Thursday afternoon, seemingly out of nowhere, the Gators got their signal caller for the '23 class. Marcus Stokes announced he was flipping his commitment from Penn State to the University of Florida. Stokes attends Nease High School which is obviously home to a pretty notable alumni--a guy named Tim Tebow. 247Sports ranks Stokes as the 10th overall QB in the class of 2023.
What the Gators are getting:
I think it was easy to see almost immediately after his commitment, that he is going to be a leader in recruiting efforts and quickly brought his buddy Treyaun Webb (four-star RB) with him. Webb was long seen as a Gator lean, but Penn State, along with Stokes there, had definitely given him something to think about. Webb joined Billy Napier's class just moments after Stokes, and I don't believe there was any coincidence there. We've already seen him recruiting guys like Aiden Mizell and Lucas Simmons to join him in the Swamp. Give me a local kid who loves the Gators every single day of the week.
In his junior season at Nease, Stokes put up quality numbers as he led the Panthers in both passing and rushing yards. He completed nearly 60 percent of his passes for 2,672 yards with 22 touchdowns while throwing only nine interceptions. He also rushed for nearly 500 yards and added six more touchdowns on the ground game. According to 247, Stokes draws comparisons to former Pittsburgh Panthers QB Kenny Pickett who just went in the first round of the last years draft.
With his addition as well as Webb, the Gators continue to climb the 247Sports Team Rankings. More notably though, the class average is currently sitting at 90.54. Another very important thing to note is that 10 of Florida's 12 commits are now from the State of Florida. Billy Napier has made it known that he wants to recruit the "footprint" well, and that when Florida was winning championships, "65-80%" of the roster was from Florida. Well, it appears that he is certainly aiming to achieve those numbers thus far in the '23 class.
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