Florida football recruiting: 2018 safety Randy Russell commits to Gators

The Florida Gators had just two commitments become public on Friday, despite the day featuring Florida’s premier recruiting event of the year — Friday Night Lights. But the Gators’ weekend was not over at midnight on Friday, and Florida has already added another commit on this Saturday, landing South Florida safety Randy Russell.

Russell’s commitment comes as little surprise — he was predicted by many to pick the Orange and Blue after decommitting from Miami last month, and safety C.J. Smith parting ways with the Gators in early July was widely seen as another domino leading to Russell ending up with the Gators.

Russell hails from Miami’s Carol City High — a school so South Florida that its football stadium is featured in rapper Rick Ross’s video for his debut single “Hustlin’” — and even his sophomore highlights show him to be a disruptive and physical defensive back for the Chiefs. Russell is a composite three-star prospect, but holds offers from Michigan and UCLA, and was, of course, a Miami commit up until recently, with his decommitment apparently not a result of Miami dropping him.

Russell is Florida’s 11th commitment in the 2018 recruiting class, and will move that Gators class to No. 30 in the 2018 cycle, with likely at least 10 more commits to come before the class is complete.