Four-Star Commit Tovani Mizell Liked Comparison to Benny Snell

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After an official visit to North Carolina just over a week ago, it seemed like 6-0, 205-pound running back Tovani Mizell of Ft. Lauderdale might be UNC bound.

The four-star running back took his official visit to Kentucky last weekend, fell in love with the family atmosphere and decided to verbally commit to the Wildcats Wednesday. The visit included a surprise birthday cake for the Florida recruit from the UK coaches.

He credited his relationship with UK offensive coordinator and UK running backs coach Jay Boulware as the biggest reasons for his commitment.

“I am really solid with both of them. I got to build my relationship even stronger with coach (Mark) Stoops and coach (Vince) Marrow on my recruiting trip,” Mizell said. “All the coaches were easy to talk to and it really did just seem like family.”

Mizell was scheduled to visit Oklahoma this weekend but instead committed to UK. He had 31 scholarship offers including Alabama, Tennessee, USC, Georgia, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Penn State, Oregon, Michigan State, Florida, Arkansas and Arizona.

He was a one-time Georgia commit. He was ranked as the fifth best running back in the 2024 recruiting class when he verbally committed to Georgia in August of 2022. He had amassed over 1,000 yards his sophomore season when he scored 14 touchdowns. He decommitted from the two-time national champion Bulldogs in early March.

Marrow told Mizell he reminded him of former UK running back Benny Snell, UK’s all-time leading rusher.

“Coach Marrow said he thinks I fit perfectly in their system. I got good size and speed. I am a true SEC back. He said he thinks I can be the next great running back at Kentucky and so do I,” Mizell said.

He was impressed by the number of UK fans who reached out to him after he made his commitment on Kentucky Sports Radio Wednesday morning.

“A lot of people were sending me messages and saying they were looking forward to having me at Kentucky,” the Florida running back said. “That didn’t really surprise me because the coaches were telling the Kentucky fan base was really big and the fans are amazing. So I was kind of expecting a big response.”