Florida football recruiting: Gators pull four-star CB Jahari Rogers from Texas

The Florida Gators are unlikely to have a stretch of the 2021 recruiting cycle as hot as the one they went on for a week in late June and early July.

But they’re still hot, as Monday proved, with the Gators securing a somewhat surprising commitment from Texas cornerback Jahari Rogers.

Rogers is a four-star prospect per the 247Sports Composite, and ranked No. 154 in the 2021 pool of recruits. He attends Arlington High in Arlington, Texas, and has about average size for the cornerback position at 6’0” and 170 pounds.

But Rogers has elite speed, as his Hudl tape’s report of a 4.41-second 40 and a 10.7-second time in the 100-meter dash can attest, and he shows that off in the highlights — but only on offense, as he is bolting for long runs and scores for almost the entirety of it.

Florida, though, is taking Rogers as a corner, as the Gators — like much of the industry, and maybe Rogers himself — see him as a future defensive back. And Rogers, now one of five defensive backs in Florida’s 2020 class, also joins corner Avery Helm in hailing from the Lone Star State, meaning that that Gators may end up with as many or more defensive backs from Texas in the 2020 cycle as they do from the Sunshine State.

That’s somewhat odd, as three defensive backs among the nation’s top 50 prospects per the 247Composite are playing their high school ball in Florida. But with all three of those players currently committed to out-of-state schools, the Gators may be responding to that predicament by mining Texas. Only time can prove that strategy wise or foolish.

Rogers is Florida’s 18th commitment in the 2020 cycle, and the Gators’ class remains a top-10 collection of talent, now ranked No. 8 nationally.