Florida football recruiting: Four-star wideout Trevonte Rucker commits to Gators — again

Back in December 2018, Trevonte Rucker committed to the Florida Gators.

Now he’s done it again, doing so on Tuesday morning via Twitter.

Obviously, the class of 2021 wideout from Ocala’s vaunted Vanguard High wouldn’t have been in a position to commit again without decommitting first, and he did that back in May 2019. But Rucker — like a few other relatively local 2021 prospects who committed to Florida in 2018 to form a formidable nucleus for the Gators’ 2021 recruiting class, only to later reopen their recruitments because making a public commitment before beginning the second semester of your sophomore year of high school is silly — never strayed that far from the Florida flock, and his Crystal Ball did not show any predictions of him landing with other programs, despite him being on some other schools’ radars.

Rucker is a bit of an unusual take for Florida under Dan Mullen, given that the Gators have shied away from receivers closer to 6’0” flat — Rucker is listed at 5’11” — in favor of taller receivers with large catch radii. But his versatility — Rucker has played quarterback, wideout, and corner in high school — and athleticism make him a prospect that Florida probably had to take or risk hearing about as a miss on a local if he blossomed as a playmaker for another team.

And as before, Rucker’s closeness to defensive end Bryce Langston, a teammate at Vanguard, could help Florida secure a significant haul from Daunte Culpepper’s alma mater. Langston, like Rucker, committed to Florida before cutting himself loose; Langston, like Rucker, has been seen as a Florida lean despite that decommitment.

But Langston, somewhat unlike Rucker — a top-150 prospect who should stay well within the four-star range — is a potentially nationally elite prospect, given that he was a five-star at the time of his first commitment. Now, he’s a top-tier four-star guy, but well within range of being a five-star player should he have an impressive senior season.

Florida holding a commitment from his teammate will probably not hurt the Gators’ efforts to re-recruit Langston.

Rucker is Florida’s 11th commitment for its 2021 class, which ranks fourth nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings despite having only nine prospects rated by the recruiting service. He and defensive back commit Kamar Wilcoxson both share the status of having both decommited from and recommitted to Florida since originally committing in late 2018.