Griffin Taking on Leadership Role in Gators' 2026 Class

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Tampa (Fla.) Jesuit four-star quarterback Will Griffin has played the role of recruiter much longer than recruit as the Florida Gators' longest-tenured commit in the 2026 recruiting class.

"I mean, yeah, the quarterback is kind of a leader. Even if you're not ready for that opportunity or ready for that spot, you're already a leader," he said. "You're a natural leader. You have to be. And I'd be glad to have the pressure on me. I like having the ball in my hands in tight games. I like pressure. So it's not even pressure recruiting these kids. You just gotta be yourself, be genuine."

Griffin also held the title of being Florida's only commit heading into the summer. Since then, the Gators have added nine commits to the class and are poised to add more. This weekend alone, Florida welcome three more to the group with four-star running back Carsyn Baker, four-star receiver Marquez Daniel and five-star edge rusher JaReylan McCoy.

After adding those three, Griffin put a lot of effort into recruiting a large portion of the Gators' official visitors this weekend.

"I wanted to see people that were genuninely interested," he said. "Carson (Sneed), the kid who is committed to Tennessee right now, the tight end. I think I can get him. Malik (Morris). I played him twice. Good family. Great person. I think I can get him. Desmond (Green) and Claude (Mpouma). I think we can get them, too. Obviously, we got McCoy and the receiver, Quez.

"So those are good people. Those are people you want to be around and that you want to be a part of your family."

As the longest-tenured commit, Griffin explained that he feels as if he's already a part of the program. While he spent much of the visit recruiting others, he also enjoyed the perks of his own official visit by getting to break down film with the coaches and go over Florida's offensive scheme.

"I felt a lot of love, man. I mean, these guys really appreciate what I do, and I appreciate what they do for me," he said. "I sat down with Coach (Ryan ) O'Hara for probably two and a half hours again, just going over the drops, open and closed, coverages, techniques, DB assignments, rolling, cloud, buzz like you name it, we went over it. It was really insightful for me to take that and go implement that my last year."

Still, Griffin wears the leader title with pride, and the Gators may not be done adding to the class with two offensive line prospects in Tyler Chukuyem and Javarii Luckas set to announce their decisions on Monday and multiple high-profile prospects set to announce in July.

With already 10 commits in the class, many of whom either have or are planning to completely shut down their recruitments, Griffin is confident in what Florida has built so far and excited for what's to come.

"I feel like it's real, because a lot of these colleges, like, I'm not gonna say any names, but they just go there to go there, just because, for instance, like, 'Oh, it's just Alabama, so I'm just gonna go there,'" he said. "No, you have to build a real relationship with the people.

"Like, I know these guys. I've been here with them multiple times before. Some I might have met for the first time, but we kicked off here for two and a half days. I think it went over really well."

Florida Gators on SI is tracking all of the Gators' major recruiting news, from commits to prospects of note to the official visit schedule, on our 2026 Recruiting Tracker.

More From Florida Gators on SI