Florida just stole FSU’s next great pitcher — and he’s a Kurland

Despite an up-and-down 2025 campaign for the Florida Gators, they were able to flip left-handed pitcher Rivers Kurland from FSU to Gainesville for the class of 2025. If that last name sounds familiar, it's because he is the younger brother of current Gator Cade Kurland, who missed the back half of 2025 due to injury.

Rivers Kurland is from Tampa and attended Berkeley Prep. In 14 appearances this past season, he had an ERA of 0.42 with a record of 7-3. In total, he made 61 appearances for Berkeley Prep and had a career ERA of 1.35.

Florida gets Rivers Kurland to flip away from FSU

Kurland continues a trend we have seen Kevin O'Sullivan go after this offseason in the transfer portal, and that's pitchers who can throw strikes and not walk guys. This past season, Kurland struck out 118 guys while only walking 25. As we saw this past season with Aidan King, if you can come in and throw strikes, it doesn't matter if you are a freshman or a senior. O'Sullivan is going to put guys on the mound who don't walk people.

The other part that makes his flip interesting is that it was a bit of a silent flip, and he apparently signed with Florida several days before the actual announcement of his flip was made.

As it stands, Florida has 12 high school commits for the class of 2025. That has them 14th in the Perfect Game team rankings, but they do have a higher per-player average than some teams ahead of them, including Arkansas, Miami, and Oklahoma State.

FSU, where Kurland flipped away from, is just 31st in those rankings.

Florida has also picked up six commits out of the transfer portal, with a heavy emphasis on pitchers who can throw strikes.

The Gators are heading into the offseason after sinking to 1-11 in SEC play before rallying to win their last six series in the SEC. Many felt Florida had a favorable pathway to make it to the College World Series, but they lost twice to East Carolina in the NCAA Tournament.