The college football recruiting hot stove continues to roar after the early signing period passed last month.
However, Florida faces a bit of an uphill battle, having traded their old and broken Dan Mullen in for a shiny new Billy Napier looking to right the ship that had steered way off course — especially in the recruiting realm. Given the activity that we have seen from the new head coach and his partially assembled staff, the new regime in Gainesville seems perfectly up to the task.
With the regular signing period coming up starting on Feb. 2, college football programs have been burning the midnight oil over the next brood of prep prospects, but the most diligent of those have also been looking ahead to 2023.
One of the latest big names to mention the Gators in his favored schools is On3 four-star offensive lineman Jamaal Jarrett out of Greensboro, North Carolina, a 2023 recruit who included Florida among his 11 most preferred destinations. The other schools that made the list are Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, NC State, North Carolina, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Washington; UNC is the projected favorite so far.
The 6-foot-5-inch, 335-pound lineman earned a four-star rating from On3 but only three stars from 247Sports and Rivals. The former also has him listed as a defensive lineman, in contrast to the other two who have him on the offensive side of the ball due to the fact that he saw playing time at offensive tackle and guard as well as defensive tackle during his sophomore campaign.
There is still a lot of time between now and when the 2023 class officially sets ink to paper, and Florida appears to be a longshot, but seeing Napier and company getting an early start on the next cycle has to be encouraging for all Gators fans.
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