Florida hosts 4-star Alabama WR on encouraging first visit

Landing an Alabama-based recruit isn’t the easiest task for Florida with two in-state SEC programs to compete with, but the Gators made decent progress with  Benjamin Russell (Alexander City, Ala.) wide receiver Cederian Morgan on Thursday when he visited the Swamp for the first time.

Florida toured Russell around the school and let him sit on some of the team’s summer OTA, according to Blake Alderman of Swamp247 .

“I saw a lot of things, and I learned a lot of things,” Morgan said to Alderman. “I love the coaching staff, and how they bond with their players.”

Meeting with position coach Billy Gonzalez was big for Morgan. Florida’s wide receiver coach pitched the idea of early playing time with the Gators likely to cycle out some players at the end of the season. Gonzalez’s assistant, Chad Lucas, is from Alabama and spent plenty of time with Morgan.

Morgan is listed at 6-feet-4-inches on 247Sports, which would make him the tallest receiver on Florida’s roster. Even more, three of the four receivers taller than 6-foot are fourth-year players or older.

Auburn and Alabama are the two in-state giants to overcome, but Clemson , Florida State and Missouri have all received mention from Morgan. He’s visiting both in-state schools this weekend.

Recruiting Summary

Morgan is a four-star recruit on both major composite rankings — 247Sports composite and On3 industry ranking — however, On3’s standalone rankings and Rivals both consider him a three-star recruit.

The On3 industry ranking puts him at No. 122 nationally and No. 17 among wide receivers in the class of 2026, while the 247Sportscomposite has him at Nos. 152 and 23, respectively.

247Sports National Recruiting Analyst tom Loy submitted a crystal ball projection in favor of Alabama for Morgan on June 5 with medium (6 out of 10) confidence.

The On3recruiting prediction machine favors Auburn right now, giving the Tigers 39.9% odds to land Morgan. Alabama (18.3%), Clemson (15.7%) and Florida (13.1%) round out the top four.

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