Florida football: Gators make top five for 4-star in-state prospect

Florida football and Billy Napier are working hard to build the foundation for their 2024 recruiting class. They’ve already landed DJ Lagway and Chauncey Bowens, and are trying to build on that momentum.

Yesterday, 4-star safety Jarvis Boatwright named his top five schools, and the Gators made the cut. The other schools on his list were FSU, Tennessee, UCF, and South Carolina.

Jarvis is out of Clearwater, Florida, and is well respected as a prospect. 247 Sports has him ranked as the 28th-best safety in the class of 2024, and in the top 50 recruits in the state of Florida.

While Boatwright hasn’t yet visited UF as a recruit, he did call Florida his “dream school” when he announced his offer. We’ve seen this story have a sour ending before, but it’s still worth noting.

Boatwright is the kind of safety that will take your head off if you let him hit you one too many times. He lines up 10-12 yards away from the line of scrimmage a lot but crashed toward the line like a bullet when he reads run.

He has room to put on some mass, at 6’1”-170, but you would think he’s bigger than that when he hits you.

He has a knack for knocking the ball out of a ball carrier’s hands and has great recovery speed if a back gets to the second level. He has a great understanding of how to take an angle and doesn’t get beat in footraces.

The Gator’s defense has been missing its swagger and confidence in the past few years. Bad coaching, bad players, all of it has had its impact. A guy like Boatwright can come in and change that.

If the rest of the team sees a young guy popping pads and playing with no fear, it’ll inspire all of them to do the same.

Jarvis is exactly the kind of guy that Napier should be going after on the trail at this point. His signature would be big for the team, and for momentum in the 2024 cycle.

Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.