Oregon Football: New Jahlil Florence development a good sign for Ducks?

Four-star defensive back Jahlil Florence was once committed to Oregon football, but stepped back when Mario Cristobal left. Could he soon commit again?

Dan Lanning has his work cut out for him now that he has officially taken over as full-time Oregon football coach. He has a 2022 recruiting class to finish up and he also has to get acquainted with his new staff and players.

We’ve already seen a number of players transfer out — such as Sean Dollars and Trey Benson recently — with a handful of recruits decommitting since Mario Cristobal left for Miami. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Cristobal swayed one of his top targets who looked like an Oregon lean when he was still coaching in Eugene (Cyrus Moss) to commit to Miami.

Times have been tough when it comes to recruiting this cycle because that top-10 class has dissolved because of the coaching change, but Lanning and his staff will be just fine.

The new head coach has been talking to ex-commits and current signees constantly to make sure they’re all on the same page. He’s been working hard to salvage the 2022 class.

One of the main targets for Lanning has been former commit and four-star defensive back Jahlil Florence who is the high school teammate of Oregon’s current top-ranked signee in the class, Jalil Tucker. Florence would be a huge addition as 247Sports has the four-star listed as a top-100 overall recruit.

New development a good sign for Oregon football?

Florence had planned a few official visits before he made a decision on National Signing Day, but a new development may actually be a good sign for the Ducks.

On Wednesday, Florence announced he wouldn’t be taking any of his planned visits and he’s shutting his recruitment down. This means that he’s probably closing in on a decision and he’s only visited two schools: Oregon and USC.

https://twitter.com/JahlilFlorence8/status/1481304197056196609?s=20

It’s tough to imagine that he’d commit to a school he hasn’t taken a visit to so that might just eliminate Miami and Cristobal. That would put the Ducks right there at the top.

Maybe he and Tucker are a package deal and you know that they’ve been talking to each other about playing together at Oregon. It really feels like the Ducks are the team to beat and maybe Lanning’s national title win at Georgia helped sway his decision.