Florida QB Max Brown’s first regular-season appearance in orange and blue may come away from the gridiron. Brown has joined the UF baseball team. The Class of 2022 football signee is listed as an outfielder on the roster for Kevin O’Sullivan’s Florida baseball team ahead of the 2023 season.
Brown was a late addition to Florida’s 2022 recruiting class. He was committed to Jim McElwain’s Central Michigan program, but flipped to Billy Napier’s team ahead of National Signing Day in February.
As a football prospect, Brown was rated 3-stars, the No. 25 Oklahoma product, No. 96 quarterback and No. 1,558 recruit overall in the class on the 247Sports Composite. Brown did not play during Florida’s 2022 football season.
Perfect Game rated Brown the No. 500 prospect overall in 2022 and No. 157 shortstop for 2022, noting he could also play third base, catcher and outfield. Brown clocked an 85-mile-per-hour fastball at a Perfect Game event on July 30, 2021. Brown enrolled at UF in May 2022, after the end of the college baseball regular season.
Baseball season overlaps with the spring football practice calendar. Brown is 1 of 3 scholarship quarterbacks currently with Billy Napier’s squad. The Gators signed Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz this offseason and Ohio State transfer Jack Miller is returning. Jaden Rashada, one of the top quarterbacks in the class of 2023, signed with Florida but has not enrolled at UF due to a reported situation regarding his NIL agreement.
We’ll see what O’Sullivan or Napier say about Brown’s focus for the spring semester as a 2-sport athlete. Florida baseball opens the 2023 season on Feb. 17 at home against Charleston Southern.
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.
