Gator Country brings you a new podcast as we focus on the first official visit weekend for the Florida Gators that starts on Friday.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down which prospects are visiting Florida, plus what the Gators chances are with these guys.
Andrew and Nick also talk about the latest news surrounding the Gators coaching search, plus discuss the basketball team.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, recruiting’s back, as of midnight on Wednesday night. The roads were open, and the airfare miles are getting racked up.
Nick: I’m disappointed today.
Andrew: Why’s that?
Nick: Jim Harbaugh did not have a sleepover.
Andrew: That doesn’t happen until later in the process.
Nick: Okay. So there’s still time?
Andrew: There’s still time. There’s still time for the weird tree climbing.
Nick: Still time for grown men to have sleepovers with 17 year old kids.
Andrew: Yes, and have movie time, and all the other weird things that Mr. Harbaugh did.
Nick: I guess if it works.
Andrew: I’ll be honest, Nick. I love recruiting. Will not lie that I hope to one day get my hand back into it at the college level, but there’s a line I’m not crossing, and that is sleeping over with a 17 year old kid, unless he has a beautiful mom.
Nick: I feel like that’s a little inappropriate now. Let’s reel you back in.
Andrew: Lordy. So, it’s back on the road, and the good news is Florida’s back on the road. The bad news is they still didn’t fill that assistant coach, but the one thing I’ll say is this, and that is they did send Drew Hughes back on the road, and he’s visiting the Alabama kids. I, personally, think, outside of a few guys, I’d rather have Hughes going to recruit my Alabama guys than anybody.
Nick: Yeah. Let everyone know kind of, in case they’re new. We’ve gotten a lot of new people in the last year, what Drew’s job is, and how this is not really a part of his job, but it’s something he’s had to do the past two years because of coaching changes. Then kind of who he had a hand in recruiting last year.
Andrew: So, he’s Florida’s recruiting coordinator/director of player personnel. He’s a Montgomery native, and a guy that started his career out at Alabama under Nick Saban. His job is basically to line up all the visits. He’s the guy that makes all the offers, gets everyone set up. He basically is the guy that tells the coaches where to go, and he is usually not out on the road. I think if you ask him, he’s like, “Okay, sure. It’s better than being behind the desk,” but he’s not supposed to have to. Like you said, last year he was responsible for getting Perine, Jawaan Taylor the safety, and also getting Jeremiah Moon, whenever they came out of Alabama, and was also a very big of getting Quincy Litton to commit to Florida out of Meridian, Mississippi.
So, his background’s there, and, like I said, would you like to have an assistant coach on board to go recruit? Sure. I would say that if Florida was to get one, we’re taping this on Thursday, by Friday, then it ended up working out great, because you got to send Hughes to Alabama to recruit LaBryon Ray, to recruit Henry Ruggs, and the rest of those Alabama kids, but you need to find a new coach. You’ve got to.
Nick: Just saw on Twitter, from our buddy over at Only Gators, Geoff Collins left for Temple 30 days ago. He’s already completed his staff.
Andrew: Right. Well, it’s a little bit different for him than it is, and it’s a little bit different when you’re completing a whole staff compared to one. I think you and I are safe to say that Mike Loxley’s the guy that Florida wants. He’s the guy that Jim McElwain wants, and Florida’s in a little bit of a bidding war with Alabama.
Nick: That’s not who you want to get into a bidding war with.
Andrew: No, not at all.
Nick: It’s like the movie Blank Check over there.
Andrew: Yeah. There’s a little bit to say, and I’m with people when they say, “They should have had the staff done by now.” I’m with you when you say that, but at the same time, something that Saban does say all the time, and it’s something Mac says a little bit too, and that is, “If you know you want someone, is it better to wait a little bit longer and get that guy, or hire someone that maybe next year you’re firing again?”
Nick: I mean, if I’m Mike Loxley’s agent, and he’s telling me, “I want to do this,” whether it’s stay or leave. I’m saying, “We’re going to wait. We’re going to make both sweat, and we’re going to get a bigger payday out of it.”
