When the Florida Gators entered May, they seemed to be in a precarious position in recruiting. Florida had just one verbal commit at the time and was in need of some momentum.
The Gators have since moved up the recruiting rankings after a big month of June. The commit who helped jumpstart Florida, though, has backed off his pledge less than two months.
Jamir Perez de-commits from Florida
Jamir Perez wasn't the headliner for Florida's class, but he did fill a need and has potential. The three-star DL from Cleveland, OH is listed at 6'4" and 360 pounds.
However, even after he committed to the Gators on May 18 and claimed his recruitment was "shut down," it was clear that it would be a challenge to actually hang onto Perez and get him to stick in Gainesville.
Ohio State was immediately in the picture, and Perez took an official visit to the Buckeyes in June, which he scheduled just days after committing to Florida. It was the only other official visit he took besides Florida.
After his visit, it was pretty much accepted that Perez was going to flip, and yesterday he took to social media to make it official.
It's also likely that Florida didn't try very hard to retain Perez, and the irony is that his de-commitment raises Florida's average player ranking.
As it stands, the Gators have 15 verbal commits, two of which are still DLs, Kendall Guervil and JaReylan McCoy.
The Gators also appear to be in great shape to land four-star EDGE Kevin Ford, as insiders have started logging predictions he is going to land with the Gators.
Florida is currently 16th in the 247 Team Rankings, though their average player ranking is 11th, and if they can land Ford, it should move them up even more in both categories.