BRADENTON, Fla. — Will Griffin always wanted to be a Florida Gator. But he also wanted to go through the recruiting process to get to know as many coaches as possible.
You never know these days. Quarterbacks and coaches are constantly on the move.
So, the Tampa (Fla.) Jesuit star and his family made an estimated 45 unofficial visits to schools all over the country — hitting several two or three times since his freshman year — before he woke up one day last month and decided to commit to Billy Napier and Florida.
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At the time, Griffin was the third blue-chip quarterback in the 2026 cycle to lock in with a school. Eight more have since made pledges. So why commit now and not after his junior year when he has another season of data on the schools he’s interested in?
“(Because) other people could take that spot, you know?” said Griffin, a four-star recruit and the No. 9 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite. “I just felt like we were No. 1 on Florida’s list. They wanted me and I wanted to go there. So, why not? I can help recruit the class.”
Those two reasons explain why half of the 22 Class of 2026 blue-chip quarterbacks in the 247Sports Composite are now committed to Power 4 schools.
| Player | Rank (Nat'l/QB) | State | School |
|---|---|---|---|
Jared Curtis | 8/1 | TN | |
Dia Bell | 10/2 | FL | |
Brady Smigiel | 53/5 | CA | |
Jaden O'Neal | 64/6 | CA | |
Brady Hart | 92/7 | FL | |
Will Griffin | 102/9 | FL | |
Troy Huhn | 108/10 | CA | |
Noah Grubbs | 120/12 | FL | |
Brodie McWhorter | 288/17 | GA | |
Oscar Rios | 292/18 | CA | |
Dereon Coleman | 302/21 | FL |
Ultimately, these prospects hope to stick with their commitments, but there are still about 18 months until they can make it official. A head coach or offensive coordinator might move on. A high-profile transfer might join the program. But for now, it’s in the best interest of both parties to make a commitment — player to program and program to player.
“College coaches are good with it because they want to build the classes,” Rivals national recruiting analyst John Garcia said. “And they need the quarterback to be the face. You want the QB on pretty early.”
Dia Bell, a South Florida native who is ranked the No. 2 quarterback in the 2026 class, committed to Texas and Steve Sarkisian on June 17, two weeks after his fourth visit to campus and his mother’s first trip to Austin.
Bell, the son of former NBA standout Raja Bell, said Sarkisian won him over with his offense, coaching background and track record of putting quarterbacks in the NFL. Bell had initially planned on committing after his junior season. In the end, he felt he couldn’t wait.
“Obviously you saw a bunch of dominoes fall in front of me, guys like Will Griffin and some other guys committing,” Bell said last month at the Under Armour Future 50 at IMG (Fla.) Academy.
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“I wouldn’t say that pressured me into making a decision at all. But I just felt like if they’re doing it so early — and Texas only offered two guys and they really wanted me … why not? I felt like I was already really comfortable with the people and coaches around the program.”
Giffin, Bell and other committed quarterbacks do have a backup plan. They have built strong relationships with other head coaches and coordinators in case things don’t work out. They don’t stop answering the phone either.
It’s a delicate balance of being committed to a coach and a school but also protecting yourself in case the situation drastically changes.
“When you commit, you don’t just shut the door on somebody like that anymore,” Griffin said. “It’s like, you interview for a job and you take this job and you can’t just shut everybody else out. Because what if something happens?
“I know for sure that if something happened or were to happen down the road, that you know (another coach) could take me under their wing.”
Griffin said Oregon, Auburn, Florida State and North Carolina are still recruiting him.
Bell still has a good relationship with coaches at Penn State, LSU, Ohio State and Miami but said the only way he’d stray from Texas is if Sarkisian were to leave the program.
“I wouldn’t say my recruitment has shut down, but I’m probably not going to be going on visits to other places,” Bell said.
Committing to a coach and program early doesn’t guarantee a quarterback a spot in the class, but it can at least divert others away.
