Friday Night Notes: Florida Gators climbing, top '24 recruit makes his case, plus more
USA TODAY High School Sports‘ Friday Night Notes is a weekly high school football recruiting recap that looks at the latest news from around the country—from the Class of 2023 to ’24 and beyond.
Last week in the recruiting landscape, the biggest riser was Texas, which scored a commitment from top-two running back recruit Cedric Baxter Jr. This week, the biggest beneficiaries of the news cycle were the Florida Gators, who had a very strong run of recruiting.
Over the last several days, Florida’s defense has scored commitments from three of ESPN’s top 300 recruits.
The most recent addition to the pool is Woodward Academy (Ga.) linebacker Myles Graham, who is the son of former Florida and NFL running back Earnest Graham. Graham (6-foot-1, 212 pounds) is a four-star recruit who is composite-ranked No. 2 among linebackers and No. 52 overall in the nation.
Florida also got commitments from two highly ranked defensive tackles from the 2023 class: Kelby Collins from Gardendale (Ala.) and Will Norman from IMG Academy (Fla.). Collins posted 16 sacks last season and is their highest-ranked recruit among Seniors.
Together, these two recruits helped push the Gators up three spots from No. 13 to No. 10 in 247Sports’ composite team rankings.
Billy Napier might also be in a position to snap up another top 2024 recruit who just changed his mind about his college commitment…