National Signing Day 2018: QB Emory Jones Commits to Florida
Dan Mullen has his first quarterback in Gainesville. On Wednesday, Heard County (Ga.) signal-caller Emory Jones announced he would sign with Florida, passing on in-state rival Florida State and Alabama, which he had shown interest in earlier this fall.
Jones is the No. 4-ranked dual threat quarterback in the class of 2018 and the No. 40 overall prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He initially committed to Ohio State in July of 2016 but continued to take visits this fall to Auburn and Alabama, prompting the Buckeyes’ staff to pursue and lock down another QB, Lake Travis (Texas) High’s Matthew Baldwin, who committed to come to Columbus earlier this month.
That left Jones looking south to find a school in need of a quarterback, taking final visits to Gainesville and Tallahassee. He will be welcomed by a fan base starved for quality quarterback play to rally around.
The Gators started Feleipe Franks, Luke Del Rio and Malik Zaire at quarterback over the course of a tumultuous 4–7 season this fall that led to Jim McElwain’s ouster as head coach. Mullen was hired for both his connection to the program’s glory days and his track record of developing raw quarterback prospects into versatile dual-threat weapons, and landing Jones—especially at the expense of an in-state rival—gives him an early leg up in his reloading process.
