Florida’s recruiting class took a big hit in the wake of the Chris Steele saga, with his departure, causing a ripple effect that saw several commits back off their pledges. Today, they got one of them back- wide receiver Trevonte Rucker.
Rucker, a consensus four star receiver from Ocala and Vanguard High School, maintained that he was still interested in Florida in the wake of his decommitment last May. He attended a camp that July, did well at it and kept up good relationships with Florida coaches, players and commits. Now, nine months after the mess with Steele went down, he stated in his note that Florida is indeed where he wants to be and that his recruitment is shut down.
Among the other schools to offer Rucker were Oregon, LSU, FSU, Georgia and Penn State. You can watch his highlight tape here.
In short, Rucker is a massive weapon at the slot receiver position and is versatile enough to be an adequate plug and play piece at the X or Y position should that be necessary. As his highlight reel shows, he’s a freakish athlete that can stop on a dime, make guys miss and use his vision to turn bubble screen or flares into gains of twenty-plus yards. He’s not the tallest receiver out there (friendly measurements have him standing a shade under six feet tall) but has top notch ball skills and can highpoint the ball with the best of them. It’s difficult to imagine that after a couple of years growth in Nick Savage’s offseason regimen, he won’t be playing on Sundays.
Predictably, the addition of Trevonte Rucker vaults Florida’s 2021 class up to #4 in the 247 composite national rankings behind only Ohio State, Clemson and Notre Dame. After all, that class has already filled needs with some authority: top QB Carlos Del Rio, elite cornerback Clinton Burton and standout defensive end Tyreak Sapp are part of eleven commits already onboard. So while there are still ten months until early Signing Day, and thus ten months for other schools to catch up (or guys to theoretically decommit), this class is well on its way to being a special one.
