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Less than an hour after the first good news of the morning for the Florida Gators, one of the nation’s best high school players offered another bit of it: Four-star Mississippi linebacker Diwun Black flipped his commitment to Florida from Ole Miss on Thursday, making the announcement with a tweet...
https://t.co/3EvWnFXjYe. Once a land shark but now IM A GATOR COMMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY FLORIDA.. #RIPBro @RivalsJohnson @ChadSimmons_ pic.twitter.com/ONCbkrFZag
— DIWUN BLACK (@diwunblack) August 2, 2018
...and linking to a Gainesville Sun article (by Zach Abolverdi) detailing his flip from the Rebels to the Gators and featuring a video detailing his journey.
That’s cool. Also cool? Black, the nation’s No. 53 prospect and No. 3 linebacker per the 247Sports Composite, joining Florida’s 2019 class and giving it a massive shot in the arm.
Black had previously flipped from Mississippi State to Ole Miss in April, but he was committed to the Bulldogs under Dan Mullen, and is now set to follow much of the 2017 Mississippi State staff to Florida. That’s a really good thing for the Gators, who could be landing one of the best linebackers in the 2019 class.
Black is long at 6’4”, and athletic enough that he’s played safety and wideout for his high school team thus far. (His highlights above show him returning a kick, not something you see from many linebackers’ tapes in 2018.) And if he is able to bulk up a bit from what seems like a light 215ish pounds, or simply pack muscle on without gaining much weight, he seems easy to project as a protoypical tall linebacker ready-made for the SEC.
Whispers have suggested Black has work to do in the classroom to ensure that he is able to qualify to play college football — and those whispers have sometimes included the possibility that Black will end up at Bradenton’s IMG Academy, a private school known more as a finishing school for athletes than a shining example of academic excellence, for his senior year of high school.
But if Black can make the grade, either at IMG or elsewhere, and the Gators keep the commitment of a two-time flipper, then Florida will end up with a potential star.
Black is Florida’s 12th commitment in its 2019 class, and the highest-rated. His pledge brings Florida’s class to No. 26 nationally per the 247Composite.