Despite Napier\u2019s untimely exit Oct. 19, both the current team and the future Gators seemed to be fully behind the program. The only recent fracture was running back Carsyn Baker, who decommitted Monday after the Sumrall announcement.<\/a> Otherwise, the Gators kept players believing in what the team could look like, rather than the current product on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Sumrall FaceTiming recruits and athletic director Scott Stricklin selling a Florida future full of championships, the Gators will try to lock down as many faces as possible \u2014 especially as the impending Jan. 2 (through Jan. 16) transfer portal draws near.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are some notable signees \u2014 ranked No. 16 by 247Sports Composite (No. 15 by ESPN) with a day to go \u2014 during the Early Signing Period:<\/p>\n Justin Williams, WR, Gainesville<\/p>\n This hometown recruit was a consensus four-star recruit, ranking highly among ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports. Williams is ranked No. 9 among the country\u2019s wide receivers for a reason: he\u2019s the first Floridian high schooler to record over 1,000 rushing and receiving yards since Devin Hester in 2022. Additionally, the Buchholz player tallied 16 touchdowns on the ground and 13 in the air in 2024, setting the school record with 7 TDs in a single game. For his historic 2024 campaign, he earned the Sports Illustrated Florida High School Offensive Player of the Year Honors.<\/p>\n Williams will provide an additional target for quarterback DJ Lagway and the Gators, whose receivers have been hampered by injuries<\/a>. It will also give the team a decent stopgap measure if someone like WR Dallas Wilson<\/a> pursues options elsewhere. Florida will also be losing red-shirt senior J.Michael Sturdivant to the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Will Griffin, QB, Treasure Island<\/p>\n Griffin is a four-star quarterback who finished as a 2025 Elite 11 Finalist. Ranked No. 123 nationally and No. 19 in Florida, the Jesuit High School quarterback set multiple program records, including passing yards in a season (3,404, 2024) and touchdowns in a single game (seven). He also played in the 2025 Under Armour All-American game.\u00a0<\/p>\n CJ Bronaugh, CB, Orlando<\/p>\n Bronaugh, a multisport athlete, is a champion across the board. Sure, he\u2019s a four-star recruit, the country\u2019s No. 7 cornerback and No. 8 player from Florida. But Bronaugh is also a three-time state-champion sprinter, and his quickness helps vary the tempo that Sumrall spoke about needing in Monday\u2019s press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOn offense, when I think of Florida football, I think of aggressive,\u201d he said. \u201cI think of explosive, I think about mixing tempos, using it to your advantage, and dictating the game to the opponent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida finished Wednesday With 15 signees:<\/p>\n four-star DL JaReylan McCoy (Listed as a five-star by ESPN)<\/p>\n four-star EDGE Kevin Ford<\/p>\n four-star WR Marquez Daniel<\/p>\n four-star QB Will Griffin<\/p>\n four-star DL Kendall Guervil<\/p>\n four-star OT Tyler Chukuyem<\/p>\n four-star WR Justin Williams<\/p>\n four-star LB Malik Morris<\/p>\n four-star TE Heze Kent<\/p>\n four-star WR Davian Groce<\/p>\n four-star DB CJ Bronaugh three-star IOL Desmond Green<\/p>\n three-star OT Javarii Luckas<\/p>\n three-star IOL G\u2019Nivre Carr<\/p>\n *OL Corey Brown signed as a Preferred Walk-On. He is the younger brother of Gators\u2019 wide receiver Vernell Brown III.<\/p>\n Thursday<\/p>\n Florida made the hiring of Kentucky defensive coordinator Brad White official<\/a> by announcing Sumrall\u2019s first staff addition.<\/p>\n White, 43, spent the last eight years at UK, including the last seven in charge of the defense. Sumrall and White worked together there between 2019 and 2021, including working their final year together as co-DCs. Sumrall left Kentucky to become Troy\u2019s coach in 2022 and spent the last two years at Tulane.<\/p>\n White\u2019s defenses ranked in the top 25 nationally in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, with the \u201918 unit ranked sixth nationally. White developed 14 NFL Draft picks and six selections in the top-two rounds on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n \u201cBrad is one of the best defensive minds in football and I\u2019m thrilled he will be joining us in Gainesville,\u201d Sumrall said on the school\u2019s website. \u201cBrad has led one of the best defenses in the SEC the last seven years and has extensive experience in the NFL as well. His defenses possess the exact characteristics we are going to have here at Florida and I can\u2019t think of a better leader for that unit.\u201d<\/p>\n Georgia Tech\u2019s Buster Faulkner is set to become Florida\u2019s offensive coordinator, according to ESPN\u2019s Pete Thamel.<\/p>\n Former Florida coach Billy Napier is set to make his return to the Sun Belt Conference. James Madison is expected to hire\u00a0 Napier to fill the coaching vacancy left by Bob Chesney, CBS Sports\u2019 Matt Zenitz reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida flipped four-star safety Dylan Purter from LSU. Purter, a 6-foot \u00bd, 165-pounder, is high school teammates with Florida wide receiver signee Marquez Daniel at Booker T. Washington High School in Tuskegee, Ala. Sumrall had recruited Purter while he was at Tulane. \u00a0<\/p>\n Category: College Football<\/a>, Feature Sports News<\/a>, Football<\/a>, Gators Football<\/a>, Recruiting<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UPDATED [12-5-25, 4:50 p.m.] \u00a0Four-star safety Kaiden Hall, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound prospect from Milton High School in Northwest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[143,28,2530,30,29,6083,10712,40540,1538,40541,62],"class_list":["post-73141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-football","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gator-football","tag-jon-sumrall","tag-national-signing-day","tag-ncaa-football","tag-recruiting","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73141","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=73141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/USATSI_27732884-300x222.jpg\")
Buchholz receiver Justin Williams talks about signing with Florida during the signing ceremony at Buchholz High School in Gainesville on Wednesday. [Alan Youngblood\/Gainesville Sun]<\/p>\n
\nthree-star OT Chancellor Campbell<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/crop.webp.webp\")
Brad White<\/p>\n
\nCornerback CJ Hester, a four star on ESPN\u2019s site, signed Thursday. Hester, a 6-foot-1, 195-pounder from Cocoa High School, has been committed to Florida since July 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/USATSI_26562712-300x293.jpg\")
Cocoa High defensive back CJ Hester (1) makes an interception in the Mooney end zone. Cocoa High School defeated Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School 31-21 to win the Class 2A semifinal game Friday night in Sarasota. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]<\/p>\n