Andrew: That makes everyone happy there.
Nick: It makes Loxley and his agent happy.
Andrew: Oh no.
Nick: I don’t know if makes the athletic association or whoever’s paying for it.
Andrew: Exactly. Let’s talk real quick, before we get into other things. Everyone wants to see other changes made. I personally have, I’m trying to think of the best word to say. I’m personally agreed with that. Let’s just say that.
Nick: You’ve been calling for it, back to like October.
Andrew: That’s what I’m saying. I personally agreed with it, and my thing is this. Is it going to happen? I don’t know, but I do think there’s still a realistic chance that maybe it happens after Signing Day. Maybe. I don’t know.
Nick: That’s where I’m at. I’m at that, if it hasn’t happened yet, then you’re trying to keep continuity. Listen, man, it’s dirty. It’s a dirty, dirty game. Coaches stay on. Here’s the thing, the coaching community is small. All these guys know each other, and they all know how volatile their job status is, their job security is. So, if a head coach says, “I know you’re going to leave to go to this job. Can you stay on so we can keep our recruiting class intact? You have a good relationship with Bobby Running Back, and we need Bobby Running Back to come to our school.” It’s dirty. Bobby Running Back comes, and then all of a sudden his position coach says, “Hey, by the way, I’m going to New Mexico State. Sorry.”
Andrew: Case in point, what just happened at Auburn with Rhett Lashlee.
Nick: Jarrett Stidham had a very good relationship with him.
Andrew: I hate to do this.
Nick: They can be pen pals now.
Andrew: I hate to do this, because it’s hindsight, and there’s no way for you and I to prove this, but you can back me up when I say this, in that we mentioned, I mentioned to you back in December when Stidham was getting recruited. I said, “I hope he doesn’t go to Auburn for Rhett Lashlee, because he’s leaving.” You were like, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, the rumor down here is that he’s leaving.” Guess what happens? He leaves. Same thing with Leatherwood. Mario Cristobal was his main recruiter. Guess what? He’s leaving. It’s dirty business, dirty business.
Nick: The NCAA we’re really just about furthering the education of young men and women, not a business. Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, I hate it. I’ll be honest. I hate it, because it’s tough to weed through the bullshit.
Nick: Florida did it.
Andrew: I’m not saying Florida’s different. I’m saying they all do it, but what I’m saying is it’s tough for an 18, 19, 20 year old kid to weed through the bullshit of that, especially when said coach is looking you in the eye and saying, “I’m not going anywhere.” Then, okay, let’s just use Leatherwood for an instance. Cristobal is telling Leatherwood, “I’m not going anywhere.” Florida’s trying to flip him, so Florida, of course, is going to say anything. Leatherwood’s probably thinking, they’re just saying that. Case in point. Boom. It happens.
Then, sometimes it happens where they stay. Case in point, Corey Raymond last year with Kristian Fulton. Everyone was saying he was leaving. Case in point, he stays. So, it’s a wavering through the bullshit for these kids, and it’s tough. I don’t know the answer. Yes, I hear, some people say, “They should be able to transfer.” Then that gets into just a war, more of a bidding war. We’re going to pay you more to go to this school, that school. I don’t know the answer. S
Nick: You aren’t suggesting that there is people getting paid in recruiting.
Andrew: Did I just break the news?
Nick: That’s new.
Andrew: That’s new. Yeah.
Nick: It’s tough, and it’s like you said, it’s a dirty business. I’m blanking on the name right now, but it was a defensive line coach.
Andrew: Terrell Williams.
Nick: Terrell Williams. It happens. It happens everywhere, and even if you want, it’s kind of like we’ve talked about before, even if you want to run a nice clean program, and everyone says that McElwain’s a genuine guy, and it’s all about the kids. Stuff like this happens, and he says he’s building the right way.
