In a delightful turn of events for Gators fans, the University of Florida has emerged as the new favorite to land four-star safety [autotag]Jordan Pride[/autotag], who backed off his commitment to Florida State University Wednesday night.
Swamp247 recruiting expert and Florida insider Blake Alderman submitted a crystal prediction in favor of the Gators for Pride Thursday morning and was quickly followed by two more from ‘Noles insiders. All three predictions came in with a confidence grade of six out of 10.
Florida’s position coaches have made the difference for Pride, according to Alderman. Pride says he knows the assistant coaches in Gainesville much better than he does the ones in Tallahassee, and that’s even after the departure of former defensive coordinator/safeties coach Patrick Toney.
Pride got to meet UF’s new defensive coordinator, Austin Armstrong, during his most recent trip to the Swamp, and he’s getting closer with Corey Raymond, who is coaching all defensive backs this season. He’ll be on campus for the spring game, and Alderman says it’s worth putting Pride on “commitment watch” at this point.
Adding Pride to the class of 2024 would be huge for the Gators, who already have a trio of top 50 recruits under commitment. Pride is ranked No. 88 overall on the 247Sports composite and is No. 6 among safeties in the class. He’d abe a strong addition to a secondary class that has just one player under commitment, three-star Berrien (Nashville, Georgia) safety [autotag]Josiah Davis[/autotag].
On3’s recruiting prediction machine agrees with 247sports, giving the Gators 91.5% odds to land Pride.
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