Florida Lands First 2027 Commitment Under Jon Sumrall with Four-Star DB

The Florida Gators on Saturday landed its first commitment in the 2027 recruiting class in the middle of Junior Day.

The Florida Gators have its first commitment of the 2027 recruiting class under head coach Jon Sumrall. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Amid a big recruiting weekend for the Florida Gators, Jon Sumrall has managed his first high school recruiting win in the 2027 recruiting class with the commitment of Plantation (Fla.) American Heritage four-star cornerback Amare Nugent on Saturday,

Nugent, rated as the No.105 ranked player Nationally in the 2027 class by 247 Sports and 10th-best player in the state of Florida, chose the Gators over Georgia and Indiana while currently in Gainesville for a visit as part of the Junior Day festivities. He becomes the first commit in the Gators' 2027 class and possibly not the last this weekend for the new staff.

BREAKING: Four-Star CB Amare Nugent has Committed to Florida, he tells me for @Rivals

The 6’0 180 CB chose the Gators over Georgia and Indiana

“All glory to the man above 🙏🏾!! Let’s work #GatorNation”https://t.co/fnuqPZ2t6n pic.twitter.com/GDUZrRvWBI

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 25, 2026

At 6-foot and 180 pounds, Nugent is one of the best defensive backs in the state and was a Navy All-American in 2025. The Fort Lauderdale native holds over 30 Division One offers after a strong past two seasons spent between American Heritage and Somerset Academy, recording a combined 53 total tackles, five interceptions and eight pass breakups on defense. He also caught 35 passes for 609 yards and eight touchdowns as a two-way player his sophomore year.

The pickup is an extremely strong way for Sumrall to start building his resume on the recruiting trail with the Gators, yet new cornerback coach Brandon Harris deserves a ton of credit, as well. The former UCF position coach initially offered Nugent in his time with the Knights, while his strong ties to South Florida likely played a large role as well.

The commitment stands as a sign of the aggressive approach the new staff has taken this weekend as Florida currently hosts over 50 recruits for the Junior Day event that started this weekend, according to Sumrall. The early returns on the event have been extremely positive, with multiple highly-rated prospects sharing with Florida Gators on SI an increased interest in the program.

The immense talent on campus is more proof of a determination by the new regime to recruit at an elite level at Florida, with multiple five stars and other elite blue chip prospects already making it to campus despite the new staff just getting settled into Gainesville themselves. Since becoming the new head coach at Florida, Sumrall has shared a confidence that he would have such success on the trail.

“I believe that the lifeblood of your program is recruiting good high school players, and at Florida, elite high school football players,” Sumrall said in his introductory press conference. “This is a unique environment because I'm going to have an opportunity to recruit the best players in the country. Like there's no reason why we shouldn't attract the very top end of the talent coming out of high school. That excites me.”

Nugent is a strong start in doing so for Florida, while multiple other big time targets still on campus seem possibly trending to keep the Gators hot start to the 2027 cycle going in the near future. Sumrall and Florida seem trending in the right direction, with their first recruiting win an extremely encouraging sign for what is ahead for the program.