During basketball season, Jon Sumrall spent a lot of time courtside watching Todd Golden do his thing. Perhaps inspired by Golden, Sumrall has taken the expression “Gator Boys stay hot” and applied it to the recruiting trail.
In his first full recruiting class with Florida, and frankly his first full recruiting class as a Power Four head coach, Sumrall has continued to light up the trail and just beat out Clemson for another prized prospect as the Gators continue to solidify their class of 2027.
Florida lands Andrew Beard and beats out Clemson
RB Andrew Beard has verbally committed to Florida. The finalists for Beard were Clemson, Georgia, and Tennessee, though the latter two weren’t really in the picture.
The past couple of weeks had been a back-and-forth see-saw as predictions flew in for both Florida and for Clemson, but over the past couple of days, all the insiders seemed in alignment that Beard was coming to Gainesville as Clemson set its sights elsewhere for a running back.
Listed at 5’9 and 195 pounds, Beard is a consensus four-star out of Bogart, GA, which is just outside of Athens. Beard’s uncle is former Georgia running back and NFL Pro Bowler Garrison Hearst, while Clemson employed its former great CJ Spiller, who is Clemson’s running back coach, as the main recruiter of Beard.
We profiled Beard last week, and we noted that while he is not the fastest running back out there, his ability to maneuver in space makes him effective:
“On film, Beard isn’t necessarily a speedster, but he is shifty enough in the hole to somehow always emerge and get upfield. He is a patient runner who doesn’t panic. When he reaches college, he will probably need to find his role as either a “power” back or a “speed” back, as right now he is somewhat caught in between, but there is a reason why he has 46 total touchdowns over the past two seasons and averaged over 8.0 yards per carry in 2025.”
Beard now gives Sumrall and the Gators 14 commits for its class of 2027. He is the 8th commit ranked in the top 200 of the 247 Composite.
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