Florida Gators Land 4-Star Georgia DE Antonneous Clayton
Written by Ryan Wright
Twitter: @HogManInLA
Life is good on the collegiate gridiron for first year Florida head coach Jim McElwain. The Gators are 7-1 in the win-loss column and have a chance to sew up the SEC East race on Saturday when meeting the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville. Whether the Gators can leave Jacksonville with a victory over the Bulldogs or not remains to be seen, but Florida did get a key recruiting battle win on Wednesday over their division rivals landing weak-side defensive end Antonneous Clayton out of the Peach State.
Clayton became one of the more highly sought after defensive ends in the country after a fantastic junior season for Dooly County coming up with 72 tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, six forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and an amazing 16 sacks. The Vienna area talent is having an equally impressive senior season posting 54 tackles, 18.5 tackles for a loss, with seven sacks, and 12 quarterback hurries through eight games played.
The Under Armour All-American Game invite has collected 39 reported Division-I offers from teams like Auburn, LSU, Miami, Alabama, Mississippi State, Florida State, South Carolina, Missouri, and in-state powers Georgia and Georgia Tech. But also from teams across the country like UCLA, Utah, Texas, TCU, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Michigan, Arizona State, Baylor, and Oregon.
Clayton made his commitment public on Wednesday on Twitter posting, “had a great ride and I wanna (sic) thank all coaches for recruiting, but I decided to commit to university of Florida.”
The 6’3”, 220 pound, recruit visited Florida for the Tennessee game on Sept. 26 a couple of weeks after visiting Tennessee on Sept. 12.
Clayton is the third defensive end recruit committed to the Gators 2016 recruiting class joining JaQuan Bailey and Eric Mitchell. Florida has gone into Alabama for three recruits, Kansas for one, Mississippi for one, Texas for one, and have now secured their first player from Georgia. The rest of Florida’s class is comprised of in-state talent.
Florida Gators 2016 Verbal Commitment List (21)
CB Chauncey Gardner, 6’0”, 194 lbs, Cocoa HS, Cocoa, FL
CB Christopher McWilliams, 5’11”, 161 lbs, Southwest Miami HS, Miami, FL
CB Aaron Robinson, 6’1”, 185 lbs, Deerfield Beach HS, Deerfield Beach, FL
SS Quincy Lenton, 6’0”, 190 lbs, Meridian HS, Meridian, MS
SS Jeawon Taylor, 6’2”, 192 lbs, Park Crossing HS, Montgomery, AL
LB Vosean Joseph, 6’2”, 210 lbs, Norland HS, Miami, FL
LB Jeremiah Moon, 6’4”, 205 lbs, Hoover HS, Birmingham, AL
DE JaQuan Bailey, 6’3.5”, 230 lbs, Raines HS, Jacksonville, FL
DE Antonneous Clayton, 6’3”, 220 lbs, Dooly County HS, Vienna, GA
DE Eric Mitchell, 6’1”, 220 lbs, Miami Central HS, Miami, FL
OC Brett Heggie, 6’4.5”, Mt. Dora HS, Mount Dora, FL
OT Stone Forsythe, 6’7.5”, 325 lbs, West Orange HS, Winter Garden, FL
WR Joshua Hammond, 6’0”, 180 lbs, Hallandale HS, Hallandale, FL
WR Isaiah Johnson, 6’3”, 198 lbs, Dwyer HS, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
WR/DB Jayvaughn Myers, 6’1”, 175 lbs, Pasco HS, Dade City, FL
WR Freddie Swain, 6’1”, 174 lbs, North Marion HS, Citra, FL
WR Rick Wells, 6’0”, 185 lbs, Raines HS, Jacksonville, FL
RB McArthur Burnett, 6’1”, 180 lbs, Pahokee HS, Pahokee, FL
RB Lamical Perine, 5’11”, 210 lbs, Theodore HS, Theodore, AL
RB Mark Thompson, 6’2”, 230 lbs, Dodge City C.C., Dodge City, KS
QB Kyle Trask, 6’5.5”, 210 lbs, Manvel HS, Manvel, TX
Decommitted
RB Tyrek Tisdale, 6’1”, 199 lbs, Oak Ridge HS, Orlando, FL
OG Branton Autry, 6’5”, 320 lbs, Coffeyville C.C., Coffeyville, KS
Photo credit: scout.com; Antonneous Clayton