Florida football recruiting: Ty Haywood sits on top of Gators’ OL board
By Will Thomas
![Florida Gators offensive coordinator Rob Sale smiles while walking on the field during Gator Walk before the game during the Florida Gators Orange and Blue Spring Game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Thursday, April 13, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Orange Blue Spring Game](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fc4d584dddaf169dda2597ba0230a60389b422cf9a198f6cf4c00c5d159af15ff.jpg "Florida Gators offensive coordinator Rob Sale smiles while walking on the field during Gator Walk before the game during the Florida Gators Orange and Blue Spring Game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Thursday, April 13, 2023. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]Ncaa Football Florida Gators Orange Blue Spring Game")
Florida football recruiting has been hammering on its new Texas pipeline they created in the 2024 class.
After landing guys like DJ Lagway and Xavier Filsaime in ’24, they’re going after some of the best players in Texas in the 2025 cycle as well.
One of those guys is Ty Haywood, an OT out of Denton, Texas. The Gators extended an offer to him a few days ago and he’s now planning a fall trip to The Swamp.
Haywood will be at the top of the Gators’ OL board throughout his recruitment.
Florida football recruiting: Relentless power
Haywood’s tape is a few minutes of him just dominating the guys across from him. Over and over and over again.
He’s crazy powerful at left tackle and uses his 270-pound frame to drive defenders back until the whistle blows.
At 6’5”-270, he isn’t one of those mammoth guys that just sits in place and acts as an immovable object. He’s very mobile and quick enough to lunge at and engage with blockers a yard or two away from him and uses that agility to help drive them back.
On3’s Industry Ranking has Haywood as the 34th-best player in the country, the sixth-best offensive tackle in 2025, and the sixth-best player coming out of Texas.
Local schools currently have the lead for Ty early on in his recruitment, which is exactly how these tend to go. Oklahoma is the favorite with a 53.2% chance to land him, followed by Texas Tech at 24.4% and SMU at 1.9%.
The Gators are nowhere to be found mainly because Ty hasn’t made a trip to Gainesville yet, which will change this fall.
As Billy Napier and his staff keep talking to him, and the team’s best recruiter DJ Lagway gets in his ear, the Gators will become a bigger and bigger factor in Haywood’s recruitment.
We’ve all learned over the past year or so to never count Napier’s Gators out of any recruitment, and I won’t start doing it now.
Related Story. Will Norman is continuing to grow. light