Brady Smigiel, the No. 5 QB in the 2026 cycle who plays at Newbury Park (Calif.) High School, was preparing to visit Michigan last month when the Wolverines accepted a commitment from another quarterback, Florida native Brady Hart.
Smigiel ended up changing his flight to visit Florida State instead, and he committed to the Seminoles a few days later.
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Hart, ranked No. 7 among QBs in the class, visited Michigan on June 16. He had made stops at Ohio State, Texas A&M and LSU and then committed to the Wolverines before Smigiel could set foot on campus.
Hart said Michigan’s championship culture won him over. He also had a good relationship with coach Sherrone Moore. Like Bell and Griffin, Hart had planned to commit after his junior year. But spots were starting to dwindle.
“As these dominoes start falling off the board, if you find a place that fits you with the right guys, the right coaches, just a program that fits you, you can’t pass it up because someone else will jump on it,” Hart said.
He said he’s built strong relationships with coaches at Clemson, Miami, Texas A&M, LSU and Penn State in the event the situation changes at Michigan.
Smigiel said he was down to three or four schools before his last visit to Tallahassee with his family. He liked Oregon and Washington and had built a good relationship with Chip Kelly before he left UCLA to join Ryan Day’s staff at Ohio State.
Smigiel, though, was unable to attend Ohio State’s camp because he was taking finals in school. In the end, Smiegel said he took it as a sign things probably just weren’t meant to be with the Buckeyes.
During his visit to Tallahassee, Smigiel said coach Mike Norvell told him: “You are our guy, but I don’t know if we are your guy. So if things don’t match up, we wish you the best. But yeah, you’re our guy.”
By the end of the trip, Smigiel was ready to commit, impressed with the staff’s honesty and moved by the team’s camaraderie after he and his family went to dinner with quarterback coach Tony Tokarz and all six of FSU’s QBs.
“It’s not just recruiting, it’s how they treat people,” Smigiel said. “I’ve never seen a quarterback room so close with each other in terms of chemistry. Obviously, they’re wanting to beat each other out. But it really just felt like they were pushing each other to get better and they hope for the best for everyone.”
Smigiel then called the other coaches who had been recruiting him to let them know he was committing to Florida State — noting that it was important to maintain positive relationships with other programs.
Jaden O’Neal, a four-star prospect from Southern California who ranks right behind Smigiel at No. 6 in the QB class, committed to Oklahoma on June 24.
The Sooners actually had another Class of 2026 quarterback silently committed — four-star Dereon Coleman from Orlando — when O’Neal made his pledge. Oklahoma tried to keep both quarterbacks in the class, but Coleman, ranked as the No. 21 QB, committed to Miami on July 3, his 17th birthday.
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“Dereon was solid to OU for about four or five weeks,” said Baylin Trujillo, Coleman’s private quarterback coach. “(Oklahoma coach Brent) Venables was honest with him and told him there were two guys they were looking at in the ’26 class. (Oklahoma offensive coordinator) Seth Littrell then called me a couple weeks ago and told me Venables really likes Jaden O’Neal. ‘We’re gonna take Jaden and accept him, but we also want Dereon.’
“For me, as Dereon’s quarterback trainer, I wanna send my guys to programs where they’re the guy. I told Dereon there’s three schools — Miami, UCF and TCU — where you’re No. 1 on the board and the only guy in the class. That same day, Dereon made the flip to Miami. He went to (Miami’s) last camp of the summer and everything went according to plan.”
O’Neal visited Colorado, Texas, Florida State and Miami before committing to the Sooners. He said he likes the way Venables and Littell “attack quarterbacks and the development process.” Getting a chance to play in the SEC was “also a big part of it,” O’Neal said.
As much as he likes the coaching staff at OU, O’Neal said he knows it’s important to keep in touch with other programs in case things change.
“Once you put the ring on one, it’s hard for others,” O’Neal said. “But my thing is to keep the relationships. Competition is never gonna stop. You could bring as many guys as you want to. At the end of the day, you gotta do what you got to do in between the white lines.”
(Photo of Brady Smigiel: Joe Lumaya / USA Today Network)