There was a story, I think it was, I can’t remember who wrote it. You remember the story I’m talking about where they were talking about at Auburn, and I think it was Bowden saying when he took the job at Auburn he was handed this black book, and these are all the players that are on payroll, and this is what they’re getting paid, and this and that. They were talking about Duke, and David Cutcliffe being given the ability to go 2-10 to build things the right way, and how he’s had years where he’s had success at a school that doesn’t have much success in football, while doing things the right way. That’s not happening in the SEC.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: You might have to do stuff like that.
Andrew: It’s tough, and I’ll say this. I mean, nice guys finish last. That is the saying, and, quite frankly, it’s pretty accurate. Mac does try to do things the right way. Anybody that says differently to you is straight lying. I think you’ll agree with that when I say that, but in some of these cases I would like for him to say, “To hell with Alabama’s class, or last year, to hell with Virginia Tech’s class. We’re the Florida Gators. We want to win. I have to win, so Torrian, you’re coming down now, or Chris Rumph, you’re leaving Texas now.” That kind of stuff. Now, to be fair, with the Terrell Williams thing, that hire for the Miami Dolphins didn’t take place until later. I believe it was like the dead period between the last visits and Signing Day. So that wasn’t like it was hidden.
Nick: Yeah. I think it’s also a situation where someone who hadn’t been in college for a while, and it’s that 30 day push to get a class, and he kind of looks at what recruiting is going to be like, and he thinks, “No thank you.”
Andrew: Let me find the best way to get out of here. Like we said though, Florida’s back on the road recruiting. Coach Hughes, Drew Hughes, is taking that spot, and he’ll do a great job. There is no doubt in my mind that, as far as what he’ll do on the road. He’ll do a great job. He’s a very good salesman on that. As far as that goes, if I’m Gator fans I don’t worry about that at all.
I do worry about, you want to get your positions filled out, that way you’re not having kids guess who’s coaching, but, to be fair, right now there is really no exact open position. We know Randy Shannon’s going to coach linebackers. We know he’s going to be the defensive coordinator. Only thing is does anything get moved, and you want to be up front with the kids. That’s that. I feel pretty certain stuff will come about soon. We’ll see how soon that is. It may come, we’re taping this Thursday at noon, it may come later Thursday, and if it does, and you’re listening to this, don’t think we’re dipshits. We had to tape early today. There you go.
Nick: There you go. So, we’ve got some official visits to talk about, right?
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s talk about them. Finally the cake, cookie cake, as the business is roaring. I don’t know if you saw this, Nick, but on Twitter, Northwestern’s big on the cookie cakes, and they sent their staff member. I counted 41 cookie cakes. That’s a lot of cookie cakes.
Nick: What’s Jim McElwain’s? I hope they’re not walking into Uncrustables.
Andrew: I don’t know. They do give the cookie cake. Florida also does several other things. They leave like a bag of snacks, that kind of stuff, in the room for them. Everyone does something different. Cookie cake has been that thing lately. We’ll see what it is this year. Always something different, but it’s a smaller weekend. Right now, like we said, at noon on Thursday—
Nick: Before we start naming names, give people a rundown of what an official visit is, timeline, what they’re going to be looking at. Of course, things will be tailored to specific players, but what is a general, run of the mill, your standard official visit? When do they get in? When do they leave? What can happen?
Andrew: Okay. For sure. So, most of these guys will fly in on a Friday afternoon and get in in the afternoon, usually 3-5 is the timeframe. Some guys that are local, the Jacksonville/Tampa kids, they drive up, and Florida’s able to pay for that. If they drive up they’re able to pay a certain amount of money per mile they travel, and if they fly they’re able to fly the kid, and now they are able to fly the two parents with the new rule, which is huge, in my opinion.
So, it’s the prospect and two people. They come in usually 3-5ish. Friday night is usually, for Florida they go out to a restaurant, eat. The players go out with their host. They have a player host, or players host. They usually go out to popular midtown, or if the guy likes to stay in and play Madden, they stay in and play Madden, like you said, it’s kind of countered to the player. The parents kind of get together afterwards, have some adult fun. You can read into that what you want.
