UCLA pledge flips to Florida as first commitment of Dan Mullen era

By Adam Silverstein
November 29, 2017
UCLA pledge flips to Florida as first commitment of Dan Mullen era
Football

Image Credit: ESPNI

Florida Gators head football coach Dan Mullen has hit the recruiting trail hard since taking over the program on Monday, but it is one of his newly-hired assistants who named his first commitment.

Three-star 2018 offensive lineman Chris Bleich (Plymouth, PA) announced Wednesday night on Twitter that he was leaving UCLA behind after committing to the Bruins in June and heading to play for Florida next season instead. New Gators co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach John Hevesy retweeted the message, and Mullen weighed in as well.

“After considering all my options, I have decided to close my recruitment and announce I am committing to the University of Florida. #GoGators,” Bleich wrote.

Rated as the 440th best player in the nation by the 247Sports Composite, Bleich (6-foot-6, 305 pounds) did not have an offer from Florida until Hevesy extended one this week. He was previously scheduled to visit Mississippi State for the first time before the end of the month, but those plans obviously changed after Mullen and Hevesy moved South. Bleich previously committed to Penn State in April 2016 only to decommit one year later before choosing to move on to UCLA. Five months later, he is the newest member of Florida’s 2018 class.

The Gators’ class has been shaken up a bit since the departure of former head coach Jim McElwain. Florida lost four-star wide receivers Jacob Copeland and Ja’Marr Chase — both among the top 70 players in the nation — in short order as its season fell apart and McElwain was cut loose by the program. As they were the second- and third-highest rated players in UF’s class, it fell a bit in the overall team rankings. Three-star defensive end Taylor Upshaw also rescinded his pledge, reducing the class from 18 commits to 15 prior to Bleich’s decision on Wednesday.

Let’s take a look at the class as it stands now, 11th in the nation up two spots from 13th.

CommitPos.Rating
Jacob Copeland (69)
WR
Emory Jones* (85)
QB
Richard Gouraige (81)
OT
Justin Watkins (89)
WR
Kyle Pitts* (161)
TE
Amari Burney* (177)
S
Trey Dean* (195)
DB
Dameon Pierce* (201)
RB
Andrew Chatfield (213)
DE
David Reese* (296)
LB
Iverson Clement*
RB
Malik Langham
DE
John Huggins*
S
Chris Bleich*
OL
Randy Russell*
S
Dante Lang^
TE
Evan McPherson*
K
Griffin McDowell
C
Noah Banks*
OL
JUCO

2 Comments

Leave a Reply to Joe Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux