Florida football recruiting: Will the Gators go after Jaylen Heyward?

Florida football recruiting had a pretty good day yesterday. The biggest news is that they flipped 4-star WR Tawaski Abrams from FSU. 

But they also got to see a former priority target de-commit from Georgia and come back into play for the Gators.

4-star safety Jaylen Heyward out of Rockledge, Florida, dropped the Bulldogs last night, and the Gators were one of his top-six schools at the time he made his decision.

Will the Gators resume their pursuit of Heyward, or will they be all set with the safeties they already have?

Florida football recruiting: Top-5 team up

Heyward is ranked as a top-five safety in the 2024 class according to On3’s Industry Rankings. If he does end up signing with the Gators, he’ll join Xavier Filsaime who’s ranked as the 2nd-best safety in 2024 to create an elite safety haul.

Jaylen is also the 96th-best player in the country, and the 13th-best player coming out of Florida. He’s ranked as highly as the 2nd-best safety in the country on ESPN.

Jaylen is a two-way player for Rockledge and is pretty darn good at both.

At safety, he racked up 44 tackles, eight pass breakups, three forced fumbles, and two interceptions, both of which he brought back to the house.

Offensively, he ran the ball 42 times for 350 yards and two touchdowns, as well as catching two passes for 62 yards.

Heyward has solid speed on the backend, with a verified 4.65 40-yard dash, 10.68 100m, and 22.07 200m.

So, will the Gators go after him?

If you ask me, the Gators will definitely give him a call. He’s too talented to let go without trying your luck.

But even if Billy Napier can’t close out his recruitment, the Gators will be plenty happy with Filsaime and Josiah Davis.

But why just have a good safety class, when you can have a great safety class?