ORLANDO — Maryland quarterback commit Dwayne Haskins (6-3, 193, Potomac, MD The Bullis School) was the hot name on Monday when he arrived in Orlando, Florida for the Under Armour All-American game.
Haskins, who made news last week when he tweeted that he was heading down to Florida for the Christmas holidays, explained on Monday why he was in Florida last week.
“I have an aunt that lives in Orlando so I went and visited her for Christmas and vacation,” Haskins said. “My whole family is here and it was a fun Christmas. We’ve done it before.”
Haskins tweeted photos last week of himself working out with Florida Gators cornerback commit Chauncey Gardner and Haskins explained how that workout came about.
“We were going to head down here on Thursday but we decided to leave on Tuesday, so I had to hit up Chauncey and Bruce [Judson] to work out,” he said. “I really don’t know much about Florida so I had to hit them up and work out with them. It was fun. Florida speed.”
Gardner, who is known as one of Florida’s top recruiters, is constantly in Haskins’ ear and the Maryland commit is paying attention to what Gardner has to say about the Florida Gators.
“Chauncey is after me a lot, he’s a handful,” Haskins said. “He’s good and he’s always in my ear about Florida and having the chance to play early at Florida and all that. I’m listening to him.”
Two weeks ago the Florida Gators were in the news when quarterback Will Grier decided to transfer away from Florida, but that wasn’t exactly news to the Maryland quarterback commit.
“When it went public, it was interesting but we didn’t think he was going to come back anyway,” he said of Grier’s decision to leave. “It doesn’t really increase my interest because I already had an idea he wasn’t coming back because I was talking to the guys during the visit and they said he hadn’t been back since he was suspended.”
Florida is now left with just two quarterbacks on the roster, plus the two early enrollees and Haskins says that head coach Jim McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier are constantly talking to him.
“I talk to Coach Mac every week and it’s the same thing that he needs a quarterback,” Haskins said. “He tells me that I can come in and play early and dominate the SEC at quarterback. Coach Nussmeier also tells me that he wants me to come there. That’s what everybody is telling me.”
The fact that Florida has two quarterbacks early enrolling in January would scare off a lot of guys but Haskins says he isn’t concerned about them.
“I don’t really care too much about competition because you’re going to have quarterbacks wherever you go,” Haskins said on Florida signing two quarterbacks this year. “Being able to play early at Florida is enticing to me but I think I can play early wherever I go.”
Haskins has already used his official visit to Florida back in November but he says he has seen enough of Florida to know what they have to offer and the Florida Gators will go in-home with him in January as well.
“Coach Mac is probably going to come see me in January but I don’t think I will be able to get back down there,” Haskins said. “Florida is a lot of fun and the atmosphere was great for the Florida State game even though they lost. I’ve visited Florida three times so I have seen everything that I need to see.”
Florida isn’t the only team after Haskins right now but he says that he talks to all the teams the same.
“I talk to everybody equally right now,” he said. “I talk to Florida, Ohio State Maryland, LSU and Texas A&M I’m going through my options right now with everyone.”
Despite listening to other schools, Haskins still remains committed to Maryland after the coaching change.
“I’m still verbally committed to Maryland,” Haskins said. “I thought the D.J. Durkin hire was good. I don’t know much about him except he’s a defensive guy that coached at Michigan and Florida. I met him once.”