Then Saturday’s more of an academic day. They get the campus tour. They get to go see all the different academic things. They get to meet with the counselors. They get to meet with their major, whatever their major, want to major in. They get to see the different facilities, and then they get to, in the afternoon, spend time with the coaching staff, have like one on one meetings with their position coach, watch film with that stuff. Florida has this new thing where they’re able to like put you in 3D to see you running out of the tunnel. I forgot what that’s called, Nick. You remember what that’s called?
Nick: I do not. VR, virtual reality. I’m not sure.
Andrew: It’s kind of a virtual reality kind of thing. They do that. They take them to the sports broadcasting, where you see all those pictures, that kind of stuff. Then Saturday night is dinner, usually in Florida’s Presidents suite, followed by another night out on the town.
Sunday is strictly meet with the coaching staff one more time, do all that good stuff, ask any questions you’ve got. Then depart for home, start the week all over again.
Nick: Is there any point where you get Scott Strickland involved? Would you get the athletic director involved, anything like that?
Andrew: It’s kind of one of those things, like you said, it depends on the player. I think Strickland will be more involved, for sure, because he’s a new guy and hasn’t been around a lot. He’s also going to be telling his plans for facilities, but some guys go meet the president, President Fox. Some guys want to meet Strickland. So, it kind of depends on who it is, and it also depends on, for instance, Jeremy Foley. Jeremy Foley was a guy that was always around, so everybody kind of knew him. So, it kind of depends on Strickland. Is he going to be around a lot, that kind of stuff? But, yes, they get that opportunity to meet Strickland and really all of the athletic people. If there’s a basketball game, as well, they go to that on Saturday. This week they have…
Nick: There is a basketball game Saturday.
Andrew: So they’ll get to go to that Saturday when they play Georgia. So, they’ll get to do that, and see the atmosphere. I think that’s cool. I think it’s neat to see, those guys be able to see the rowdy reptiles. I mean, Florida has one of the best student sections in basketball, so it’ll be loud.
Nick: And you’re going to see a brand new, newly renovated, O Dome, so you can kind of see, they’re showing me these plans for football, the sport that I play. Look what they were able to do here. This looks pretty good, and it is really nice in there.
Andrew: You know one thing though, Nick? And we’re going to get off topic here for just a second, but one thing that I noticed that Florida doesn’t do that other schools do, and maybe you’ve noticed this as well, Florida’s student section doesn’t realize which prospects are coming into town. You notice over the last few years, Georgia, Bama, Michigan was big on this, their student section knew who was coming in town, and they would start cheers. I remember last year it was Rashan Gary. They wanted Rashan Gary, so they were talking about, “Rashan Gary to Michigan.” I remember Bama was doing that two years ago with Nkemdiche. It didn’t work. I mean, not two years, a few years ago. With Nkemdiche it didn’t work. I noticed that Florida doesn’t do that. Have you noticed that as well?
Nick: I remember, I’m not sure if it was two years ago or last year, I remember seeing fans start to like try to organize it, like on Twitter, but it didn’t go through. Also though, if you’re not at the game it might not be something you hear. It might be during a TV time out.
Andrew: Good point.
Nick: When you’re talking about Alabama, they don’t really care about the basketball game. They’re probably, you saw the 800 people that showed up to the basketball game the other day, so they have no problem while the basketball game is going on cheering for, chanting a football recruit’s name. They’re probably there because the football recruit’s there. Like, so-and-so’s going to be at the game, so we need to go buy a basketball ticket, so we can chant his name. Not so we can go watch our basketball team play.
Andrew: Yeah. Good point. Maybe Florida fans should do it during the time out, and then they can support their basketball team and their recruiting.
Nick: Let’s do this. I’ve got a list of eight guys coming in.
