Spivey Senses podcast: Insider Florida Gators recruiting report

This edition of the Spivey Senses podcast brings you the latest news on the Florida Gators recruiting efforts after a big week for the Florida coaches during the bye week last week.

Andrew Spivey goes position by position to bring you the latest news on the Florida Gators recruiting board, plus what he thinks of the class of 2016 in general as far as meeting needs.

Andrew also breaks down who he could see in this class coming February as the Florida Gators are doing a great job on the recruiting trail so far this season.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, Gator fans. This is your man, Andrew Spivey, back with Spivey Senses this week. Had a week off last week with the bye week, but let’s go. Let’s go to Georgia week. If you know me, you follow me, you know this is a week that I love. I do not like Mark Richt. Do not like the Georgia Bulldogs. I don’t like anything to do with Georgia at all. The only thing in Georgia that I like are my Falcons, my Hawks, and my Atlanta Braves. Bulldogs, I don’t like you at all. I actually consider myself to be a Yellow Jacket, since I like Atlanta so much I pull for the Yellow Jackets against the Bulldogs. It’s always good to see the Gators beat Mark Richt. Mark Richt doesn’t win big football games.

I’ll save all this for a different time. We’re going to go insiders this week on this podcast. Later on in the week I’m going to have former Gators tight end, Ben Troupe, and you guys think I don’t like Mark Richt. Ben Troupe can’t stand Mark Richt. If you don’t know his backstory, he’s from Georgia, committed to the Gators. He simply told me that he didn’t want to be just average in Georgia with Mark Richt. He wanted to win championships with the Gators. Didn’t win a national championship, but he won several SEC championships. That’s for later in the week though.

I want to talk recruiting for a little while here. I hadn’t had a chance to really talk too much about the bye week recruiting. I just want to get into this a little bit here. Nussmeyer Monday, he goes and sees Dwayne Haskins and those Maryland kids. Mac also checks out Philippe Franks a little bit. I want to just kind of break this down by position a little bit for this podcast and just go in depth on recruiting, this recruiting staff, and then we’ll end this with some Georgia talk.

Let’s just go in, and let’s break it down with the quarterback spot real quick. Florida has Will Grier. Florida has Treon Harris. They have Luke del Rio. That’s their three quarterbacks. They want two quarterbacks in this class big time. They have Kyle Trask. He’s a guy that doesn’t start for his high school team, but he’s a good football player. He earned his offer at Florida at camp twice. I think he’s that going to be a guy that comes in, develops, and sees a little bit of playing time maybe. A guy he wants to keep. Let’s go to who they’re going to get with Trask. Is it Dwayne Haskins? Is it Philippe Franks? Is it a guy like Zerrick Cooper that’s committed to Clemson? Is it a guy like Jack Allison, committed to Miami? Now that all that is going down with Al Golden what could happen down there? We’ll see.

I know that Nuss went and visited Dwayne Haskins. Dwayne Haskins is listening to Florida. He might say he’s committed to Maryland and all this, and I’m sure he is committed at Maryland 100%. Let’s see what really happens if Mike Locksley doesn’t keep his job up there. What happens if he gets a head coach he’s not fond of up there? I definitely think that Florida is the team that Maryland fans are worried about the most when it comes to Dwayne Haskins. I think that Dwayne Haskins is their top target. I really do. Philippe Franks is someone they’re continuing to monitor as well, and nothing really moving in any direction with Philippe Franks right now. He’s still committed to LSU, looking at Florida State and Florida. Went to Florida State for their game against Miami, just hasn’t visited Florida yet. Those two guys, that’s where it is. I think that Florida ends up getting someone. If it’s not those two guys, I definitely think they get someone to match Trask in this class.

