season. The two leading candidates appear to be Colorado and USF (the one in Tampa, not the one Gators basketball coach Todd Golden came from). On the surface, anything USF does would have minimal impact on Florida football.

Prime Time heading to Tampa doesn’t mean the Bulls are going to beat the Gators (though if Jeff Scott almost did it…), but there are recruiting impacts that could affect Florida.

Florida Football: Napier vs Sanders in recruiting

One of the real areas of focus for Billy Napier has been recruiting players from the state of Florida. While he has had a couple of notable whiffs, he has put together a solid class as a whole. He’s had to compete against Miami and John Ruiz’s attempts to buy all the players and FSU and their recruiting camps that devolve into water balloon fights.

Players are slowly jumping ship from Miami as they see through the smoke and mirrors and Florida football still has a solid recruiting edge over FSU.

If Sanders does come to USF it doesn’t mean that the Bulls will have a better class than the Gators, but it will create one more layer for Napier to compete against.

Despite being at FBS level Jackson State, Sanders put together the 75th-ranked class of 2022, ahead of teams like Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina, App State, and Liberty. His 2022 class was only two spots behind that of USF.

Give Sanders upgraded facilities, the new stadium that USF is building, the increased prestige of conference, and the potential for USF to snipe recruits from Florida football is very real. And given the number of players Sanders took from the transfer portal, Sanders at USF could become a very appealing option for players that want to stay in the state but aren’t 100% happy in Gainesville.

He most notably convinced top-ranked recruit Travis Hunter to pick Jackson State over FSU. If Sanders can do that, who is to say he couldn’t convince someone like Gator commit Eugene Wilson to stay home in Tampa?

Sanders would be just enough of a thorn in the side of Napier with recruiting that Florida football fans should be hopeful that Prime Time takes his talents to Colorado.