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Vernell Brown III is continuing the family legacy of playing football at Florida. Brown, an elite wide receiver prospect, verbally committed to play for the Gators on Sunday.
Brown’s father (Vernell Brown Jr.), grandfather (Vernell Brown Sr.) and uncle (Vincent Brown) all played for the Gators. They appeared in Trey’s commitment video, shown during his live ceremony Sunday streamed on YouTube.
Out of Orlando (Florida) Jones High School, Brown is listed as measuring 5-11, 170 pounds. On the 247Sports Composite, he is rated 5-stars, the No. 5 player in the state of Florida, No. 6 wide receiver and No. 25 prospect overall in the Class of 2025.
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Though Brown grew up in a Gator family, many programs recruited him in hopes of landing a commitment. Brown picked up offers from 42 schools. Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Michigan, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas A&M are among the programs that showed interest during the process.
For Sunday’s big announcement, Brown narrowed it down to Florida, Florida State, Miami and Ohio State.
“Sure, I grew up around it and I was naturally drawn to UF,” Brown told the Orlando Sentinel, “but I can’t say that throughout my recruiting process it was end all be all UF. There were times UF wasn’t the No. 1 school.
“Every last school in that final four, they were all the No. 1 school at different points in time.”
Brown’s commitment comes as Billy Napier’s staff looks to build some momentum on the recruiting trail. The Gators have just 10 verbal pledges, lagging behind many of their rivals and SEC peers. The class ranks No. 62 nationally on the Composite, and 15th in the conference (ahead of only Vanderbilt).
Florida fans who don’t already follow Jones football can get a preview of what Brown brings to Gainesville by checking out highlights from his junior season in the video below. Brown recorded 63 catches for 1,230 yards and 9 touchdowns in 2023.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