At running back Coach Skipper visited Lamical Perine and Mark Thompson last week. Both of those guys are very solid. Alabama’s about to offer Lamical Perine, but, trust me guys when I tell you, don’t worry about that. When the offer comes in be proud that the Gators got Lamical Perine as quick as they did and was able to see something before Alabama and the rest of the country did. Auburn’s already tried to knock down the door there. He told them, thanks, but no thanks. Alabama’s coming, and they’re going to get that same thanks, but no thanks talk. Lamical Perine’s a Gator, wants to be a Gator. He’s bought in, and he loves Florida. Don’t worry about that. Mark Thompson was filling out his early enrollee papers last week. That one’s there as well. Don’t worry about that one.

Now the receiver board. That’s where things get interesting. Coach Dixon last week visits Tre Nixon, visits Isaiah Johnson. Let’s see who else he visited. He visited Josh Hammond and Benjamin Victor. He went and saw Sam Bruce last weekend. He went and saw Jared Judy, the 2017 receiver. He also went and saw Nate Craig-Myers and Daquon Green there. I’m going to go with this. This is what I’m going to say. Coach Mac also visited Auburn commit Eli Stove. I’m going to say that Florida’s going to get some very good football players there. They got Freddie Swain committed already. They got Josh Hammond. They got Isaiah Johnson. They got Rick Wells committed. I really like their chances with Tre Nixon. I really like their chances with Isaiah Stove. I really like their chances with Nate Craig-Myers. Sam Bruce is a guy that I think could flip. I really like their chances with those three guys I just mentioned, Tre Nixon, Nate Craig-Myers, Eli Stove. That is an electric threesome right there. Nate Craig-Myers is a huge playmaker. Eli Stove may come on the team and be the fasted receiver on the team when he arrives in Gainesville, if he chooses to flip from Auburn to Florida. That’s the three down there.

People continue to ask me, who’s going to be moved out? Let the coaches worry about it. You and I just get to speculate. You and I just get to talk about how great the class could be. Let the staff worry about that. That’s what Drew Hughes, that’s what Marquel Blackwell, that’s what Jim McElwain, that’s what Kerry Dixon get paid to do and Doug Nussmeyer get paid to do. We just get paid to talk about it, have a little fun with it. This class of Freddie Swain, Isaiah Johnson, and Rick Wells. Let me go back. Josh Hammond, Rick Wells, Freddie Swain, and Isaiah Johnson. That’s the four receivers they have committed already. That class right now is already really good. Tre Nixon added in that class or Eli Stove or Nate Craig it becomes elite. I think that this is going to be a class that you’re going to look back in a couple years, and you’re going to be like, this is where Gator football got good.

Go to the tight end position. It’s where it’s a little shakier. They have DeAndre Gooslby and C’yontai Lewis and Camrin Knight coming back next year at the tight end position, but they definitely want to get one. They went and saw Nick Eubanks this past week. I still think Florida and Alabama are battling there, and I think that Florida can get him. Doug Nussmeyer went and saw Jacob Mathis. I think they’re still evaluating Jacob Mathis really hard to see if he’s a guy that they really want, or if he’s just a guy that they’re looking to have as a backup plan. I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t. I know they’re recruiting Mathis hard. I know they’re recruiting Nick Eubanks hard. Know they’re recruiting Isaac Nauda hard. I know they’re recruiting Jamal Pettigrew that’s committed to LSU hard, and Darrell Middleton from Tennessee hard. Middleton has some academic issues that may keep him out of the SEC, but they’ve got some guys they’re after that are very good athletes. I think realistic Mathis or Eubanks will be the tight end in the class.

