Is Ronald Powell headed east to Florida?

Five-star defensive end recruit Ronald Powell (Moreno Valley, CA) is reportedly ready to make his commitment official. If he is feeling the same as he did on Dec. 18, then the Florida Gators remain “most definitely at the top” of his list, and all reports coming out of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl practice sessions this week indicate that Powell will be wearing Orange and Blue next season.

Visited by Gators head coach Urban Meyer in California three weeks ago, Powell raved about the meeting. “It hasn’t been anything negative from them for one, anything at all,” Powell told Rivals at the time. “Coach Meyer is a hell-of-a coach. The college is in a college town. The players, the players definitely make you feel at home. I mean just all around, it’s a great school, a great place to be.”

Read the remainder of this story after the jump…

Powell was set to announce his commitment later that week but was forced to delay his decision because the ESPNU Recruiting Insider show could not get him on air in time for their broadcast. Ten days later, Powell saw Meyer resign from the University of Florida only to flip-flop into taking a leave of absence instead. He concluded that postponing his announcement would be best as he waited to hear from Meyer directly before deciding where he would spend the next four years of his life.

“Yeah, it scared the [heck] out of me,” Powell told Gerard Martinez of Rivals this week. “I had SC and Florida, but I felt like Florida was leading. That was like a bomb dropped. After that, it’s been hard.” Then he spoke with Meyer. “His message to me is basically what any coach’s message would have been if he felt like he was going to lose recruits. But he’s a real guy, and I feel like I can trust him. Hopefully he’s telling the truth and I get things rolling on SC/Florida. Hopefully I can make a decision between the two coaches – Pete Carroll and Urban Meyer. Coach Meyer is a real guy, and his message was, ‘I’ve been a little sick and a little stressed out. Let me turn the switch off for a little bit, so I can recharge my battery and come back.’”

“There was a point in time where [Meyer’s announcement] was a letdown,” Powell said separately to Adam Gorney of Rivals. “I got a chance to talk to him and see where everything was at. It was more than Urban Meyer on why I decided to consider Florida. Just like USC, there’s more to USC than just Pete Carroll. I’m deciding on those two universities. [Meyer] told me what he was telling everybody else, that he’s not going anywhere, he’s going to be a Gator. He said there are little health issues and a little stressing and other than that he’s going to be a Gator.”

UPDATE: As this was being published, so was another article on Powell by Greg Biggins of ESPN Insider. Biggins spoke with Rancho Verde High School head coach Pete Duffy who said that Powell is ready to go. “We just talked yesterday and I think he’s comfortable with the situation at Florida now,” Duffy said. “I know he had a chance to talk to some of the coaches and some of the other players going to Florida and I think he’s now comfortable and ready to get this whole thing behind him and out of the way.”

Though Army does not have him on its list of announcements for Saturday, Powell is expected to officially decide during the game. He has been considered a Florida lean (and possible silent commit) since he took his official visit in September, furthering those rumors by going back to campus twice on his own dime afterward. OGGOA will have full coverage of Gators-related commitments occurring during the game on Saturday.