The man that fans call Blue Chip Billy has done it again on the recruiting trail. He’s gone and pulled off another massive victory on the recruiting trail at a position of need.
The catch this time is Wardell Mack, a consensus four-star corner from Marrero, Louisiana/John Ehret. And Mack is an excellent example of how quickly things can change on the recruiting trail. On July 4th weekend, rumors began swirling that he was headed for Texas, accompanied by a pair of 247Sports “crystal ball” predictions; by the end of July, LSU was said to be his favorite.
But neither school could ultimately close on him and land his commitment. Fast forward two weeks later, and Wardell Mack is a Florida Gator commit.
On top of Florida, LSU, and Texas, Wardell Mack also had offers from FSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Miami, and Mississippi. You can watch his high school tape here.
Mack is a dynamic athlete that can be called upon to do a lot of things for a defense. His lengthy frame and top-notch athleticism means he can make a variety of tasks look very easy. He’s physical and quick with his hands, which translates well when he’s assigned to press and jam receivers, and when the ball is in the air, he aggressively attacks it with excellent ball skills and instincts.
Wardell Mack isn’t the biggest corner on the block, standing 5’11, 170, although as is the case with every rising high school senior, he’s still got plenty of time to add some muscle mass and fill out his frame. And as it stands now, he’s shown a consistent ability to be more than able to compensate for that.
The addition of Wardell Mack continues to illustrate a strong theory: Billy Napier is an elite recruiter. And it reinforces something that’s graduated from a theory to a plain fact: Florida’s 2024 class, by every metric, is elite.
Coming into the day, Florida’s class was ranked #3 in the country in both the On3 Industry and 247Sports Composite rankings, and now that class ranking has been solidified one player deeper. The knock on Florida’s last class was that while there were some quality players in there, there weren’t enough of them; Billy Napier has fixed that issue in this 2024 class. And yet at the same time, that quantity has not come at the expense of quality.
Now with 22 commits and still room to take a few more, Florida has a 247Sports Composite player average of 91.85 and an On3 Industry average player rating of 90.85. Those are both the fourth best rankings in the nation, meaning that only Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State currently have recruiting classes with an average rating higher than Florida’s.
And beyond the pure numbers, this commitment is huge because of the need at cornerback. Jason Marshall will likely depart after the 2023 season, and though a multitude of young Gator defensive backs have stepped up in practice this offseason, adding more blue-chip bodies to that secondary only heightens the ceiling that Corey Raymond’s unit can reach.
