Florida Gators miss out on second five-star prospect on Wednesday and it didn't have to be this way

The Florida Gators have not started out the month of July in a good way when it comes to recruiting. They lost out on five-star recruit Cederian Morgan earlier in the day and have lost out on another five-star recruit in edge rusher Trenton Henderson. Florida Gators lose Trenton Henderson to LSU Tigers It's a […]

Tyler Forness — NFL & College Football News Writer
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The Florida Gators have not started out the month of July in a good way when it comes to recruiting. They lost out on five-star recruit Cederian Morgan earlier in the day and have lost out on another five-star recruit in edge rusher Trenton Henderson.

Florida Gators lose Trenton Henderson to LSU Tigers

It's a tough loss for the Gators. Right after his visit to Gainesville, Henderson was believed to be the next big recruit on the defensive line to pair with four-star defensive lineman JaReylan McCoy. The duo would be versatile in attacking the quarterback in a variety of ways. Ultimately, that won't come to fruition.

Despite their best efforts to land Henderson, head coach Billy Napier was unable to secure another top commitment. Ultimately, the decision seems to boil down to one thing: money.

The Tigers reportedly offered a stronger NIL package than the Gators, and it's most likely the reason why he ended up in Baton Rouge over Gainesville. Here's the difficult part for Napier and the Gators: How often are they going to lose out on these elite recruits? 

It's been a constant for the Gators that they have come close to getting the top recruits, but have failed on multiple occasions to seal the deal. Can they turn things around now that Napier has some stability? The hope was it would stabilize this year, but we are seeing recruits get a massive sum before things become more regulated.

To his credit, Henderson did say during his commitment that he was picking LSU because of the depth chart and the desire to get to the NFL.

Right now, the Gators have lost out on multiple of their top defensive line prospects, and things are getting to a dire spot, especially if the announcement that three-star Jamir Perez has on Friday is a flip or decommitment.

The Gators need to get things going from a recruiting standpoint as we head into July, as they can't let their momentum collapse.

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