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The Florida Gators landed their biggest commitment — and signing — of the young Dan Mullen Era on Wednesday, as four-star Georgia passer announced his commitment to the Gators in a ceremony at his high school.
And Florida’s coaches were plenty happy about that announcement, as video the program has released of them watching Jones make his public pledge shows.
The reaction says it all.
— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) December 20, 2017
Welcome to #GatorNation, @exjones6! #AllBite18 pic.twitter.com/K6DV90Kc5x
But as for “the reaction says it all”: I read a whole lot more happiness than surprise or relief in that room. And given that Florida tweeted out the news of Jones’s signing just seconds after he made his commitment, it would seem clear that this was — like most public commitments — one made with coaches in the know, rather than in the dark.
That probably says as much or more about the work that Mullen and his staff — note that Mullen high-fives presumptive quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson — did to persuade Jones as the joy does about what he might mean to the Gators. The work of recruiting is not glamorous work, no matter how many selfies in Jordans from the trail get tweeted, and it is work that culminates in phone calls and text messages as often as it does in showy productions on days when recruits can sign.
Florida did that work. And, consequently, Emory Jones has given the Gators a chance to mold him into a truly special product of that labor and the attendant work of coaching and developing a football player and a young man.