Florida football recruiting: Florida won't let Quinton Powell commit on NSD, according to reports

Quinton Powell was committed to Florida for almost nine months. Then he decommitted. Now it seems he won't even have a chance to pick the Gators on National Signing Day, with 247Sports' Luke Stampini ($) reporting that Florida won't send Powell a National Letter of Intent and ESPN's Derek Tyson ($) reporting that Florida "will not wait" on Powell.

The Gainesville Sun's Zach Abolverdi also reports that Powell says he wasn't given an ultimatum, but simply told that Florida had no more space in its class.

This would seem to suggest that Powell's National Signing Day announcement, which was expected to be for Florida over USC, will now be an announcement that he'll head to Southern Cal and play for Lane Kiffin; our Bud Elliott has changed his prediction on Powell to reflect that reality.

Powell's got the ability to fire back, and the forum to do it: Twitter. And he did.

Did that jus happen??? Cant trust nobody.. I hate them now straight up

— Quinton Powell (@qpowe17) February 2, 2013

I would imagine Florida wanted Powell to pull the trigger for Florida before National Signing Day, possibly to let the Gators' coaches stalk other prey on the recruiting trail over these final five days, and Florida is very much in a position to be choosy, especially with linebackers, considering that Daniel McMillian, Alex Anzalone, and Matt Rolin are all enrolled, and Jarrad Davis is also committed.

Whether he likes it or not, Powell has to know that he could have prevented this situation, too: He was in Florida's class and could have easily remained in Florida's class by not decommitting to take a look at other places. Florida's coaches had no responsibility to be as accommodating as they were with Powell in February 2012 — coaches can be as warm or frosty to recruits as they want, though they must deal with the consequences — and were unlikely to be willing to halt the sun, moon, and stars for a fifth linebacker.

With Powell out of the picture, Florida is likely done at linebacker for the 2013 class. The crop of four players at the position remains one of the best at linebacker in the country.