Andrew: Before you go to that, I wanted to say this. Like you said, there’s eight coming in, and it’s going to be bigger each weekend, but the thing that I wanted to say about this weekend is notice the big, big names, and while it may be only eight, some massive names, Nick, coming in. While the quantity may not be huge, the quality is massive this weekend.
Nick: Who would be the, if you had to make a list, who would be the name that needs to be chanted?
Andrew: The alpha dog?
Nick: Yeah. Who is the headliner of the list this weekend?
Andrew: You always do this to me. You want me to pick one.
Nick: I have to. I got to have you make enemies, and then whoever you put as not the top dog I’m going to send the podcast to the other seven. Listen, Andrew Spivey doesn’t care about you.
Andrew: So, here’s the deal. Dang. There’s three that I want to say, but if I had to say one, I’ll say James Robinson. That’s just because I love the guy’s game, and I think, when you look at a guy his size, Florida just doesn’t have that, and they need that size. He’s a Lakeland guy. Need to start locking down the state in getting that guy, so I’ll say the headliner is James Robinson. The other two that I would say would be Levi Jones and Devon Hunter. Nick, I told you about Levi Jones all Under Armour week. The guy’s just a phenomenal linebacker, and then Devon Hunter is that alpha dog that could be the face of DBU, if he was to come take over at safety. James Robinson will be the headliner, in my opinion. It was close.
Nick: So that’d be like a, “We want J Rob,” chant.
Andrew: Hey, I’m not organizing chants, but if you want to organize it.
Nick: I’m not organizing anything. I think we talked about J Rob a bunch. Everyone knows what to expect there. Give me a little background on Levi Jones.
Andrew: Levi Jones is the son of a former NFL linebacker, Robert, and he played for Randy Shannon at Miami. So there’s a relationship there. Randy’s known Levi and his brothers since they were little kids, when the dad was playing for Randy, so the relationship goes way back there. He’s out in Austin, Texas, but doesn’t care about Texas. His brother went there, and had an awful experience there, so Texas is out. It’s basically going to be Florida, Florida State. What we’ve heard from people out there in Austin Westlake is that Levi wants Florida. Dad likes Florida State a little bit, so it’s going to come down to that.
This is an opportunity for Randy Shannon, as the new defensive coordinator, to look at them and say, “I coached your dad to be great. I can help you be great as well.” I don’t bet money against Randy Shannon landing any linebacker. The guy’s a hell of a linebacker coach, which you were able to see. He’s a guy, sideline to sideline though, Levi Jones, ain’t too many guys better than him sideline to sideline. Reminds me a lot of Alex Anzalone in his athletic ability to just really run, minus the hair.
Nick: So, FSU, I’m assuming, this the is the first weekend for official visits, FSU will get the last official visit. Is this one that, we talked about this before last year, but it might be a refresher to some people. Jim McElwain can only go in home one time.
Andrew: Right.
Nick: He’s very strategic with how he does that and the timing leading up to it. Would this be one where he would kind of wait, wait, wait, and maybe use his in home? Randy Shannon can go in home, other coaches can go in home multiple times, correct?
Andrew: Right.
Nick: But the head coach is only one time, and you try to be, you’re kind of playing checkers, playing chess with that one.
Andrew: Right. I would expect Randy to go in home next week, and I would expect that Mac would go in home at the very end of things. That Florida State visit still hasn’t been set up officially, according to Levi. It’s just expected to be there, so we’ll see. It’s something to kind of monitor as we go in. Like we said though, the one thing is that once he leaves Florida State things kind of go dead. The dead period starts on the 30th, so you can’t really do it. So, I would expect Mac to maybe go in home on that Thursday before the Florida State visit, unless they come out of this visit feeling like we don’t have a shot. Then they’ll move on.
Nick: Okay. Now let’s go down to Devon Hunter. Florida doesn’t really need, defensive back is a position that they need to restock up on, but safety’s not a huge need right now. Actually, I might even take that back, because you look at it. You’re going to have two seniors this year, this coming up year, but then after that Quincy Litton will be a redshirt sophomore the following season, and Chauncey Gardner will be a junior the following season. So, yeah, even safety.
