Florida football has work to do when it comes to the Gators 2022 recruiting class and here are three top recruits left on the board.
The Florida football program is used to signing top-10 recruiting classes and that’s pretty much been true regardless of the head coach.
Florida is an elite program and one of the blue-chip recruiting programs that Bud Elliott says should have a chance to win the national title every year.
It takes some serious talent to have that kind of ability and last season, Florida football was right there and came up just short in the SEC title game against Alabama.
Dan Mullen has won games and a lot of recruiting battles in recent years, yet so far in 2022, the Gators have added just 10 commitments, which leaves them 26th overall according to the 247 sports team rankings.
The good news is that five of the 10 commitments are four-star recruits, including quarterback Nick Evers, who is ranked 288th overall.
Florida football’s ranking will obviously improve and the Gators should finish somewhere near the top 10. But in terms of three targets, Mullen and Florida really need to land this cycle here are three priorities left for the Gators in 2022.
5-star DT Walter Nolen
On Friday, the third-ranked player overall in 2022 and the No. 1 defensive tackle included the Gators in his top five, and on Florida’s board, he’s at or near the top.
Not only is Walter Nolen an elite talent, as well as an athletic freak at 6-foot-4, 300 pounds, but he would also fill a position of need for the Gators who could use an anchor in the middle of the defense.
Every college football team in the country could use a guy like Nolen and he really enjoyed his visit to Gainesville. There are no crystal ball projections right now but it’s clear that Nolen is among Florida’s top remaining priorities.
4-star LB Shawn Murphy
While Dan Mullen is known as more of an offensive coach, the defense has always been a calling card for the Gators, especially in years when they are truly national title contenders.
Over the years, Florida has turned out a lot of really good linebackers but it’s a position that could use some elite talent going forward and one top target in the 2022 class is a high-ranking four-star recruit, Shawn Murphy.
Murphy is ranked 62nd overall in the 247 sports composite rankings for 2022 and like Nolen, he recently included Florida football in his top five along with Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, and Alabama.
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound linebacker who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.41, is projected by 247 sports to be an early future draft pick and honestly has first-round potential. He can blitz, cover, play the run, and has true three-down potential.
The prospect out of Virginia, also like Nolen, has no crystal ball projections at this time. Florida football is in the final five with work to do to win out, but a realistic shot at landing both.
4-star OT Tyler Booker
While Florida football is in a solid position with the other two recruits on this list, the Gators are probably is in the best position with Tyler Booker, who is also among the top targets left in 2022.
Booker is 6-foot-5, 325 pounds and plays at IMG Academy. He’s ranked 42nd overall in the 2022 class and since the Gators haven’t signed a top-100 offensive tackle in the last couple of classes, Booker would be a much-needed high-end talent.
The Gators haven’t landed an offensive tackle as talented as Booker since back in the 2018 recruiting class but it appears that things are trending in the right direction with Booker, who picked up a crystal ball prediction to Florida back in April.
Booker took a visit to Florida in June but also visited Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, and Alabama. Like the other guys on this list, the Gators will need to beat out some heavy hitters to land Booker.
Yet, if Florida is able to get all three: Nolen, Murphy, and Booker this class would start to look like one that Gator fans have come to expect while filling three positions of need with elite talent.