P Johnny Townsend: commit No. 30 | OL/TE Trevon Young: commit No. 29 | JUCO DT Jarran Reed: commit No. 28 | DT Jay-nard Bostwick: commit No. 27 | Muschamp discusses class; assistants evaluate signees | Video interviews with coaches | “Closing”, quarterback situation

Courtesy of the University of Florida‘s University Athletic Association:

EARLY ENROLLEES (8)

Alex Anzalone • Linebacker
6’3″ • 220 • Wyomissing, PA (Wyomissing Area)
PRIOR TO FLORIDA: Helped Wyomissing High to its first Class AA state championship in 2012, finishing 16-0, a school single-season record for wins…Selected to the 2013 Under Armour All-American Game…Finished his senior year with over 1,000 rushing yards and 30 touchdowns from the fullback position and registered more than 100 tackles…Earned a spot on the 247Sports Class of 2013 All-America team…Named senior Class AA Player of the Year as part of the 2012 Pennsylvania Sports Writers All-State Team…As a junior, was named first team all-state, all-region and all-county…In 2011, ran for over 900 yards and scored 13 touchdowns and was named to the all-state team…Invited to “The Opening”, an all-star summer prospect camp held on the Nike Campus…Chose Florida over Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, UCLA, Miami, Tennessee, Pitt, Stanford, Georgia and Florida State…Coached by Bob Wolfrum.

Darious Cummings • Defensive tackle
6’1″ • 310 • Titusville, FL (Astronaut/Florida St./East Mississippi CC)
PRIOR TO FLORIDA: Played in all 10 games during the 2012 season at EMCC, tallying 26 tackles (12 unassisted) with 4.0 TFL (12 yards), 3.0 sacks, two quarterback hurries and one forced fumble…EMCC finished 8-2 on the year and ranked 15th in the final NJCAA poll…Anchored a defense that allowed just 74.2 rushing yards per game…Notched a season-high four tackles twice during the season, against Pearl River CC and Itawamba CC…Played under head coach Buddy Stephens at EMCC…Spent two years at Florida State before transferring to EMCC…Played in three games as a true freshman and two games as a sophomore before suffering an injury that caused him to miss most of the 2011 season…Totaled seven tackles in five career games at FSU…Missed the spring of 2012 at FSU after arthroscopic knee surgery and then transferred to EMCC in the summer of 2012…Entered his senior year of high school with 159 tackles, including 22 for loss and 15 sacks…Was the first commit in FSU’s 2010 signing class…Was a Florida Super 75 selection by the Times-Union…Named to SunStateFootball.com all-state first team in 2009…Attended the same high school as former Gator football players LB Wilber Marshall, WR Cris Collinsworth and TE Aaron Walker…Chose Florida over offers from Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Arkansas.

Continue Reading » Florida Gators 2013 National Signing Day bios

Tags: Adam Lane, Ahmad Fulwood, Alex Anzalone, Alvin Bailey, Antonio Riles, Caleb Brantley, Cameron Dillard, Chris Thompson, Daniel McMillian, Darious Cummings, Demarcus Robinson, Jarrad Davis, Jarran Reed, Jay-nard Bostwick, Joey Ivie, Jordan Sherit, Keanu Neal, Kelvin Taylor, Marcell Harris, Marqui Hawkins, Matt Rolin, Max Staver, Nick Washington, Octavius Jackson, Roderick Johnson, Trenton Brown, Tyler Moore, Vernon Hargreaves

The Florida Gators added a third new member to their 2013 recruiting class on Sunday – a player familiar to those that follow the process – as three-star offensive lineman Roderick Johnson (Delray Beach, FL) announced via social media that he has recommitted to continuing his career in Gainesville, FL.

“Its official gator nation Im back,” he tweeted.

Johnson was originally Florida’s 11th commitment for the 2013 cycle, giving head coach Will Muschamp his pledge on March 25. However, he began wavering in his decision after learning that recruiting coordinator Aubrey Hill resigned before the season.

