GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Will Muschamp used to spend his days on the recruiting trail trying to persuade Lacroria Wilson that the University of Florida would be the best place for her son, Byron Cowart, to play college football.

After Muschamp lost his job with the Gators and started a new one as the defensive coordinator at Auburn, it was no surprise that his opinion changed.

Muschamp’s firing left Cowart, one of the nation’s top recruits, with a difficult decision: Should he follow a man he says he loves to Auburn or stay in Florida and help the Gators’ new coach, Jim McElwain, turn around a struggling program?

On Wednesday morning, in the Armwood High School auditorium in Seffner, Fla., Cowart slipped on an Auburn Tigers cap, revealing his decision to stick by Muschamp. But in a televised interview, Cowart, a defensive end, said his family’s relationship with Muschamp was not the main reason.