Florida Gators: Opening offensive preview

The last big national summer camp event will get underway on July 7th in Beaverton, Oregon when Nike will hold its annual Opening event. The national camp will bring in 162 of the top prospects in the country.

Starting on July 7th prospects will participate in the Sparq challenge which test prospects in the 40-yard dash, vertical jump, power ball toss and shuttle run.

After the Sparq challenge is over on Tuesday, the prospects will be divided into teams to play in the 7-on-7 tournament and offensive linemen challenge which will take place on July 8th and 9th.

The Florida Gators will have several targets participating in the event and will also have its biggest name commit in attendance when cornerback Chauncey Gardner arrives in Oregon.

Gardner, who is known for being a big talker, will definitely be in the ears of several of the Gators biggest targets next week.

Gator Country.com will break down Florida’s targets at the Opening in two parts. To begin we’ll look at the offensive prospects that will be in Oregon.

 

Quarterbacks

Dillon Sterling-Cole- will play for team Lunerbeast while in Oregon and will be one of 18 participating in the Elite 11 quarterback competition that is held before the Opening this weekend. Sterling-Cole still says he will likely make a decision before the season starts.

 

LSU Tigers quarterback commit Felipe Franks- will play for team SuperBad and also participate in the Elite 11 competition. Franks is still very solid to the LSU Tigers but Florida is a school that is still recruiting him very hard at this point.

 

Running back

Florida is very comfortable with commits Lamical Perine and Mark Thompson and are not pushing for any other backs at this time.

 

Receivers

 

Nate Craig-Myers- will play for team Alpha Pro. The former Auburn Tigers commit is leaning towards the Florida State Seminoles right now but he continues to say he will visit the Florida Gators. Right now it’s a long shot for the Gators.

 

Tyrie Cleveland- will play for team Lunarbeast. Cleveland could decide at the end of the month but he very likely will take his recruitment into the fall. Right now Florida, Houston and Texas A&M are in thick of things.

 

Miami Hurricanes running back commit Sam Bruce- will play for team SuperBad. Bruce still says he’s solid to the Miami Hurricanes but Florida is right in the thick of things and Bruce told Gator Country that he will visit Florida for Friday Night Lights at the end of the month. The Gators have his best friend at Florida in Jordan Scarlett plus his high school quarterback Jake Allen already committed.

 

Binjimen Victor- will play for team Mach Speed. Victor was all set to announce on June 22nd and the Gators were the team to beat then but he has since decided to push back his decision until after the season. Florida is still in good shape here but the Ohio State Buckeyes are also in the mix.

 

Freddie Swain- will play for team Mach Speed. Florida still hasn’t made a legit push for Swain at this time and that has pushed the Gators out of his top seven list of schools.

 

Tight ends

None of Florida’s targets are participating in the Opening.

 

Offensive linemen

Brett Heggie- will play on team Mach Speed and is likely the best center at the event. Heggie wants to make his decision sometime this month and the Gators are by far the team to beat at this time. Heggie may still take a few visits before announcing but teams have a big gap to make up right now.

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.

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