Monday was the first day this season that the Florida Gators coaches have been able to hit the road to do some recruiting since they have been in a season mode beginning in early August when fall camp started.
One of the first stops of the day for offensive line coach Mike Summers was to see JUCO offensive lineman Ashton Julious (6-8, 330, Scranton, PA Lackawanna C.C) at his school.
“Coach Summers came up to the school and talked to my coaches a little bit,” Julious said. “It was pretty good seeing him out there but he isn’t able to actually talk to me so he was just talking to my coaches about some of our plays and was looking to see how I was with learning plays and understanding plays. He told them that they were really looking forward to having me down there for a visit.”
This was the first time for Summers and Julious to meet and according to the JUCO lineman the visit went very well for both parties, even though they weren’t able to talk to each other.
“My first impression of him was that he was a pretty cool guy,” he said. “I could tell that he was really good coach and I could tell that he would help me get better and get me to where I want to be. It was also nice to see him come all the way up here to see me. It showed me that they were really interested in me.”
Over the last few weeks since the Florida Gators offered Julious, the Gators coach has been sharing a simple but important message with the JUCO offensive lineman over the phone.
“Coach Summers has been telling me that they are really interested in me and that they wanted to show me that they were interested in me,” Julious said. “Coach Summers says that he’s hoping that I’m really interested in them because they need some older more experienced players to help them out next year on the offensive line.”
Now that Florida has visited Julious at his school, the lineman plans to make it down to Gainesville to see the Florida Gators campus for himself, as he really likes what Florida has to offer him.
“Florida is definitely one of my top schools and I’m definitely thinking about going there, I’m really considering them,” he said of his interest in Florida. “I’m going to take my official visit to Florida for when they play FSU or FAU in November.”
Florida isn’t the only school in the running for Julious as the lineman plans to visit Oklahoma and Arizona State before making it down to Gainesville.
“I’m also interested in Oklahoma, Arizona State and a few more schools,” Julious said. “I’m hoping to make my decision before December or sometime close to that.”
INSIDERS TAKE: If Florida shows Julious a good visit then I could definitely see the JUCO offensive lineman coming to Florida because Julious is from South Carolina and likes SEC football, plus he knows that he can play early in Gainesville.