Florida football recruiting: Gators offer top 10 RB in 2025 class

Florida football recruiting is continuously working to make an impression early on the 2025 class in their pursuit to be back on top of the recruiting world.

Their most recent move in the ’25 cycle was extending an offer to a top-ten running back out of Maryland.

The Gators offered Carlton Smith out of Baltimore yesterday, and are going up against some top schools for his services. Other schools with an offer out on Smith include Michigan, Tennessee, and Notre Dame.

247 Sports had Carlton ranked as the 122nd-best player in the 2025 class, the 8th-best running back, and the third-best player coming out of Maryland.

To be entirely honest, I’m not totally sure what position the Gators are going to recruit Carlton as. Yes, 247 has him ranked according to other RBs, but he’s listed as a linebacker on the site.

Plus, all of his Hudl tape is of him playing on defense. So for right now, I’ll evaluate him as a linebacker even though I wrote about his RB ranks.

As a linebacker, Smith shows great instincts and quickness. He’s elite at closing the distance between him and the ball carrier and isn’t scared to lay a hard hit.

He’s very good at weaving through traffic, navigating blockers, and getting to the ball to disrupt the play.

He’s already a very disciplined tackler as well, showing the ability to consistently wrap up and not let the ball carrier go.

Using both his speed and aggressiveness, he’s able to time the snap to shoot through the offensive line and leave a running back or QB wishing they had never gotten the ball.

Carlton is the type of aggressive, pin-you-ears-back player that Austin Armstrong wants in his defense.

Expect the Gators to make him a priority target as his recruitment continues.

Keep up with Florida football recruiting at Hail Florida Hail.