{"id":394823,"date":"2026-01-08T08:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394823\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T08:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:52:09","slug":"gators-add-a-commitment-from-juco-db-elijah-owens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394823\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators add a commitment from JUCO DB Elijah Owens"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Florida Gators coaching staff is focused on targeting names in the NCAA Transfer Portal, some players in the 2026 class have gotten a look. Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College defensive back Elijah Owens<\/a> is one of them. He was a target for new Florida safeties coach Chris Collins<\/a> at Kentucky, and remained one after Collins\u2019 move to Gainesville.<\/p>\n

That relationship carried over, as Owens, a safety, committed to the Gators on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Collins is a good coach,\u201d Owens told Gators Online. \u201cI think we have a good connection. I trust him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elijah Owens, who visited Kentucky when Collins and new Florida defensive coordinator Brad White<\/a> worked there, is listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds. He currently does not have a rating from Rivals.<\/p>\n

As a freshman last season, Elijah Owens was second on the team with 65 total tackles (45 solo), 1.5 tackles for loss, and an interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cHad a good season there, put some good film out,\u201d Owens said. \u201cI\u2019m a big, long guy. I can cover the field and come down and tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elijah Owens is coming off his first trip to UF<\/p>\n

Owens officially visited UF last weekend. He went into the weekend familiar with some of the coaches, but was able to meet some new faces on the staff. Furthermore, it was Elijah Owens\u2019 first time in Gainesville, and his first time seeing UF\u2019s campus up close. Overall, he felt like the trip was a successful one. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe visit was good,\u201d Owens said. \u201cEverybody there was good. Any questions I had were answered right away. It was a pretty nice visit. The campus was nice. I had a great time. All those guys are pretty cool guys. They\u2019re doing a job just like I am. That\u2019s how I like coaches. We get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens also likes that UF coach Jon Sumrall<\/a> has a defensive background.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d he said. \u201cGot a little edge to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Florida Gators coaching staff is focused on targeting names in the NCAA Transfer Portal, some players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[191101,399,398,396,397,4504,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-394823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-elijah-owens-25-citronelle","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-regwall","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}