{"id":197116,"date":"2026-03-18T23:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197116\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T23:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:51:15","slug":"florida-gaining-favor-with-4-star-lb-jabios-smith-in-recruiting-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197116\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida gaining favor with 4-star LB. Ja&#8217;Bios Smith in recruiting push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 18, 2026, 7:19 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Florida football was never a major factor for 2027 four-star linebacker Ja&#8217;Bios Smith, that is until now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Gators have rapidly become a serious contender in the 6-foot-3-inch, 195-pound linebacker&#8217;s recruitment overnight. Smith indicated Florida &#8220;bumped everybody around&#8221; in his personal rankings in a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/florida-gators\/news\/4-star-lb-jabios-smith-says-florida-bumped-everybody-around-as-new-staff-pushes-hard\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On3<\/a>. The confession cites a pattern of frequent engagement and strong relationship building from the new coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Jon Sumrall and his staff can consider this and other votes of confidence as a victory in these initial phases of recruitment for the 2027 class. Gaining favor with a cornerstone piece like Smith shows the momentum building at Florida. Visits continue to line up and interest continues to peak as a result of the Gators aggressive approach on the trail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Gators are now locked in a key recruiting battle for the services of Smith, getting the Swainsboro, Georgia native to choose Gainesville over Athens would be a major win for this era of Florida football as it looks to restore SEC respectability.<\/p>\n<p>Ja&#8217;Bios Smith recruiting summary<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Smith is ranked No. 171 overall and No. 12 at his position nationally according to <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/jabios-smith-46150625\/\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">247Sports composite<\/a>; the On3 industry ranking places him at No. 158 and No. 12 respectively. Smith has offers from 26 programs, including 11 other SEC schools; among them are Texas, Alabama and Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:6|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773877875_689_86373768007-gators-1.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow us\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@GatorsWire<\/a>\u00a0on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/gatorswire.bsky.social\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bluesky<\/a>, and like our page on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0to follow ongoing coverage of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/ncaab\/teams\/florida-gators\/1407\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Florida Gators<\/a>\u00a0news, notes and opinions.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 18, 2026, 7:19 p.m. ET Florida football was never a major factor for 2027 four-star linebacker Ja&#8217;Bios&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,28,30,29,91489,33392,298,43,39,4819,96,4818,300,9810,34],"class_list":["post-197116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-accessfree","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sstssportscollegegatorsrecruiting","tag-sstsnrecruiting","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagfacebook","tag-tagflorida","tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsec-conference-football","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtwitter","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}