Florida football recruiting: In-state OL target schedules official visit

Florida football recruiting is really heating up, and Gainesville is becoming a hot spot for recruits across the country.

After visiting campus twice last week, an in-state offensive line target has scheduled an official visit to the Gators over the summer.

We’re talking about Jake Guarnera, a three-star offensive tackle out of Ponte Verda Beach, Florida. His visit will take place June 23rd of this year.

Now before you click off and just go read about the four and five-stars, Guarnera doesn’t play like a measly three-star recruit that has his rating just because he’s big.

He’s a violent lineman and doesn’t seem to take any play off. His film is littered with plays of him just decapitating defenders and driving them into the ground.

Jake already has pretty good size at 6’4”-290, but he also moves very well. He pulls effectively on run plays and is able to find the linebacker or edge rusher he’s assigned to and clear them out.

One thing I liked a lot about Jake while watching his film was his hands. He’s very active with them and doesn’t just stand in the way of a pass rusher. He’s able to use his hands to gain leverage on the defender and drive them into the ground.

247 Sports Composite Rankings currently have Jake ranked as the 31st-best IOL prospect in the class of 2024 and the 79th-best player out of Florida, but I expect his ranking to go up as his recruitment continues.

As the caption of that tweet implies, the Gators are competing with Michigan for Jake’s play, along with a few other Big Ten schools. Jake’s father played for Rutgers, so he has some ties in the conference.

Guarnera is an important recruit for Napier and the Gators as he’ll help to build up OL depth, and it will help prove that Napier is done letting other schools poach players out of Florida.

If the Gators want a prospect in the Sunshine State, they want to show that they can get them.

Keep up with Florida football recruiting at Hail Florida Hail.