Sunday yields three commits for Florida

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Florida coach Will Muschamp came up big on the recruiting trail Sunday.

Junior college offensive lineman Trenton Brown  (Milledgeville, Ga./Georgia Military), offensive lineman Roderick Johnson (Delray Beach, Fla./American Heritage and linebacker Matt Rolin (Ashburn, Va./Briar Woods) announced their verbal commitments to UF via Twitter.

All three prospects confirmed their decisions with The Sun through text message.

Brown brings a big boost to Florida's offensive line depth. (Photo by Scout.com)

Brown planned to publicly pledge at a ceremony on Dec. 19, but he chose to deliver the news early. “Gator Nation … add me to that #1 recruiting class,” he tweeted.

The former Georgia commit picked the Gators over Florida State and Oklahoma. He officially visited Florida for the season opener against Bowling Green and also attended the Jacksonville State game.

Brown will enroll at UF in January and has two years of eligibility left. The 6-foot-8, 350-pounder is expected to compete for playing time next season at one of the tackle spots.

The addition of Brown should make Florida’s offensive line one of the team’s strongest units in 2013. Chaz Green, Jon Halapio, Jonotthan Harrison and D.J. Humphries return as starters for the Gators, and they will also have Jessamen Dunker, Max Garcia and Tyler Moore available along with Brown.

Johnson is a Gator again. (Photo by 247Sports)

Helping out with the depth will be Johnson, who already possesses college size at 6-foot-6, 315 pounds. The four-star prospect committed to Florida after an unofficial visit in March, but he parted ways with the Gators on Aug. 12 to re-open his recruitment.

After considering schools such as Auburn, Florida State and West Virginia, Johnson decided UF was the best place for him and recommitted via Twitter.

“It’s official Gator Nation I’m back,” tweeted Johnson, who will officially visit Florida in January.

Johnson and Brown give the Gators five offensive line commits for the 2013 class, which is ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN.

Rolin, a consensus four-star, committed to South Carolina on May 25 and had several members of his family graduate from the school. The Gators finished in second place, but they continued to recruit him.

UF linebackers coach D.J. Durkin had an in-home visit with Rolin on Nov. 28, and then he took an official to Florida two days later.

After a week of pondering what he called a “tough decision,” the Under Armour-All American made the switch.

Rolin is the fourth linebacker commit for Florida. (Photo by 247Sports)

“Going back on my word is something I never imagined myself doing and it hurts me to do it, but in end I have do what’s best for me. That being said. I would like to let everyone know that I have decommited from The University of South Carolina. I have officially committed to THE University of Florida. I will be wearing #9 as I continue to chase my dreams at Florida,” Rolin wrote on his Twitter account Sunday.

Rolin, an early enrollee, had surgery on his torn ACL last week and will likely redshirt in the fall.

UF now has 25 members in its 2013 class, which is ranked No. 1 in the nation by ESPN and has 11 prospects from the ESPN150 with Rolin on board. Verbal commitments are not binding until prospects sign their national letters of intent.

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55 COMMENTS

  4. Hey Trenton Brown – welcome to Gator Nation! You will definitely realize that you made the right choice once the season begins next year. We expect great things from our Gators next year because we know how great they can potentially be. Awesome team! GO GATORS!

  5. BOOM! is all I can say too.

    Figured Brown would pull the trigger for us sooner or later, and this mammoth leading the way off the OT position with our RB’s Brown, Jones, Taylor, and Lane behind him spells toruble for a lot of defenses the next few years.

  6. GOOD! We NEEDED a couple more “big, fast, and strong” OLs for next season–and getting an experienced JUCO who can go right away is just about perfect…Now, when things, large and small, continue to fall into place in the way that they have and continue to do for this Program AND the Head Coach that Foley so wisely focused on from the moment he knew we were about to need him (and, let’s face it, getting Muschamp, then the way even the “mistake with Weis” was fixed in a timely way that sent him voluntarily packing to make room for Pease, who we wouldn’t have gotten BEFORE then, and so on, are examples of the “large things” I am referring to that have gone our way) make me all-the-more confident of our future, smiled on by providence I am somehow sure.

  15. ACL????…well….redshirt….get well…..and be ready to play in 2014…..Rolin. Welcome to GatorNation….much better to be a Gator going after a chickin than the other way around

    Chaz….better get bigger and stronger in the spring and summer. Brown and Moore will be after your job this fall. Nothing beats this kind of competition….makes for a great team. Go Gators.

  16. Welcome aboard men! Looking forward to having you as player representatives of The Gator Nation. Trenton, with your size, you’re blessed with 5 of 6 winning lottery numbers – the last number is 7! Block him (#7) and you can collect your winnings! Be ready!

  20. 24 recruits. One to go. Now what if Rod Johnson wants to come back, Alex Collins wants to come, Treadwell decides to show us some love, Elijah Daniel is leaning our way, Jalen Ramsey wants to flip, etc. All seem like possibilities. What do we do if we have too many commits? Zach, that is a question for your mailbag next week.

