Spence gets and likes the full Florida Gators recruiting pitch

The Florida Gators recruiting visitors list was loaded with star power this weekend but only one of the seven visitors was lineman.

That lineman was Maryland defensive tackle commit Cam Spence (6-3, 315, Washington D.C, St. John’s College) who enjoyed seeing everything the Gators had to offer including his future major.

“The visit was good, I enjoyed it and my parents enjoyed it a lot,” Spence said of his official visit to Florida. “I really liked the academic side of it, the football side is great. The academic side of it had the sports broadcasting which I want to major in and they have a class that is taught by James Bates who used to play at Florida and won a national championship there. I really enjoyed that. I liked the academic center too; it’s nice and helpful for players. The campus was beautiful.”

Spence had a fellow lineman as his host this weekend and he really enjoyed getting to be around the current players.

“My host was Jonsey [Richerd Desir-Jones] from St. Thomas,” he said of his player’s host. “I got along with all of the players and they seem like they have a good brotherhood there. They were telling me the same things as the coaches were about needing me there. They were all telling me that I could play early at Florida.”

The highlight of the trip for Spence was getting the chance to hang out and meet with Gators defensive line coach Chris Rumph and learn more about the Florida’s needs.

“I got the chance to bond with Coach Rumph a lot and I appreciated that,” Spence said of his time with Rumph. “They need defensive tackles a lot and that has me interested. He said that they only have four coming back currently and he said that they need more so that they can rotate guys. Coach said that he isn’t recruiting me not to play because he needs me to play next year.”

Rumph has knows Spence the longest of any Gators coach and the coach sent a strong message to the tackle about his character this weekend.

“He said that he could tell by the type of person that I am that I could come in and be a leader,” he said of Rumph’s message to him. “He said that I talk very mature and that I can strive academically and athletically at Florida while contributing to them on the field.”

Head coach Jim McElwain got his first chance to meet Spence this weekend and he really sold the defensive lineman on life after football with a Gators degree.

“Coach Mac was cool and I can understand how passionate he is,” Spence said of McElwain. “I can see his philosophy and he wants to win but he was also talking to me more about the academic side. My parents really liked that because the degree is the most important thing because not everybody makes it all the way and then if they do you won’t be there your entire life. Florida is a top ten public college so that degree is meaningful degree.”

Spence was a guy that’s visit came out of nowhere but the Maryland commit said some shake-up for the Terps helped the Gators out here.

“The reason why they had died off was because I had committed so early so Coach Rumph was actually still talking to me while I was committed for a few months,” he said. “It kind of died off some but when coach Mike London left Maryland to be a head coach that meant the defensive line coach was gone at Maryland. He promised us that he was still going to be there when we got there so that kind of opened the door for Coach Rumph.”

The defensive tackle has now taken four official visits and he’s unsure if he will take his fifth but he knows two teams who could get that last visit.

“I’ve got one more visit and I might take one to either Oregon or Louisville,” Spence said. “Louisville got a new defensive coordinator and he DM’ed me and is going to come by house today [Monday] to talk with me.”

Spence knows that he must make a final decision in the coming weeks but when that decision will come is still a question to the defensive tackle.

“I’m not even sure yet,” he said when asked when he wants to make a final decision. “I’m watching to see who Maryland hires because it does play a large part because I need to know who I’m going to be coached by if I come there. I haven’t even heard anything from them about anything so I need to be informed about that kind of stuff.”

 

INSIDERS TAKE: From talking to Spence you can tell that Florida really impressed him with things this weekend and with the opening at Maryland the Gators have gotten squarely in the mix. It wouldn’t be exactly fair to say that Maryland’s defensive line coaching hire will determine where Spence goes but it will play a large part in it. I expect Rumph to visit Spence on Wednesday of this week in hopes of keeping the momentum in Florida’s favor. One last thing on Spence is that he’s one of the smartest guys that I’ve ever spoken with and he really understands how big of a decision this really is.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.