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Five recruitments to watch at South Florida's Crib Classic

John Garcia, Jr.by: John Garcia, Jr.07/10/25JohnGarcia_jr
Derrek Cooper
Derrek Cooper (Photo by Jeff McCulloch)

The final 7-on-7 event of the summer goes down this weekend in South Florida, as the Crib Classic pits some of the state’s top football programs against one another.

Rivals looks at five prospects with intriguing recruitments among those expected to participate.

RB Derrek Cooper

The Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna star was on the verge of making a verbal commitment this weekend before pushing decision plans back indefinitely. The program with the most direct reasoning — and potential benefit for pushing things back — is Texas. The Longhorns wowed during the official visit Cooper took to Austin in June and there are tentative plans to get back to town to see Steve Sarkisian and company this fall. The two programs long thought to be at the top of the list, Miami and Georgia, remain in good shape but Cooper hasn’t ruled out Alabama or Ohio State among contenders, either.

The longer this one goes, the more wild a recruitment it may become.

WR Jasen Lopez

Another Chaminade-Madonna standout, the two-sport star has already committed to play both football and basketball at Florida State — but he has also kept things open. Lopez took a bevy of official visits before somewhat of a surprise pledge to Mike Norvell‘s program, and he has since admitted things can still move one way or the other relative to his recruitment. There is no public final decision timeframe to center on and the top threat to the Seminoles happens to be the program closest to home for Lopez in the Miami Hurricanes.

LB Karon Maycock

The Miami (Fla.) Central linebacker has been relatively quiet this summer, but it doesn’t mean his recruitment hasn’t been a busy one. Maycock has added considerable offers since making an early pledge to FSU, back in February, and he has explored some of the new options like Notre Dame and Alabama. There are also long-term tenders with programs closer to home like Florida and Miami that could still factor into the picture. Maycock says he is solid with the Seminoles, but also admitted the potential top threat is the in-state rivals in Gainesville. There was once a July 7 final decision window being worked on, but that has been pushed back so his early season visit plans will be tracked closely.

QB James Perrone

The only class of 2027 recruit on this list, Perrone hails from Miami (Fla.) Southridge as the reigning Dade County Offensive Player of the Year. He impressed at Notre Dame’s Irish Invasion camp in June and added Power 4 offers from West Virginia and Maryland around the same time. With the dominoes at the quarterback position always accelerated, with Clemson taking their rising-junior passer on Thursday, the beginning of the 2025 campaign and how programs track Perrone’s progress could lead to an early verbal commitment.

WR Zamarii Sanders

There are two-sport standouts who carry the “secondary” spot beyond football as something personal and intimate more than a college projection. But what Sanders does as a sprinter in the spring and summer may vault track and field over football in his final evaluation. The West Palm Beach (Fla.) Cardinal Newman standout is just a few weeks removed from a blistering 10.19-second 100-meter dash mark at the New Balance National event, establishing the fastest time in the state of Florida. His 200-meter mark of 20.61 seconds is good for No. 2 in the state, so it’s no surprise to see SEC track offers like LSU continuing to roll in. On the football front, Sanders is of course a deep threat and return specialist, so combining each sport’s options won’t be an easy task.