Florida Football target Vernell Brown III is now a five-star prospect

If you have taken a peek at team rankings for the recruiting class of 2025, they don't paint a pretty picture for Florida Football. The Gators are dead last in the SEC with just seven commits as the calendar is about to turn to July.

But Florida is in position to land a number of top prospects and one of their main targets just received a massive upgrade to his profile.

Florida Football: Star Gazing

We have profiled Vernell Brown III a handful of times on our site this year. The son of Vernell Brown Jr., a standout cornerback for the Gators from 2001 through 2005, Brown III entered 2024 as a fringe top 300 prospect. As of February of this year, Brown III was ranked 295th in the 247 Composite rankings.

Now, normally, we comment on how silly it is for players to have a big change to their ranking during the offseason when no real football is being played. Will Griffin, for example, was dropped almost 50 spots by Rivals shortly after he committed with the Gators. But we also did note back in February how criminally low Brown III felt based on his film, noting how opponents had zero chance of tackling him once he got into space.

The recruiting industry seems to have caught on to Brown III as he has shot up to 39th in the 247 Composite and 32nd in the On3 Industry Ranking. That latter distinction makes him a five-star prospect based on industry rankings.

Florida seems to be in good shape to land the Orlando native. On3 has five projections for Brown III to become a Gator, including from national analyst Steve Wiltfong. 247 has also logged crystal ball projections in the last month from Zach Blostein and Blake Alderman.

If Brown III does indeed pick Florida it could be the shot in the arm the class of 2025 needs to start to shoot up the team rankings board.