Florida fits St. Louis’ dream

Sunday was an off day for the Florida football team but the Gator coaches had work to do as offensive lineman Tyree St. Louis (6-5, 302, Tampa FL IMG Academy) visited Gainesville for an unofficial visit.

“It was a great time, me and my uncle went up there,” St. Louis said. “The highlight of the trip was going into the stadium and being able to see the facilities. I really got the whole trip experience of getting to meet everyone and getting the campus tour and everything like that. It was a nice day.”

One of the main reasons St. Louis visited Florida on Sunday was to meet new offensive line coach Mike Summers in person and the offensive lineman walked away impressed.

“Coach Summers was running me through some of the schemes they are running at Florida now,” St. Louis said. “I told him it was very similar to what we run at IMG and that I could adjust quickly to his style. I was very impressed by Coach Summers personality because he was real calm but he’s also really smart.”

If meeting Summers wasn’t enough for St. Louis the chance to meet Will Muschamp was, and the Gators head coach laid out a clear message for the IMG prospect.

“Coach Muschamp was telling me some of the great things about Florida and some of the guys they have produced to the NFL,” St. Louis said. “He was telling me that he’s trying to get the entire Tampa group around me to come to Florida and that he wanted me to join them. He was telling me that Florida was one of the top academic schools and that I would get a good education here.”

When St. Louis met with Summers and Muschamp on Sunday the topic of where St. Louis would play didn’t come up but the topic of needing tackles did and St. Louis believes that was a message to him.

“They really haven’t told me where exactly they want me but they did tell me that they need tackles so maybe they were trying to send a signal my way,” St. Louis said. “Coach Summers said that they want 5-6 offensive linemen in this class to help with depth.”

Over the last month the Tampa native has visited both Florida and Florida State and St. Louis believes one school fits him better than another.

“Florida fits me better because I’ve always wanted to play in the SEC, nothing against the ACC, because they are a good conference too,” St. Louis said. “I’ve just always liked the SEC a little more and dreamed about playing in that conference. Florida is standing out a little because of that but I’m also still pretty open.”

Despite Florida having a slight edge in his recruitment the Gator coaches can’t breathe easy yet because St. Louis wants to wait to make a commitment.

“I’m going to wait a while to make a decision,” St. Louis said. “I want to take some visits this summer and I may visit Florida for the spring game in two weeks.”

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.