Following the firing of former head coach Billy Napier, many Florida fans were concerned with keeping the 2026 recruiting class together.

Newly hired head coach Jon Sumrall made quick work to keep the No. 16 recruiting class in the nation intact, immediately learning more about his class days before putting pen to paper.

“I think we’ve got a lot of great players, and I think we’ve really got high character in that class. I think the staff has done a good job. I’m going to fight like heck to hold on to them,” Sumrall said Monday.

Upon his introduction at Florida, Sumrall made efforts to meet with the class, putting together Zoom calls on Sunday and Monday to meet with his newest commits before National Signing Day on Wednesday.

“I FaceTimed with as many of them as I could last night until I fell asleep. I’m going to FaceTime with the rest of them tonight and get them all knocked out and make sure they know, man, I can’t wait to coach them. I’d love to coach them.”

Despite the coaching change, Florida lost only one prospect, four-star running back Carsyn Baker, who signed Thursday to Texas A&M.

“First I thanked them for — there haven’t been a whole lot of decommitments, which is really powerful,” Sumrall said. “It speaks a lot about what this place is. It also speaks to a lot about a number of people that are still in the building, still here working day-to-day right now.”

Florida fends off CFB powerhouses for signatures

It was no easy task for Sumrall to keep some of his newest signees, as top schools across the nation tried to capitalize on Florida’s coaching change.

Ohio State pushed hard for four-star cornerback CJ Bronaugh, while Texas A&M fought to keep EDGE KJ Ford in state.

One of the top prospects at his position, four-star wide receiver Davian Groce chose to play in Orange and Blue over opportunities at Oklahoma and Baylor.

A hot commodity from Mississippi, four-star DL JaReylan McCoy remained solid following Napier’s firing.

Despite remaining unsigned at this time, four-star defensive back Kaiden Hall is likely to head to Gainesville despite late pushes from several Southeastern suitors.

On Thursday, Florida added four-star safety Dylan Purter, poaching the Alabama native from LSU and Lane Kiffin.

Sumrall will have plenty of talent to work with in his transition class

The early signing period is over on Friday, but as things stand on Thursday morning, Florida has signed all but two of its commitments: the aforementioned Hall and tight end Kekua Aumua.

The class is as follows, sorted by position:

QB: Will Griffin

WR: Justin Williams, Marquez Daniel, Davian Groce

TE: Heze Kent

OT: Javarii Luckas, Chancellor Campbell, Tyler Chukuyem

IOL: Desmond Green, G’Nivre Carr, Corey Brown (walk-on)

DL: JaReylan McCoy, Kendall Guervil, KJ Ford

LB: Malik Morris

DB: CJ Bronaugh, Dylan Purter, CJ Hester