When it was reported that Florida was going after defensive back Jontez Williams out of the transfer portal, there was reason for optimism that the current Gator staff was actually taking the portal seriously. Williams is considered one of the top cornerbacks in the transfer portal, and he is from Starke, less than an hour from Gainesville.
But then news came out on Sunday that Williams is committing to Southern California, and the planned visit with the Gators isn’t happening. Florida fans who watched this sequence play out in the Billy Napier Era are looking around going “Ah ****, here we go again.”
Jontez Williams commits to Southern Cal
As is the case with any individual player, it’s never good to panic over missing out on a single player. Who knows what Southern Cal had to offer or what sold Williams on heading even further west rather than return home.
But it has a familiar feeling to the transfer portal woes that plagued the previous coaching staff, and it has nothing to do with the staff itself. Florida’s administration has this way of posturing itself as one of the big dogs in the NIL market and acting like it is willing to spend what anyone else is spending.
But then, when the price tag comes up to pay the litteral top rated player in the portal, it’s always these games of “Well, it just doesn’t make sense to pay someone that much.”
And it’s not to say that there wouldn’t have been a real risk with going after Williams. He is coming off an ACL injury, and there is zero guarantee he is going to be the same player in 2026 that we saw in 2024 and 2025.
We’ll wait until the final transfer portal haul is done to make our final verdict. It’s the optics, though, of a top rated played living 45 minutes down the road, not even making it to campus for a visit to even hear what Florida has to offer, that creates the deja vu feeling.