Photo via Austin Simmons, Twitter
The Florida Gators’ QB situation may be up in the air in 2023, but Billy Napier is shoring it up for the future.
Consensus four-star QB Austin Simmons (Pahokee, FL/Pahokee HS) has committed to Florida’s Class of 2025, thus becoming the first member of that class. He chose the Gators primarily over in-state rivals FSU and Miami. He also held offers from Louisville, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, and over a dozen others.
Simmons is Florida’s second committed high school QB. Florida also has a commitment from five-star QB DJ Lagway in the Class of 2024.
A dual-sport athlete in high school, Simmons is also a gifted baseball pitcher and holds baseball scholarship offers from Florida and Georgia Tech. The Gators’ powerhouse baseball program has reached the College World Series seven times since 2010 and appears poised for another run to the sport’s final stage in Omaha again in 2023; no doubt this had something to do with his decision.
But most of his recruiting hype surrounds his skills as a signal-caller.
You can watch his high school tape here.
The accuracy you see on his film is something that is verified by the sum of his work, as opposed to just the few plays he decided to place on this tape. He completed more than two-thirds of his passes in both 2021 and 2022, accumulating over 3,500 yards of terrain through the air. He’s also noted to be very careful with the football, not forcing a lot of balls into traffic, and only throwing four picks in 2022.
His tape shows an impressive ability to lead his receiver on a variety of routes. Whether he’s throwing a deep ball, an intermediate route, or off his back foot to a safety valve, Austin Simmons has a knack for placing the ball right where it needs to be for his intended target to catch it while he’s running full stride. While the speed of defenses will obviously increase in the SEC, and windows will be smaller, that’s the kind of thing that translates well to the SEC.
Simmons is also a more-than-respectable runner. He doesn’t exactly have blazing speed, but he’s plenty fast enough to be a real threat on the ground, too. He’s not going to run many people over at 6’3, 195 lbs. although he does still have plenty of room to grow and bulk up before he arrives in Gainesville.
