Florida football recruiting: Gators making progress on elite pass rusher from MD

Florida football recruiting has hosted back-to-back massive recruiting weekends with some elite talent, and high-level targets, making trips to Gainesville.

And yes, we’ve only gotten one commitment so far from these visits, but that doesn’t mean that no progress is being made.

In fact, the Gators have gone from being just an afterthought to being “very, very high” on the list for an elite pass rusher out of Maryland.

Jaylen Harvey, who visited campus last weekend, has high praise for the Gators after his visit, and Florida is now in the mix.

Florida football recruiting: Gators still have some ground to make up

Penn State is the heavy favorite to land Harvey at this point, with his home-state Terrapins in second and USC right above the Gators according to On3’s RPM. But Jaylen says that the Gators are higher up than that.

I’ll just cut to the chase here: Harvey is an outstanding pass rusher that Billy Napier and Florida need to put the full-court press on.

He has a lightning-quick first step and remarkable instincts, which allow him to shoot into the backfield and blow up a play before it even begins.

His 6’2”-250 frame allows him to both be quick and physical, laying the boom on ball carriers when he gets to them.

Harvey has his commitment date set for July 4th. The only issue for the Gators is that Harvey will visit USC, Miami, and Maryland in consecutive weeks before that commitment, likely not making a return to trip to Gainesville before he picks up a hat.

Now, these guys are pretty good at eliminating recency bias on visits when it comes to making their college decisions, but the Gators are still a bit behind the eight-ball.

Hopefully, Napier and Austin Armstrong keep the pressure on and stay in the back of Harvey’s mind, because he would be a huge add to the 2024 class.