He eventually decommitted on Aug. 13 with reports at the time noting that he had been put “on notice” by the Gators coaching staff due to concerns about the player’s supposedly shaky academic standing.

Now less than four months later, Johnson is back in the fold and has become the 24th member of Florida’s 2013 class and 25th new player set to join the program.

Listed as a four-star prospect by ESPN, he will be the fifth offensive lineman to join the Gators this offseason. Florida already had verbal pledges from three-star Cameron Dillard (Canton, MI), three-star Octavius Jackson (Moultrie, GA) and three-star JUCO transfer Trenton Brown (Milledgeville, GA). UF will also have Tyler Moore (Clearwater, FL), a four-star prospect who played for Nebraska in 2011, transfer in from a community college that does not field a football team.

Johnson is third player and second offensive lineman that committed to the Gators on Sunday. Brown announced his intentions early in the morning, and four-star linebacker Matt Rolin (Ashburn, VA) switched his pledge to Florida in the afternoon.

Tags: Aubrey Hill, Cameron Dillard, Matt Rolin, Octavius Jackson, Roderick Johnson, Trenton Brown, Tyler Moore, Will Muschamp

The No. 2-ranked recruiting class in the nation added another big name on Friday as three-star offensive lineman Trenton Brown (Milledgeville, GA), a junior college transfer, pledged to play for the Florida Gators in 2013.

At 6’8” and 350 lbs., Brown is a massive offensive lineman who will be able to enroll early at Florida as he is graduating from Georgia Military College in Dec. 2012.

He chose UF over Florida State and Oklahoma and will be in the mix right away at the tackle position, likely on the left side of the line.

Brown is a huge addition to the Gators’ offensive line – literally and figuratively. He adds quality depth to a unit that was depleted of talent and experience just two seasons ago.

He will be one of five players added to active duty on the line next year, joining junior Max Garcia (a transfer out of Maryland who took a redshirt in 2012), four-star Tyler Moore (a member of the 2011 class who played for Nebraska but spent 2012 at a community college) and 2013 commitments three-stars Cameron Dillard (Canton, MI) and Octavius Jackson (Moultrie, GA).

Brown originally committed to Georgia in August but took an official visit to Florida on Aug. 31 and soon after named the Gators his leader. He continued taking visits and meeting with coaches, though a visit from head coach Will Muschamp on Dec. 4 likely sealed the deal for the JUCO transfer.

He is officially the 22nd member of Florida’s 2013 class and plans to sign on Dec. 19. Moore’s transfer from a community college without a football team does not count against the Gators’ numbers for this recruiting cycle.

Brown announced his commitment via Twitter early Sunday morning with the following statement: “Gator Chompin’ #GatorNation join me Oh and add me to that #1 recruiting class.” He later confirmed his decision first to ESPN.

Tags: Cameron Dillard, Max Garcia, Octavius Jackson, Trenton Brown, Tyler Moore, Will Muschamp

1 » U.S. Women’s National Team striker Abby Wambach is indeed a “G,” not due to the fact that she is one of the faces of Gatorade but rather because she used her “guile and gamesmanship” to help the United States achieve a 4-3 extra-time victory over Canada in the semifinals of the 2012 London Olympics on Monday. Wambach told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday that it was her subtle urging that led the referees to call a rare delay of game penalty on the Canadian goalkeeper, who was holding the ball in the penalty box for up to 15 seconds at times when rules state the ball should be out after six seconds. “I wasn’t yelling. I was just counting,” Wambach told Dan Wetzel of her decision to run next to the referee while heading back down the field. “Probably did it five or seven times.” And of the play in question in which the referee finally blew her whistle? “I got to 10 seconds right next to the referee and at 10 seconds she blew the whistle.”

