Florida football recruiting: International 2024 OL Noel Portnjagin commits to Gators

Football

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The Florida Gators started June with a pair of star-studded recruiting weekends featuring some of the best players in the nation visiting Gainesville, Florida, to learn about the program and staff helmed by head coach Billy Napier. While those weekends appear to have created a ton of positive momentum for the Gators, they have not yet resulted in the big-name commitments many fans expected.

Florida’s efforts have paid off with a couple offensive line commitments, the latest coming Wednesday as German big man Noel Portnjagin (6-foot-5, 330 pounds) decided to join the Gators next season.

Portnjagin, who draws comparisons to O’Cyrus Torrence and has received offers from most programs that have watched him play, committed to Florida over Auburn and South Carolina out of a list of more than a dozen options. The Gators relayed their offer last week after he participated in a camp along with a number of other international prospects on June 5.

His commitment comes two days after three-star OL Mike Williams (Baltimore, MD) pledged to join the Gators following an official visit over the weekend.

Portnjagin and Williams are now the two lowest-rated prospects in Florida’s Class of 2024 with Portnjagin not yet evaluated by recruiting experts. Florida has moved up to No. 21 in the 247Sports Composite team rankings. This despite the Gators holding four top-50 commitments, including five-star quarterback DJ Lagway (Willis, TX) and five-star safety Xavier Filsaime (McKinney, TX). Florida’s ranking took a hit last week when four-star running back Chauncey Bowens flipped to Georgia.