Florida Football Recruiting: Jamonta Waller is a 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star

When peeking at prospects for Florida football, the four main national recruiting services tend to agree with who is a stud and who is mid. There might be some star rating differences, but the overall aggregate rating is usually within a standard deviation.

As we wrote about last month, Jamonta Waller is a five-star prospect that will be taking an official visit to Florida football in June.

He’s also a four-star prospect.

And according to one service, he’s also a three-star prospect.

Florida Football: Star search

Jamonta is an OLB out of Mississippi. His Hudl profile lists him at 6’2″ and 220 pounds. 247 Sports and ESPN both have him listed as a five-star prospect and the best player out of Mississippi.

Rivals.com is not nearly as sold on Jamonta. He’s still highly rated, but they have him as a four-star prospect that barely squeezes into the top 200 prospects nationally.

Then there is the On3 rating, which lists Jamonta as a three-star prospect and only the 40th-best linebacker nationally.

So why is there such a disconnect surrounding him? On film, he is a nightmare for opposing linemen to try and block. His main calling card is as a speed rusher around the edge, but he does have the ability to shed blocks and cut inside to disrupt plays.

His overall disengagement moves are limited, but he utilizes quick stutter steps to set linemen up the wrong way before blowing by them. When locked up, he is lightning quick at being able to take a step back to break away before continuing his pursuit.

For our money here at Hail Florida Hail, we see Waller closer to a four-star prospect. His size is a concern that makes it hard to trust him as a can’t miss five-star. With normal weight gain, Waller would match the size of Scooby Williams, the smallest EDGE player listed on Florida’s roster right now.

Once in college, is he going to have the strength and power to disengage when he’s going to be locked up by 340-pound left tackles as opposed to the 250-pound guys he’s abusing right now?

But On3’s rating of a three-star feels so far removed from reality it makes one wonder if they forgot about him. His film is far too productive and far too fast to have him as low as they do. He had 106 tackles, 24 tackles for a loss, and 11.5 sacks during his junior campaign. It would help if On3 had his correct height. They have it listed at 6’0.5″.

Waller will be on campus for his official visit on June 16t. He’s also taking visits to Georgia, Penn State, and Auburn.