The Florida Gators stay hot on the recruiting trail with their latest verbal commitment coming from Tampa (Fla.) Berkeley Prep tight end CJ Hawkins. Hawkins is the second verbal commitment to the Gators in the last three days. The Gators jumped into the mix with an offer to Hawkins recently, which was also his mothers alma mater. Hawkins didn’t take long after landing this offer to pull the trigger and commit to Dan Mullen and his coaching staff.
Florida tight ends coach and ace recruiter Tim Brewster was the coach who extended the offer to the 6-foot-7, 220-pounder on March 9th. Hawkins also has reported offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and many others. In total, Hawkins picked UF over 28 others offers he had reported to date.
Florida currently holds five verbal commitments in their 2022 recruiting class to date with Hawkins in the fold. The Gators 2022 class now consists of Tampa (Fla.) Carrollwood Day four-star athlete Tony Livingston, Miami (Fla.) Edison four-star defensive end Francois Nolton, Miami (Fla.) Edison four-star wide receiver Syveion Ellis, Flower Mound (TX) three-star quarterback Nick Evers, and the newly added Hawkins.
Hawkins played his first year of high school football last year for his high school after being predominantly a basketball player before that first year on the gridiron. His maxpreps profile has him catching 2 passes last season for 41 yards and a touchdown along with being a powerful blocker as well with big frame and size. Overall, Hawkins looks to have an extremely high ceiling as a player as he’s only started to scratch the surface of his football skills.
The Gators are still involved with a pair of other tight ends in the 2022 class in Greer (SC) four-star tight end Jaleel Skinner, who has said the Gators lead for and Cumming (GA) West Forsyth four-star tight end Oscar Delp.
247Sports currently does not have a rating for Hawkins at this time.