Andrew: Yeah. I think with Devon it’s this, and that is that he might be the best safety in the country, so you recruit the hell out of him. I mean, look at what Florida’s had DB. They’ve never had an issue over the last few years, even though at one time it seemed crowded. Now look at it. It’s a Florida, Virginia Tech battle here. He’s from the Virginia area, but he did grow up liking Florida a lot. He and Coach DeBastiani’s son are good friends. Coach DeBastiani is the quality control guy that also stepped in for Collins as linebacker coach, and also Hunter and Torrian Gray are very close from his time at Virginia Tech.
Florida’s getting this visit. He announces on the 20th, so Florida gets this visit this weekend, and then the following Friday he announces his decision. Right now Virginia Tech’s the leader, but that’s what the visits are for. You got a chance to flip that, and you can also tell Devon, “Look, after Nick and Marcell, there’s no experience at safety.”
Nick: No. We both like Quincy. We’re, just making sure people don’t think you’re putting him down. We both like Quincy Litton, but, yeah, after that really no experience at all.
Andrew: I mean, we say Chauncey, and we say Jawaan Taylor. They played a little bit, but neither one of them are tons experienced. I mean, Chauncey has a lot of experience, but we’ll see where it goes. If I’m Florida, I’m selling, “Listen, after these two guys graduate, there’s no depth.” So, that’s my thing.
Nick, for me the interesting guy this weekend, outside of Robinson and those guys is Elijah Blades, and that is the guy that has been committed to Florida since the summer, and he had a great year. He’s one of those guys that you take, and people say, “Maybe he just wasn’t a take, or shouldn’t have been taken.” Some schools didn’t take him. Florida took him, because they liked him a lot, and, boom, look at his year. USC and Nebraska and Oregon are all pushing him, Georgia a little bit too, are all pushing for the flip. Florida gets the first visit this weekend, and then he goes to USC and to Nebraska.
Florida’s going to try their best to shut those visits down, and if they can’t shut them down, they want to get a lead that’s impossible for them to break. The key to remember here with Blades is he and Skipper, Tim Skipper, have like a father/son relationship. It is a close, close knit relationship, and I think a lot of people undervalue that relationship, but it’s a good relationship. It’s just a big visit this weekend. Even if he doesn’t shut it down, just to reassure him of, “Okay, Elijah, you made the right decision by choosing Florida back in June, when you committed, when these other schools didn’t think you were good enough.”
Nick: Yeah. That’s kind of, maybe I’m wrong, but maybe a little Caleb Brantley thing, where he gets out there, and he’s kind of seeing all this other stuff. I think Florida getting on guys early is helping them. They’ve done a great job of evaluating talent, but it is hard. All of a sudden you’ve got all these new people coming in, and then they love you, and all this new stuff. You’re kind of just like, “Maybe I should look around and see if the grass is greener.”
Andrew: Yup. That’s exactly what it is. It’s on Florida to continue to knock that out of the park. The other commit they have coming in is Ventrell Miller. He’s from Lakeland, Kathleen, and he’s very solid to Florida. Should be coming on campus this weekend to help recruit.
Nick: I want to move on to another guy. Here it is. Florida, I did a story on replacing all the talent Florida’s losing. The position where I don’t see a ton of depth, after cornerback, is defensive tackle. Cam Spence coming in.
Andrew: Maryland commit. Was at IMG, and then went back home to Washington, to St. Johns College. 6’3”, 315 pounds, just a monster of a tackle. I do think it might be a little tough to flip him, but Maryland did lose their D line coach, Mike London, to Howard University as head coach, so the door’s open a little bit. Florida has that playing time, like you said. They can easily sit here and tell Cam Spence, “Listen, we have Taven Bryan and Khairi Clark, and after that depth’s wide open, and we play five defensive tackles at times, as a rotation. So, come on and play.” That’s something they can sell.
