(Photo via Jerrae Hawkins, twitter)
The Florida Gators’ mammoth month of June ended with the commitment Jerrae Hawkins, a legitimate deep threat of a wide receiver.
Former wide receivers coach Keary Colbert did an excellent job recruiting the position in the 2023 class. He signed a trio of playmakers who each bring something a little different: Andy Jean, Eugene Wilson, and Aidan Mizell. With Colbert gone to the NFL, though, Billy Gonzales was set up a little behind the eight-ball to begin his third stint in Gainesville.
He did land Izaiah Williams in May, and there’s some potential there. But in a wide receiver class that’s loaded, featuring TJ Moore, Chance Robinson and Jeremiah Smith- each of whom was on Florida’s board but committed elsewhere- Gonzales needed to counter with a major pull of his own. And he did exactly that with Jerrae Hawkins.
Hawkins, a unanimous four-star prospect from West Virginia, has transferred to the esteemed IMG Academy for his senior season. He falls just outside the top 50 of On3’s wide receiver rankings, while ESPN and 247Sports’ rankings have him as a top-30 wide receiver prospect. But while his specific ranking can be debated, the fact that he was a highly-coveted prospect cannot. Alabama, Miami, and Penn State went after him hard, and a number of other respectable schools- including Oregon, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech- offered him as well.
Hawkins, though, seemed to know what he wanted. He took three visits in June: Miami on June 2, Florida on June 9, and then Penn State on June 23. Barely 73 hours after returning from his PSU visit, Hawkins pulled the trigger to Florida.
You can watch his high school tape here.
The physical traits that Jerrae Hawkins brings are simply astounding. While a little small, he’s got proven track star speed. He won both the 100m and the 200m dash state championships at West Virginia’s 3A level and reportedly ran a blazing 4.3 40 yard dash at an Ohio State camp. And he’s not a track guy trying to play football; that speed is on display quite often throughout his exceptional highlight tape.
Though Jerrae Hawkins Hawkins played a little bit of defense, he best projects as a weapon on the offensive side of the ball. Totaling 1,127 yards and 14 touchdowns last season at Wheeling Park High School in West Virginia, Hawkins proved to be an absolute terror in the passing game. His feet are simply incredible, and he can stop on a dime and fry corners with crisp routes as well as with pure, blazing, straightaway speed. It’s that ability to do both that makes him so frightening to deal with.
When the ball is in the air, Hawkins is able to instantaneously shift from “track star” mode into “stealth” mode and track the ball down. His biggest weakness is his lack of size, and Florida is going to have to address that in the weight room, but for a guy who stands 5’9 and 165, Hawkins possesses impressive ball-tracking skills. If he adds a good 25 or 30 pounds of muscle mass, he can be expected to start going up and pulling the ball down in traffic at the SEC level. (Your move, Mark Hocke.)
Wheeling Park utilized Hawkins as a running back on occasion, and teams just couldn’t stop him there either. His quick feet, and open-field moves that result from them, literally cause opposing defenders to fall over themselves trying to stop him in the open field. He’s probably not big enough for Florida to even think about giving him the ball in the backfield right now, but if he bulks up, that possibility may await him as well.
At the risk of harping on the same thing too much, the one knock against him- the size- has drawn a lot of attention from scouts. On the other hand, he has a full fourteen months to tack on some muscle before he would ever see the field at Florida, which is plenty of time for the renowned strength staffs at both IMG and Florida to work with him.
So I do expect him to grow a good bit before stepping into game action. And assuming he does, ability to both take the top off a defense and jitterbug his way through it makes him a great take for Florida.
Hawkins comprises one piece of a class that’s currently ranked in the top five by both On3 and 247Sports’ collaborative rankings. That 2024 class ranks #3 in the 247Sports Composite rankings, and #4 in the On3 industry rankings.