  22. Montana, I’m pretty sure with the expected JR departures to the NFL, transfers, etc. that always happen, we will be taking at least 3 more. And you can also expect a decommit or two from us, especially as our LB “commits” seem to be wavering to varying degrees(this makes me wonder if this is why we went after Rolin)

  28. zach who is akia booker? florida offered him today he is a wr. i watched his highlights and he looks meh. he catches just about everything but he is really slow. i hope we do not take and this is just a backup plan for later

  29. BOOM Shakalaka
    BOOM shakalakalaka

    Go Gators. Party old school with Sly and the Family Stone.
    The Gator freight train is rolling now.

    * 11 – 1 ranked #3 on the way to the Sugar Bowl. A couple of turnovers in Jax from playing for the national title.
    .
    * Rolling on recruiting trail with a ton of great talent coming in, especailly at positions of need at WR, OL.
    .
    Next time someone asks – Where’s the beef. Tell them to look at Florida’a recruiting class. Boom is going after and getting some bigguns for both sides of the ball.

  34. BOOM…..keep it up…..looking at the roster though…really concerned about DL depth….hope we can add 2 or 3 more defensive tackle type players. Zachary do you see us adding anymore 300 pound DL types to our class?

  36. Zach, do the Gators still have room for Alexander or Ramsey? I think it would be awesome if the Gators were able to get one of them. If so then this class would appear to be a solid #1, at least by ESPN standards because I can’t follow how Rivals grades these things.

  37. Tallagator don’t worry about the DL we recruit more and better DL in every other recruiting class and we seem to get them in pretty easily so next yr I’m sure you’ll being seeing us go after more. But looking at our overall positions OL needed the most work and that seems to be taken care of. If Driskel, Jones, and our OL develop to their potential we could be looking like that other SEC school that’s loaded. (Anyone wants to bet that Chaz G. isn’t starting by the beginning of next season??)

  43. This is where them Gators chomp…
    Down here in the Gators swamp..
    This is where you come to play,
    and you will leave here Gator stomped!!
    This is home to gatorade, the SEC is gator bait,
    haters down here love to hate,
    UT, Georgia, Florida State….
    Kentucky, Carolina, Alabama, man its all the same,
    We reign and bring the pain to Buckeyes, Sooners and them Canes.
    So check the polls next year, BCS first place,
    I guess by now its fair to say, that we’re the best team in the state!
    Its great..to be.. a Florida Gators… Written by Davido 2012

  45. I love how we keep getting recruits joining us left to right. The commitment of these OL should send a notice to the lazy OL this year that if you don’t step up (Green) you will not be starting next year. I love the Rolin pick espacially since there are some LB that are looking at other schools and because Analozne didn’t want to compete in the best league in college football and that is his lost. Notre Lame and all other schools next year are gator bait.

  47. When did Patchan fill in? It must have been back in 2010 because he hasn’t played since. I feel for the young man but when he can’t even play on the practice squad he should be giving up his scholarship so someone else can come in and step up. With all the time off from football I would have hoped he had graduated.

  48. All the excitement and optimism here is well-warranted–Coach Boom and his staff are getting it DONE, and doing it right. WE are about to improve substantially on offense, and even with graduation and some junior-attrition (maybe 2, at most 3, I’m figuring) we’ll not lose much at the start of next season on defense from this year–and even there we will steadily improve with game-experience, and with 2-deep at virtually every position actually be BETTER than this year’s squad by late in the season. In short, we will be a more and more formidable team: It is possible we could (if we can get through the early part of our SEC-schedule) go undefeated (finally!) in he regular season and go on to play & WIN the last BCS “Plus One” Championship Game, then in 2014, when we REALLY begin to click, we can then win the inaugural “4-Team Play-Off” as well.

  52. The chatter about Patchan brings up a good point…some guys are just injury prone (cough, cough, Emmanuel Moody cough, cough). I think that needs to be taken into consideration with recruiting too. Doesn’t mean they don’t have potential, just means coaches need to consult the medical actuaries as well and determine if the risk associated with taking a kid with a big time injury or series of them, is worth the scholarship. Rolin is case in point. He won’t see the field until 2014 – hopefully he will be worth the wait.

  53. After you OFFER a kid a SCHOLLY and he excepts it, if he is injured (frenquently) or not , just because you see someone else with enen greater potential two years later, you don’t just take the scholly back togive it to another player. I’m saying this because some posters are talking about and that is CLASSLESS and this University is not classless. We will honor our choices and uphold our committment to those who chose us when we were struggling. Go GATORS!!!

  54. Not sure anyone is disagreeing with you Creek Gator. If you are addressing my comment, I’m questioning the judgment in even ‘offering’ a scholarship to a kid that has already had an injury that could, at worst, end his career and more likely degrade his athleticism and performance below the levels we all observed in his H.S. years and believe he would bring with him to campus. In this case Rolin’s ACL.

    I agree with you, it’s a lousy thing to pull a kid’s scholarship when he is beset with injuries AFTER becoming a scholarship athlete.