Florida landing Maxwell Hiller could cause another top prospect to choose Miami

The Florida Gators appear to be on the verge of a recruiting heater after Wednesday's commitment of 5-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller and the expected commitment of four-star in-state quarterback Davin Davidson. However, it appears that Hiller's pledge might've forced another offensive line target, four-star guard Sean Tatum, to choose Miami over Florida in what had been a tight race. Two writers from 247Sports — Tyler Harden from the Florida site and Gaby Urrutia from the Miami site — both logged in crystal balls for the Hurricanes to land Tatum.

Tatum has had the Gators and Hurricanes in his final group along with Tennessee and Auburn, but over the past few weeks it was clear this was an in-state battle. The top in-state interior lineman was in Gainesville last week for a spring visit.

4-star OL target Sean Tatum is expected to commit to Miami

Things could change in the next 24 hours. Heck with recruiting, things can change in the next 24 minutes. But Tatum's decision could be a direct result of Hiller, the top interior offensive lineman in the country, committing to Florida on Wednesday. There's no question that the Gators were recruiting Tatum with purpose, but after landing Hiller, landing the Fort Pierce native became more of a luxury and less of a need.

Tatum is a very good prospect and I suspect he'll be a solid college offensive lineman, but if a choice between the two players had to be made, Hiller is a recruiting game changer and puts Sumrall on the map as a guy that is going to be in the picture for elite players. 

This is the way recruiting often goes. Teams go after multiple players at a single position, and they have them on a board where they are ranked in terms of: "If you had to pick between 'Player A or Player B', which would you choose? 

Tatum could end up still committing to the Gators and Sumrall would gladly take that decision because the more great players you have on the roster, the better chance of winning comes from it. But sometimes a team simply gets caught up in numbers and has to go with the clearest opportunity. This might be one of those cases.