Justin Fields works out and updates recruitment at Friday Night Lights

Justin Fields tweeted he was in Gainesville and the buzz started growing. A crowd started to gather around the northwest corner of the Florida Gators indoor practice facility on Friday Night as the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback made his entrance to Friday Night Lights.

Fields owns offers from just about every Division I program in the country and his reputation precedes him. He didn’t need to work out, but the five-star quarterback from Kennesaw, Georgia couldn’t imagine coming and just watching from the sideline.

“It’s just the competitive nature in me. I just like to compete. I love the game,” Fields told Gator Country. “I knew there were going to be some pretty good players out here so I wanted to throw a little bit.”

Since he decommitted from Penn State in June Fields has been visiting schools trying to find a new home. He’s been to Georgia, Auburn and Florida State, as well as Gainesville. He was in Tallahassee on Thursday night before coming back to Gainesville for FNL.

“I just wanted to get around the players and the coaches,” he said of why he wanted to come back to Florida for camp. “Just to see what it would be like if I were here.”

Jim McElwain has been very hands on with Fields’ recruitment along with offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier and running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider. The message to Fields is clear. Florida believes they’ve recruited well enough around the quarterback position, they’re just missing that one piece to get over the hump

“They’ve had good quarterbacks over the last couple of years, I’m not trying to insult any of the quarterbacks that are here, but they haven’t had a game-changing quarterback since Tim Tebow,” Fields said. “That’s what they’re telling me. They’re telling me they have all the pieces to put around me.”

Fields admits that the possibility of early playing time is intriguing. It’s something that is certainly available at Florida.

“Every recruit wants to be able to play early. Nobody wants to go to a school to sit the bench.”

Fields told Gator Country that this would be his last unofficial visit of the summer. His high school team begins practice for their upcoming season on Monday and he wants to focus on his senior season.

A commitment could come at any time but Fields still plans on taking his five official visits even if he pulls the trigger this summer.

“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said of the opportunity to take all of his official visits. “I don’t know when I’m going to commit. I may commit tomorrow, I just don’t know.”

Fields named Oregon and Nebraska as two potential official visit locations. He said Georgia, FSU and Florida are so close, “a short drive from home” so they likely wouldn’t make the list for officials.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC