Gators hosting blue-chip defensive lineman on first visit

The Florida Gators are doing some recruiting up north and will host the top recruit from the state of Connecticut over the weekend.

Avon Old Farms (Avon, Connecticut) defensive lineman [autotag]Benedict Umeh[/autotag] will be in Gainesville this weekend for a Saturday visit with the Florida Gators, according to Corey Bender of Gators Online.

Umeh hasn’t been to the Swamp before, so this visit will be a first for him. He’ll join teammate [autotag]Jack Hines[/autotag], who is also visiting over the weekend. Florida defensive line coach Sean Spencer offered Umeh in January, but the Gators haven’t really been a factor in the race until now.

Penn State currently leads the On3 recruiting prediction machine with 39.0% odds to land him. Duke (25.8%), Bowling Green (7.8%) and Stanford (6.5%) round out the top four, but the Florida visit could change things.

Umeh is 6 feet-5 inches tall and 260 pounds of mostly muscle. One describes him as a “genetic freak,” and he’s an excellent student, which helps with the admissions process at Florida.

He is a consensus four-star recruit that is ranked as high as No. 29 overall in the country by On3. 247Sports and Rivals are less bullish on him and have him at Nos. 134 and 139, respectively.

The On3 industry ranking, which uses a weighted average of the four major services, ranks Umeh at No. 52 nationally and No. 9 among defensive linemen in the class of 2024. He’s also the top recruit out of the state of Connecticut.

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