McElwain visits Florida State receiver commit

Florida Gators coach Jim McElwain was in Tampa Tuesday making his rounds and visiting top prospects. He visited with Florida State receiver commit Auden Tate (6-4, 199, Tampa, FL Wharton) while he was in town.

“Coach McElwain visited me at my school today and it actually went pretty good,” Tate said. “He’s a good coach and a good guy. He knows what he’s doing and what he’s trying to build. The visit went better than I expected because I didn’t know him before.”

One thing that Tate got out of the meeting was that Florida now wants him at receiver unlike the previous staff who saw him at tight end.

“Coach McElwain said he sees me fitting in as a receiver at Florida,” Tate said. “He said that he wants to use me as kind of a match-up receiver and they want to move me around to get the best fit for me. I’m glad that he’s recruiting me as a receiver instead of a tight end.”

McElwain has a proven track record with big receivers in the past and that was something that he talked to Tate about on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ve done my research on Coach McElwain already but he was talking to me about his track record with receivers and things like that,” Tate said. “He said that he coached Julio Jones and he moved around him to get him the ball and he also had Marquize Maze at Alabama and he matched him like he wants to do with me too. Coach McElwain also said he coached one of the best in the country at Colorado State named (Rashard) Higgins this year.”

Now that McElwain has shown that he wants Tate and has shown that he can coach receivers that has sparked the interest of the Florida State commit.

“Yeah, I think his offense is a great fit for me,” Tate said. “I love getting a mismatch and getting to move around in the offense. I think it helps me as a player. Knowing his offense now makes me real interested in Florida.”

Despite the good news from McElwain on Tuesday the big receiver says he still is locked into Florida State but the Gators may have another shot at him in January.

“I’m solid to Florida State,” Tate said. “I plan to take an official to Florida in January but I don’t know if I’m going to take any other visits or not.”

INSIDER TAKE: Tate says he’s solid to Florida State but I think he’s more open to Florida than he’s saying at this time. Tate wants to play receiver but Will Muschamp wanted him at tight end and that hurt Florida’s chances with him early on. If he makes an official to Florida likes he says than I think things could get interesting here.