Things are not going as well as the Florida Gators had hoped during the 2014 season. With Will Muschamp’s job security up in the air Florida’s commits are hearing the rumors that surround Florida’s head coach.
Despite the rumors most of Florida’s commits have publicly stated that they solid to Florida and that includes tight end commit Kalif Jackson (6-4, 202, Neptune Beach, FL Fletcher) who says he’s just watching to see how the team will rebound from Saturday’s lost.
“I’m still committed to the University of Florida,” Jackson said. “I’m just waiting to see how they bounce back from all of this. They got it handed to them on their homecoming at home so I just want to see what they are going to do from there.”
Jackson and the rest of the Florida Gators commits have built a strong bond together and Jackson says they have all decided on a plan going forward.
“All of the commits talk and talk about the game every day,” Jackson said. “We all talk about whether or not the coaches are going to stay or not and what would happen if they didn’t. We are all at the point where we say we are going to stick through this together.”
Despite all of the uncertainty and negativity around the program Jackson says that he has seen a positive on offense at his position.
“I like the way that Coach [Kurt]Roper has been trying to get the tight end the ball,” Jackson said. “Sometimes they aren’t making the plays or getting past the stick, they just aren’t doing the little things. I do think that it’s a positive that they are trying to get them the ball though.”
Another thing that Jackson has noticed in that the Florida Gators fans are still supporting the team.
“I really like that the fans are still going to games and sticking with the team,” Jackson said. “The LSU game was a great atmosphere.”
As far as Jackson’s season goes, he’s having a solid year with over 300 yards receiving and 7 touchdowns but he’s not quite happy with those numbers.
“I’m having an ok season, stats wise I’m not where I want to be,” Jackson said. “Touchdown wise isn’t bad but could be better. I want to get more yards for more my team but the first three games I didn’t play that much because I was injured.”
One thing that Jackson says is that the touchdowns have come a little easier for him because of his 6-4 frame and that’s something that Florida fans should be happy to hear.
“It’s easy for me to score the red zone because of my size,” Jackson said. “I can either go up and get it or go down and get it. I just have to use my size to my advantage.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Jackson is as solid as it gets and he truly loves the University of Florida and I don’t think a coaching change would affect him at all.
I don’t see UF losing any of the in-state recruits, but as for the others, it’s a huge problem. The relationship with the coaches is huge for an out of state player who, normally, have no bond with the school growing up. The reason UF was able to sign Thomas Holley last year was because the coach he ad a relationship with at his first choice, Penn State, left. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that this staff is history, and rightfully so. UF should fire the whole staff and not saddle the new coach with any holdovers from the failed regime. IF he wants to hire someone from the previous staff, let it be his choice, not a condition of his hire. So you can expect recruits to bail on Florida and recruiting will take a hit this year. Anyway, that shouldn’t be a concern. Recruiting has never been a problem, no matter who is the coach. Picking the RIGHT players has been the problem.