Florida football recruiting: Jeremiah “Scooby” Williams commits to Gators

The Florida Gators haven’t shown much on the defensive side of the ball in 2020, with three games of significant strafing by opposing offenses leaving much to be desired from Todd Grantham’s players.

But that hasn’t seemed to stop defenders with pedigrees from wanting to play for the Gators, with Alabama linebacker Jeremiah “Scooby” Williams becoming just the latest in a long line of talented defenders to join Florida’s 2021 class with a commitment announced via Twitter and YouTube.

Apart from his staggering and possibly unnecessary percentage of commitment, Williams is a big pick-up for the Gators — who beat out Auburn for his pledge — because of his skills and frame. At 6’3”, Williams isn’t the tallest edge rusher in the high school ranks, but his long arms help give him an imposing wingspan, and his ability to work through blocks or bolt off the edge as a rusher makes him a terror at the high school level with substantial room to grow as a collegian.

Adding weight (Williams is listed at 224 pounds by 247Sports) would be an obvious first step for Williams at Florida, but the four-star linebacker/defensive end from Ramsay High in Birmingham should have time to do that, as linebackers coach Christian Robinson has assembled quite the constellation ahead of him, with several blue-chip linebackers in Florida’s last two classes and two others in this 2021 cycle.

In total, Florida now has 25 commitments in its 2021 recruiting class — and eight of them are blue-chip defenders.

That merits a zoinks.