I mean, Maryland is the home school, but Florida’s SEC, so I think with a good visit Florida can definitely get themselves in the mix for him, and he’s, like you said, it’s a big position of need. I’m a big fan of Cam Spence. Rated a little lower than he was at the beginning, when he was a sophomore or junior, but he’s a still a phenomenal football player that probably steps on campus as one of your top five defensive tackles.
Nick: Okay, now tell me if I’m being too harsh here.
Andrew: Okay.
Nick: Florida should not be competing with Maryland for recruits. Like, you might have gotten in later, but Florida shouldn’t be competing with Maryland. I get that. Jalen Tabor’s a Washington kid, who hated the Washington kids.
Andrew: Right, but he was committed there, so you can’t, I don’t fault Florida for this one. There’s a couple that I’ll say, “You shouldn’t be fighting for them with,” but those Washington kids are different kids. They want to stay home. Penn State’s trying to flip him. Kentucky’s trying to flip Cam Spence. All these schools are trying to flip him, but at the end of the day he’s a Maryland kid. That’s why I say I think Florida has a shot, just like when they bring in the Gaddy twins here in a couple weeks. They’re Virginia kids, and they’re going to try to flip them. They’re committed to Maryland. They shouldn’t lose the battle, but since it’s a Washington kid, those DMV kids are different kids.
Nick: DMV. That reminds me, I have to go get a new license.
Andrew: That’s because you don’t look like your license.
Nick: No, I don’t.
Andrew: Let’s move on real quick. The other guy that has drawn a lot of attention this week is Jarez Parks, defensive end out of Sebastian River, coming in. Off and on with Florida. Many thought he was a lock to Alabama. I still think is he a lock to Alabama. Coming in this weekend for a visit. Good player, just a different guy. So, we’ll see how this visit goes this weekend. I personally still think it’s Alabama, in that Florida has guys like LaBryan Ray, and other guys on the board. It’s still interesting that he’s coming on the visit.
Nick: What do you think it means?
Andrew: I think that he’s trying to take all the visits.
Nick: More of like, if they’re going to pay for me to fly out there and maybe give me a sweet cookie cake, then I’ll take it.
Andrew: He has to drive, but, yeah. His parents are Florida fans, so maybe it’s a trip for them as well. Then again, you have to look at this way, and that is any time you get parents that are Florida fans that are on there, and get them on campus, and show them what’s going on, maybe you turn the tide a little bit on those kids. So, that is one that I am looking forward to hearing the post visit report from him on.
Nick: Okay. What kind of player is this?
Andrew: Four star, four star guy. Speed guy. More of a speed guy than anything at the defensive end position. Really gets off the ball well. Didn’t measure in well at the Army game though, only came in like 6’2”. Wasn’t as big as I thought he was. Me personally, I like the LaBryan Rays of the world better, but he’s a good fallback option if Ray goes to Bama, and Bama doesn’t take Jarez.
Nick: Okay. Looking at our last guy, Eric Stokes. Athlete.
Andrew: Yeah. A guy that is a speed guy, is a guy that a lot of people have him projected to play DB. I think that’s what he probably ultimately plays is DB. Ran a 4.33 in the 40, laser time, and is super fast. Kind of has flown under the radar, let me say that, because he is more of a speed guy. Florida and Georgia are both bringing him in on back to back weekends. Ole Miss is the presumed leader for him, because they were on him earlier. I personally think is a fallback option for guys like CJ Henderson, Brad Stewart, that kind of stuff, but he’s a guy that if you have space at the end of time, end of the class, you take him and just put him on special teams. With his 4.33 speed could even potentially play some receiver if you needed him too. Only 6’ though. I personally think this is a visit to set up a backup plan if needed.
Nick: Those are tricky to play.
Andrew: Yeah. It is.
Nick: Those are tricky to play, because you’re playing a little waiting game, and then you wait too long, and now it’s not an option.