Canada, of course, believes they were robbed in the match. (The call resulted in an indirect free kick inside the box; a handball was called on the kick and Wambach tied the match 3-3 on a penalty goal.) Though Wambach admits that the call is rare, she notes that it is well within the rules. Her subtle pestering of the referee almost assuredly helped the call be made when it ordinarily might not have been. “Yes it’s uncharacteristic,” she said. “But the rules are the rules. You can say it’s gamesmanship, you can say it’s smart, but I’m a competitor. We needed to get a goal. They’re trying to waste time; I’m trying to speed it up. [...] I think making the referee aware of a situation, there’s nothing wrong with that. At the end of the day, the ref made the decision on her own.”

2 » A former No. 8 overall pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars, former Florida Gators defensive end Derrick Harvey was cut from his third team over the course of a year when the Cincinnati Bengals let him go on Sunday. Harvey, who signed with the team just four months ago, was released before participating in a single preseason game. After being released by the Jaguars last July, Harvey was picked up by the Denver Broncos but barely played last season and spent most of it as a healthy scratch on game day. His NFL career may very well be over.

3 » The commitment of three-star offensive lineman Octavius Jackson (Moultrie, GA), who is unranked by Rivals, to the Florida Gators last week came as a surprise to many considering the team has few open slots remaining and a number of highly-rated prospects on its board. The Gators, however, knew exactly what they were doing by brining Jackson on board and it appears as if they were early to what may become a very crowded party. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jackson received “last-minute pleas by Alabama and Florida State” before committing to Florida. He already had a firm scholarship offer from Vanderbilt in his possession. “People have missed on him,” said Rush Propst, Jackson’s high school coach. “His only true offer until a few days ago was Vanderbilt, and they couldn’t believe nobody elsewas on him. Neither could I.”

4 » Running back Chris Rainey is turning heads in Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, a fact that should come as no surprise to Florida fans whose necks were often sore from watching him run in Gainesville, FL. USA Today’s Jim Corbett wrote a few days ago that “Rainey has been the Steelers’ buzz guy since he began flashing during organized team activities, and he’s carried it over to training camp.” Almost everyone from the team’s president on down believes Rainey can make an instant impact with Pittsburgh this season though head coach Mike Tomlin is being a bit more cautious considering how early it is in the process.

Tags: Abby Wambach, Chris Rainey, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Derrick Harvey, Gatorade, Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL, Octavius Jackson, Olympics, Pittsburgh Steelers, soccer, USA

Though the Florida Gators streak of five commitments in five days came to an end on July 30, the program’s momentum obviously continued to roll into this week as three-star offensive lineman Octavius Jackson (Moultrie, GA) officially announced on Friday his intention to play football in Gainesville, FL next season.

Unranked by Rivals, which reports that he impressed he coaching staff after working out for them in a June camp session, Jackson chose Florida over Vanderbilt and had what some would not necessarily call an impressive offer sheet with Kentucky and South Florida as the two other most prominent schools that were hoping to sign him.

The Gators did not offer Jackson right away though. Instead Florida’s coaches spent nearly six weeks evaluating his film and finding out how some potentially higher-ranked players (on their board) felt about playing at UF.

No doubt helping his cause is the fact that Jackson is the type of player head coach Will Muschamp likes – athletic and versatile with a a good head on his shoulders. Not only is Jackson a solid student, he also played defensive line last season and was a member of his high school’s basketball and track & field teams (shot put) as a junior.

In the end he got his scholarship offer and came to a quick decision, choosing to play for the Gators and fight for playing time in what is quickly becoming a deep unit.

Jackson (6’4″, 285 lbs.) is Florida’s fourth three-star offensive line commitment for the 2013 recruiting cycle, joining Roderick Johnson (Delray Beach, FL), Joshua Outlaw (Lithonia, GA) and Cameron Dillard (Canton, MI).

He is only the Gators’ seventh pledge from outside the state of Florida but is one of four the coaching staff has poached from the state of Georgia.

Jackson’s commitment was first reported by ESPN.

Tags: Cameron Dillard, Joshua Outlaw, Octavius Jackson, Roderick Johnson, Will Muschamp