Florida football recruiting: Gators trying to pry Joshisa Trader from Miami
By Will Thomas
Florida football recruiting has been on a roll throughout the 2024 cycle and has won some big-time recruiting battles for high-value players.
Most recently they beat out Clemson for Fletcher Westphal, which is no easy thing to pull off, but Billy Napier was able to do it.
He has the chance to do it again for a 5-star wide receiver out of South Florida, that Miami currently leads for.
Johsisa Trader out of Miami is one of the best players in Florida, and the Gators will need to beat out the Canes if they want to land him.
Florida football recruiting: Head to head for a top-50 player
Trader’s talent is no secret. On3’s Industry Ranking has him as the 34th-best player in the country, the 9th-best wideout in the class, and the 5th-best player coming out of Florida.
We wrote about him on our site a few months ago as well, talking about how Trader is an elite pass catcher and can get to any ball thrown in his direction.
His combination of pass-catching and route running is what makes him such an elite wide receiver in this cycle, and why Billy Napier and the Gators need to go after him.
Trader has made three trips to The Swamp for unofficial visits compared to five he’s made to Coral Gables.
What’s interesting about his recruitment is that he’s made no official visits yet according to On3. Generally, we see players take their OVs the summer before they’re signing day, but Joshisa hasn’t.
An advantage that the Gators have over Miami is the caliber of players that they’re bringing in versus what Miami has.
The Canes have the 22nd-ranked class in the country, and their QB is ranked outside the top 1000 in the country.
The Gators sit third in the country with DJ Lagway on board. Ballers want to play with ballers.
Will it be hard to take Trader away from his hometown Canes? Yes. But I’m not sure there’s a team more equipped to do it than the Gators.