(Photo via Ben Hanks)
The Florida Gators’ 2025 recruiting class picked up another major piece today– and continued another family pipeline.
Consensus four-star cornerback Ben Hanks, Jr. (Miami, FL/Booker T. Washington) committed to Florida this afternoon, where he’ll begin his own playing career in Gainesville about 30 years after his father’s– perhaps best known for his 95 yard pick-six in the 1995 SEC Championship Game— ended. He chose the Gators over Auburn, Miami, and Louisville. He also had offers from many of the nation’s top programs, including Georgia, Alabama, FSU, Michigan, USC, Texas A&M, Wisconsin and Michigan State.
Both 247Sports and On3, the two recruiting sites that are generally trusted the most by college football fans, have Hanks solidly inside the top 100 prospects of the 2025 class. On3 has him as the #72 overall prospect, while 247Sports lists him as the #81 prospect. The two sites also agree that he’s one of the ten best cornerback prospects in the class.
You can watch his highlight tape here.
The tape tells the story of a kid with great genes putting them to use– and while he’s going to have to add muscle mass to his frame if he wants to play SEC football, he’s doing just fine with mere length and quickness at a high level of South Florida high school ball. Hanks runs better than a 4.5 40 yard dash, and has put that to use for Booker T. Washington’s track team as well. His real passion, though, is football– and that’s good news for Florida, which already boasts an elite track program and could use his efforts for football.
The football player in Ben Hanks Jr. has one of these unexplainable noses for the ball. He’s not afraid to lower his body and dislodge the football with a vicious hit. This is another area where filling out his frame could help, but he’s wiry and strong and more than willing to get physical as it is. That in itself makes him difficult to keep off the field.
And then there are the ball skills that Ben Hanks displays in coverage. He’s a hawk, a tremendous athlete who can go up and high-point the ball even in a sea of other players. You can’t teach these kinds of skills, and they make Hanks compare very favorably to some of his potential future teammates. If he bulks up and develops the physique of an SEC cornerback, he’s going to be very hard to keep off the field.
The addition of Ben Hanks Jr. gives the Gators yet another blue-chip athlete amid a noticeable wave of them.
Highlighted by Vernell Brown and Myles Johnson, the Florida class has skyrocketed from #72 in the country just 60 says ago into the top 30 in the 247Sports Composite rankings. The rise hasn’t been quite as seismic in the On3 Industry rankings, yet pretty drastic there too, lunging upward from #47 in the nation to #20. And this, of course, is with three whole months to go until the early Signing Day period begins.
Now, of course, the task falls on Billy Napier to win games and keep that class intact.