{"id":264196,"date":"2026-05-09T00:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264196\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:50:10","slug":"jon-sumralls-gators-land-rb-andrew-beard-rise-to-no-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/264196\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Sumrall’s Gators land RB Andrew Beard, rise to No. 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Four-star prospect Andrew Beard\u2019s commitment<\/a> to Florida continued a recent run of recruiting success under head coach Jon Sumrall and his staff.<\/p>\n

Beard became the Gators\u2019 first running back in the 2027 class and elevated them three spots to No. 5 in 247Sports composite team rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Georgia native is rated the nation\u2019s No. 9 player at his position and No. 154 overall. He is the fourth player this week and 14th overall to commit to the Gators.<\/p>\n

Offensive tackle Elijah Hutcheson, a 4-star prospect<\/a> from Roanoke, Virginia, and pair of 3-star defenders, tackle Stive-Bentley Keumajou<\/a> of Coral Gables and Oklahoma safety Kailib Dillard<\/a> also committed to Sumrall\u2019s program in the past several days.<\/p>\n

The 5-foot-10, 197-pound Beard starred the past two season for Prince Avenue Christian in Bogart, Georgia, the same school that produced Florida quarterback Aaron Philo<\/a> and receiver Bailey Stockton, a pair of Georgia Tech transfers.<\/p>\n

In 26 games in 2024-25, Beard rushed for 3,229 and 34 touchdowns on 387 carries, averaging 8.3 yards and accouting for 16 100-yard games. He also caught 63 passes for 975 yards, averaging 15.5 yards, while scoring 10 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Gators are well stocked at running back, but star Jadan Baugh<\/a> is likely to leave for the NFL after this third season, while Cincinnati transfer Evan Pryor is in his final season of eligibility. East Carolina transfer London Montgomery is a redshirt junior.<\/p>\n

Redshirt freshman Duke Clark and Byron Louis are promising entering their first full seasons.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Four-star prospect Andrew Beard\u2019s commitment to Florida continued a recent run of recruiting success under head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,2530,2496,114,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-264196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264196","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=264196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}