Andrew: Right. Only thing is this, and that is that Georgia’s putting him on the same thing. Ole Miss, they’re getting that last visit, so they’ll know where they stand. They may be able to sway him. Like I said, I feel like there’s a lot of really good players around still, so I wouldn’t sweat it, if I was Florida, if they were passed on him.
Nick: So this would not be like a freak out.
Andrew: No. Let’s not have any freak outs over here. Good player. Let’s not have no freak outs.
Nick: Okay. I mean, Twitter’s not going to listen to you. They’re going to freak out.
Andrew: They’re not listening to me at all. Never are they listening to me. Nick, real quick, I want to talk about this one guy. Florida has offered, and he’s not visiting this weekend, probably going to visit on the 27th, Oklahoma linebacker commit, Jacob Phillips, out of Nashville. Tore up the Army game, just tore up the Army game. Florida and LSU are both teams that are looking to flip him. He’s someone we need to monitor. 6’3”, 228, 230 pounds. Out of Nashville. He’s someone we need to monitor down the stretch to see if he takes that visit. Florida and Drew Hughes talked to him all day on Wednesday, and has him interested. Has some connections to some former Gators, so that’s one we need to monitor as a later offer that came in, after blowing up. So we need to continue monitoring that, and I wanted to throw that in there that he’s a potential January 27th visitor for Florida.
Nick: And this isn’t just because of the one showing.
Andrew: No. It’s something they watched over and over, and when Alex Anzalone declared, I don’t want to say it took anyone back a little bit, but when he declared it opened up another need for linebacker. So a guy like Jacob Phillips is a guy that instantly shot up the board when that came about.
Nick: Okay. Who would be spearheading that, as far as recruiting?
Andrew: Hughes and Randy Shannon. Hughes and Randy Shannon are those two guys that are heading that up, and that is going to be something that we have to watch, because it’s going to come down to Florida being able to get him on campus on that 28th. The key here is this, and that is that he’s already taken all five of his official visits, so the LSU trip and a potential Florida trip would all come on his own dime. So if he does that, watch out, because that means he’s got serious interest.
Nick: Okay.
Andrew: That’s it. We’ll do this, start doing this every Friday, Nick, breaking down these official visits, and we’ll use our Tuesday to get everything else caught up. So, that’s that. We don’t talk to kids as much during the official visits, but Sundays is when we’re going to get it. So, if you’re not a member of Gator Country, come check us out, because Sunday afternoon is when we start pounding those official visit updates, so come check us out then. Nick, I think that’s everything. Basketball Saturday, it’s at 1, right? I believe it’s at 1. Sell out in the newly renovated O Dome, so not going to get in, so watch it on TV.
Nick: We will have that covered. You will have. You’re going to have a busy weekend, my friend.
Andrew: Always, but it’s what we get paid to do here.
Nick: Follow us at www.GatorCountry.com. The podcast is on iTunes. Still working on the Google Play for you Android users, but Android users, you can check out the transcript and audio on Gator Country. If you’re on iTunes, hit that subscribe button, never miss one. Also, social media, Facebook and Twitter, @GatorCountry. Instagram, @TheGatorCountry. Me, @NickdelaTorreGC. He’s, @AndrewSpiveyGC. Do your social media thing.
Andrew: If you’re not a member yet, hit one of us up. We might be able to get you a good little deal to come on and check us out. Not too many places to go. Our messages boards are popping, Nick. Not only recruiting football. You got the coaching stuff taken care of. Baseball’s coming up. Softball’s coming up. You and I love that stuff, by the way. All that stuff’s coming up, so not too many places to be that’s better right now than Gator Country. So, come check us out if you’re not a member, hit one of us up. We’ll try to get you a good deal. So, Nick, I’m going to sign out of here, and we’ll see everyone on Tuesday. So, as always, chomp, chomp. Go Braves. Mark, Butch, continue ruining your classes.
Nick: You stay classy, Gator Country.