Florida football recruiting: Hybrid OL/TE Jalen Goss decommits from Gators

The Florida Gators received a commitment from Jalen Goss way back in mid-March. Just over two months later, he’s no longer part of the fold.

Goss made the announcement late Wednesday, and had the good sense to do so with a full phone battery. He originally committed over the weekend of Florida’s Orange and Blue Debut spring game.

Goss is a three-star offensive tackle prospect per the 247Sports Composite, despite being both a tight end and a tackle at the high school level, and projects as, er, a project, with his reported 255 or so pounds likely too few to effectively play offensive tackle, and perhaps too many to serve as anything but a blocking tight end.

Goss was also likely to ultimately be one of the lesser-rated tackles in the 2018 recruiting class for Florida. While Florida does not currently have a committed tackle, the Gators are considered front-runners to land blue-chip tackles William Barnes and Richard Gouraige, and have enjoyed significant gains on the recruiting trail under new offensive line coach Brad Davis. Goss choosing to back off a Florida pledge is not a major blow to the Gators’ recruiting class — it only dropped that class from No. 28 to No. 30 in the 247Sports Composite team rankings — and might augur other positive developments for Florida down the line.

Amusingly, though, it does once again make Florida’s 2018 recruiting class smaller than its 2019 recruiting class, with the Gators holding commitments from eight rising seniors and nine rising juniors.