Three Predictions: Florida, Purdue, NFL Draft
Jeff McCulloch/Rivals.com
Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia Jr. has predictions on Florida landing an in-state target, Purdue flipping a Big 12 commit and running backs in the NFL Draft.
MORE PREDICTIONS: Intel behind 20 FutureCasts for top recruits
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1. FLORIDA KEEPS FOUR-STAR G'NIVRE CARR AT HOME
As we reported earlier this year, Florida has been the betting favorite for G'nivre Carr for some time, and that stance has only felt strengthened of late despite the IMG Academy blocker checking out Tennessee and Miami in recent weeks.
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Gainesville has a different feel for the Ocala native, who of course grew up cheering for the program located just up I-75.
But the confidence level rising in our projection of the four-star to join Billy Napier's program also comes from the work of assistant coaches and staffers in Gainesville. Not only does Carr feel like a long-term priority prospect, but he says UF has been the program showing the most consistent communication with him – something that still resonates with the modern recruit just like it always has.
Carr also just penciled in his official visit to Gainesville beginning May 30, so there's a chance trips set for later in the summer either don't get taken or come with more gravity if Carr makes the visits as a Gator commitment.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH FLORIDA FANS AT 1ST AND TEN FLORIDA
2. PURDUE WILL FLIP JEFFAR JEAN-NOEL FROM WEST VIRGINIA
An early commitment to West Virginia looked rock solid through the end of March, when Jeffar Jean-Noel went back up to Morgantown to dig deeper on his would-be college campus. Soon after that time, as the new offers and communication picked up with other schools, trips began to materialize elsewhere. First up is an official visit to Purdue set for this weekend and we are hearing the trip could become a pivotal moment in his recruitment.
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It really wouldn't surprise to see Purdue win out following the first known recruiting trip to West Lafayette for Jean-Noel, or perhaps during the trip on the program's dime. At the time of the decommitment from WVU on Thursday morning, the rising-senior recruit admitted there were too many newer options to consider since the initial move toward the Mountaineers, but he has since also confirmed the Purdue trip is the only one on the books at this time. Sounds like a flip move to me.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH PURDUE FANS AT BOILERUPLOAD.COM
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH WEST VIRGINIA FANS AT WVSPORTS.COM
3. THREE RUNNING BACKS WILL BE DRAFTED IN THE FIRST ROUND
© Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The 2024 NFL season and, heck, the College Football Playoff too, reminded the pass-first levels of football that the running game still matters aplenty. Perhaps coincidentally, the 2025 NFL Draft is absolutely loaded at the position considering prospects like national title game hero Quinshon Judkins, Devin Neal, DJ Giddens, Kaleb Johnson or a Damien Martinez aren't even threatening Day 1 projections. It's just that much better at the top.
The combination of great talent at the very top, the returned value of young bellcow running backs and the economical benefits of rookie contracts could add up to an unprecedented run at the position come Thursday evening. There wasn't a Round 1 back in 2024 or 2022 and there hasn't been three selected in the first round since 2018 when Saquon Barkley, Rashaas Penny and Sony Michel made it happen.
Let's go out on a limb and call for history repeating itself here behind the ceiling of Ashton Jeanty, a top-10 lock, Omarion Hampton as almost a consensus No. 2 back and how about TreVeyon Henderson's dual-threat ability pushing him to the top 32 picks as well?
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Wilken ultimately agreed, going point-by-point through the objectors' arguments to explain why they didn't hold up. 'The modifications provide Designated Student-Athletes with what they had prior to the roster limits provisions being implemented, which was the opportunity to be on a roster at the discretion of a Division I school,' Wilken wrote. Her decision, however, took nearly a month to write, leaving the schools and conferences in limbo — unsure if the plans they'd been making for months, really years, would go into play. 'It remains to be seen how this will impact the future of inter-collegiate athletics — but as we continue to evolve, Carolina remains committed to providing outstanding experiences and broad-based programming to student-athletes,' North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said. The list of winners and losers is long and, in some cases, hard to tease out. A rough guide of winners would include football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, which will devote much of their bankroll to signing and retaining them. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood's NIL deal is reportedly worth between $10.5 million and $12 million. Losers, despite Wilken's ruling, figure to be at least some of the walk-ons and partial scholarship athletes whose spots are gone. Also in limbo are Olympic sports many of those athletes play and that serve as the main pipeline for a U.S. team that has won the most medals at every Olympics since the downfall of the Soviet Union. All this is a price worth paying, according to the attorneys who crafted the settlement and argue they delivered exactly what they were asked for: an attempt to put more money in the pockets of the players whose sweat and toil keep people watching from the start of football season through March Madness and the College World Series in June. 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