If asked to pinpoint just one thing the Florida Gators have done on the recruiting trail under Jim McElwain, I might point to recruiting running backs. On Sunday, the Gators’ success there got even more pronounced, as Georgia tailback — and former Alabama commit — Dameon Pierce committed to Florida in a tweet.
Comitted #AllBite18 pic.twitter.com/ya6PoIGgzG
— Dameon Pierce (@IRep229) August 6, 2017
That tweet being as cool as it is — with Fred Taylor, Errict Rhett, and Emmitt Smith as the legends Pierce can follow at Florida — is appropriate for the bruising Pierce, one of the class of 2018’s most powerful runners.
Pierce hails from Bainbridge, Georgia, and is a four-star player ranked as the No. 9 running back in the 2018 class by the 247Sports Composite. His highlights show how he plays bigger than his 5’11”, 205-pound frame, repeatedly exploding into and through contact, and generally keeping his balance thanks to impressively good leverage for a running back.
Pierce joins a swelling 2018 Florida recruiting class that now counts 17 players as commits and ranks No. 8 nationally, and joins fellow four-star Iverson Clement to give the Gators a potent combination at the position.
And given that Florida has already been able to sell the success of Jordan Scarlett to players like Pierce, Clement, and 2017 signees Adarius Lemons and Malik Davis — who could all, in turn, have their own successes sold to future recruits — it seems clear that running back will not be a position Florida struggles to fill so long as McElwain is in town.