It's been a really interesting week for the Florida Gators.

They have been hot on the recruiting trail, but the news breaking on Thursday that secondary coach Will Harris was departing the Gators for Miami (FL) turned things upside down.

At first, it was reported that Harris was leaving for Miami. However, a post from Harris on social media led us to believe that head coach Billy Napier pushed him out.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Billy Napier and Scott Stricklin for giving me the opportunity to coach at The University of Florida. Billy – As they say, the ones who bleed together are brothers. We went through the trenches last year and pulled out one hell of a…

— Will Harris (@CoachWillHarris) February 15, 2025

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Loss of Will Harris has unintended consequence for Gators

When you are a college team, losing coaches is a major part of the business. The unfortunate aspect of all the turnover with college coaches is the movement of players. They develop relationships with coaches and when those coaches leave, sometimes they will follow suit.

The 2026 recruiting class for the Gators just had a major blow as they lost for-star recruit Jaelen Waters.

BREAKING: Four-Star CB Jaelen Waters has Decommitted from Florida, he tells me for @on3recruits

The 6’2 180 CB from Seffner, FL had been Committed to the Gators since June

Holds a total of 54 Offershttps://t.co/yqO6eDeb20 pic.twitter.com/uFsbK77wIN

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) February 15, 2025

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The Seffner, Florida native is currently the 15th-ranked cornerback per On3 Sports in the 2026 recruiting class and the 19th-ranked prospect in the state of Florida. Waters committed to the Gators on June 15th, 2024, but hasn't taken a visit to Florida since July 27th. In that time, Waters has taken four visits, all of which were to Miami.

• 9/7/24
• 11/2/24
• 1/18/25
• 2/1/25

The departure of Waters isn't much of a surprise considering the departure of Harris and also how hard Miami (FL) has been recruiting him.

Waters told On3’s Chad Simmons in January that Miami was “right there” alongside the Gators.

“Florida and Miami are two home schools for me because I live in Florida. They’re always pushing for me. It is Miami, the coaches want me there and it is always great to be around the people at Miami,” Waters said.

The Gators are still doing everything they can to improve their recruiting class, as they are now down to two commits in the 2026 class.

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