clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Florida football recruiting: Cornerback Jayvaughn Myers decommits from Gators

And that might mean Florida's wide receiver board is changing, too.

By Andy Hutchins
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

One day after Florida reeled in three recruits — and arguably the most important recruit of its entire 2016 class, in the form of four-star quarterback Feleipe Franks — the Gators are now down another one. Pasco cornerback Jayvaughn Myers took to Twitter early Monday afternoon to announce his decommitment from Florida.

Myers committed to the Gators as a three-star prospect in August 2015, and was thought of as a mid-tier cornerback prospect in a class that ought to have include several corners. He's since been re-rated, and upgraded from a three-star prospect to a four-star player in the 247Sports Composite, but he's not considered an elite player, just a really good one: Of Florida's 49 four-star prospects, Myers checks in at No. 38.

Losing Myers is a blow, but he is an athlete first at this point in his career, and probably further from field readiness than, say, Florida early enrollee Chauncey Gardner or Gators freshman Chris Williamson. If he was going to contribute to Florida's loaded secondary, it would likely have been after the 2016 and 2017 NFL Drafts contribute to unloading it.

But Myers was also thought of as a key piece in an even higher-profile recruitment — that of his half-brother, Nate Craig-Myers.

Craig-Myers is a wide receiver, and a high four-star prospect per the 247Sports Composite. And there was a chance, maybe a good one, that having his brother in the fold made Florida appear more appealing to him.

That connection is undoubtedly part of why Florida predictions make up just less than the majority of predictions in the 247Sports Crystal Ball for Craig-Myers, with literally every prediction to come in since August 4 being for the orange and blue.

But while the Myers boys are tied by blood and presumably tight friends, they don't attend high school in the same county (Craig-Myers attends Tampa Catholic; Pasco High is, obviously, in Pasco County), and were not understood as an automatic package deal, something that should have been obvious when Craig-Myers didn't immediately commit to the Gators in August.

My sense is that Florida's still the leader for Craig-Myers, though that lead is probably more fragile now than it was when Myers was in the fold. And Florida's wide receiver board, which has been made over time and again in this recruiting cycle, may yet have a mutation or two left in it.