Dan Mullen and the Gators have just picked up a commitment from wide receiver Jayden Gibson, a consensus four star wide receiver from West Orange, FL. And thus, the Gators’ 2022 recruiting class is really starting to come along.
Gibson announced his decision on CBS Sports Live. He chose Florida over Georgia and South Carolina. He was also offered by Auburn, Miami, Virginia Tech, FSU, Penn State, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
You can watch his high school highlight tape here.
As the tape shows, Jayden Gibson uses his tall frame and excellent ball skills to dominate at the high school level. He can adjust to the ball in the air and then beat defenders to it at the catch point. He’s neither the quickest nor the fastest wide receiver in this class, but he’s plenty quick fast enough to make defenses respect his speed and footwork.
Scouts do warn that he’s not big or strong enough to be trusted as a blocker, but that’s a correctable problem; a few months in Nick Savage’s strength and conditioning program should fix that. If he adds even ten pounds or so of pure muscle mass, he could be a Day One starter for Florida in 2022. And a full offseason of ladder drills could turn him from a very good route runner at the high school level into a great route runner at the college level.
In short: Jayden Gibson is far from a finished product. He has a lot of work to do. But if he does that work- watch out. I absolutely love this kid’s upside, which to me strikes at least a passing resemblance to Van Jefferson.
With the addition of Gibson, Florida’s 2022 recruiting class continues its rise up the national rankings. The 247Sports Composite Ranking system now has Florida sitting at #14 in the country.