Coach Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators got a break Wednesday. They’re preparing for a Dec. 29 clash with Michigan in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl and will depart for Atlanta on Sunday, but the program stopped for one day to take a peek into its future.
Twenty high school football players signed National Letters of Intent to attend Florida as part of early signing.
UF signed 12 four-star recruits and eight three-star players according to 247Sports’ rankings, and its day concluded with a triad of four-star athletes from Lakeland High School — guard Deyavie Hammond, defensive end Lloyd Summerall and tight end Keon Zipperer — all putting on blue and orange hats.
The Lakeland, Florida, trio cited a family atmosphere in Gainesville that made the program stand out, and this culture has been important to Mullen and his wife, Megan, to develop.
“She’s around, not just in recruiting, she’s around the players, she’s around all the time,” he said. “We treat them like our own son means we’re going to have really high expectations… It’s not all just lovey dovey.”
Hammond was one of Florida’s biggest signings of the day, as starting offensive guards Tyler Jordan and Fred Johnson will play their last games in Atlanta. The 6-foot-3, 353-pound Hammond is rated as the country’s No. 12 guard and the state of Florida’s No. 23-overall player according to 247Sports.
While Hammond won’t report to spring practice as an early enrollee, five of the seven signees to the UF offensive line will, and Mullen emphasized that they’ll be critical to the 2019 campaign.
“For us, if you look at where we’re at, we’re going to need a couple of these guys on the field playing next year for us,” he said.
Tackles William Harrod and Michael Tarquin, who both ranked in the top 30 nationally at their position, will play significant roles in Florida’s replenishment of the offensive trenches with the departure of Martez Ivey and Jawaan Taylor for the NFL Draft.
Also enrolling in the spring is four-star dual-threat quarterback Jalon Jones.
The Richmond, Virginia, native has a tremendous work ethic, according to Mullen, as well as the athletic ability to extend and make plays on his own.
Four-star running back Nay’Quan Wright from Miami Carol City High School is another big skill-position add. He stands at just 5-foot-8 and 188 pounds, but the nation’s 15th-ranked running back has the low center of gravity to burst through arm tackles in addition to the speed and quickness to be dangerous in the open field.
“One of the great things I love about him is that he came up to camp and he wanted to play wide receiver and do one-on-ones,” Mullen said. “You see the competitive edge first off, but also the skill he has to catch the ball coming out of the backfield.”
Two of UF’s more understated additions are wide receiver Ja’markis Weston and safety/wide receiver Trent Whittemore. Both are Florida natives — Weston from Clewiston, Florida, and Whittemore a product of Gainesville’s Buchholz High — and both were committed to Florida before Mullen was hired as head coach. Mullen thought both had huge desires to be Gators.
“There’s something about that, when you have that extra pride in there and you know what it means to be a Gator,” he said. “They end up having a little bit of leadership in them because of what it means to put on that uniform and that helmet.”
Follow Mark Stine on Twitter @mstinejr or contact him at mstine@alligator.org.
Gators coach Dan Mullen was pleased with the success of the Early Signing Day but said the program still has work to do.