Offensive line, the Gators kind of made news last week when Brandon Autry decommitted. He didn’t decommit. He didn’t have the academics. He had gotten a little lazy, and playing time for him was going downhill. He just wasn’t Gator caliber football player. I think Florida replaces him in the Juco class with Ashton Julius from Pennsylvania. I think that’s the guy that they get there. That adds with Brett Heggie and Stone Forsythe. You add in a guy like Marcus Tatum, who I think the Gators lead for, and then go get one more high school guy. Whether that’s a guy like Terrance Davis from Maryland, a guy like Richard Merritt, a guy like Brandon Walton in the state of Florida that doesn’t have an offer yet, or maybe it’s someone out of state that we’re not talking about right now. Several guys they’re still looking very hard at. Guys like EJ Price. Guys like John Simpson. Guys that Florida aren’t in the mix for right now, but who knows what happens till February. Again, a class of Forsythe, Brett Heggie, Ashton Julius, Marcus Tatum, those four guys are the guys I feel very good about right there. Add those four with one more, you got a very good offensive line class. Packaged with guys like Martez Ivey, Tyler Jordan, Nick Buchanan, Fred Johnson, the guys that are freshmen now. This is a very good talent pool that they got going so far. That’s kind of the offense where it is. Very good offensive class that I think they can end up with.

When you go to defensive line you got guys like Jaquan Bailey, Eric Mitchel, who I both think probably end up leaving the class. I think Bailey wants to go with his brother. Play ball somewhere, and it’s not going to be Florida. I think Eric Mitchel ends up staying closer to home, probably at Miami when they get a new football coach. You got guys like Janarius Robinson. McElwain visited him. I think Florida’s got a good shot at him, even though he’s committed to Florida State. You got a guy like Antonius Clayton from Georgia. I think Florida’s got a shot with him. You got Brian Burns, defensive end. Florida’s trailing Georgia and Florida State right now. They’re still in the mix. Got a defensive tackle like Ben Frasier up in Buford, Georgia. I think Florida is the leader there. You got a defensive tackle in Dexter Lawrence. Florida, NC State, Clemson, North Carolina, they’re all battling there. Florida needs to get him back on campus. Got Shavar Manuel, it’s 50/50 between Florida and LSU there. Florida’s in the mix there. You got a guy like Jordan Woods that if Florida pushes hard for him they can very well get him. There’s several guys that I think Florida is in the mix for right now on the defensive line class. I think that whoever they get they’re going to have a really good defensive line class. That even goes with a guy like Josh Uche who can play defensive end or linebacker. He’s a Miami commit for now. I think he flips soon to Florida. Randy Shannon’s on that one and on that one hard.

Then you go to the linebacker class. This is where the Gators have to hit a home run, maybe even a grand slam here. Got Vosean Joseph and Jeremiah Moon in the class. I think both of those guys stick. Both of those are very good football players. I do think Joseph ends up staying inside, and a guy like Moon ends up going to outside linebacker, but we’ll see. Florida’s making big news with Mack Wilson from Montgomery, Alabama. The Gators are a real threat here to get the best linebacker in the country right out from under Saban’s nose. Florida just has to continue to push hard for him, get him on campus a lot, love him up, and take the tide away from Alabama. It’s coming. Alabama’s going to turn the heat up and turn the heat up hard. How does Florida counter that? We’ll see. Got a guy also like David Reese that’s committed to Michigan. He wants to early enroll. Florida has a spot for him to early enroll, and Florida is a threat there. It’s going to be Florida or Texas there, in my opinion. You’re looking at four guys right there Florida has the potential to land. If Florida was to land those guys, they’d be okay there. They’d be very much okay there. They would redo their whole linebacker depth by getting these four guys, and they’d be okay.

Let’s go to cornerback, a position of need as well. You’re losing a lot of guys. Basically next year you have Chris Williamson, Quincy Wilson, Jalen Tabor. That’s your three corners basically. You know Vernon’s going to go early. Brian Poole graduates. DeAndre Porter’s off the team. You need players there. Chauncey Gardner, probably starts next year somewhere. Quincy Litton is a safety. He could play ball. Juwan Taylor is a safety. He can play ball. McArthur Burnett, he’s a nickel back that I think is a lot like Javier Arenas where he’s going to be able to come off the edge, be really good in the return game. You got a guy like Javon Myers. He’s a good football player.

Florida is doing a really good job right now at the cornerback position, the defensive back position. I think they’re pretty much done unless they were to get a guy like Jamarcus King or a Juco guy. If he’s able to get his grades right and come in, then I think they would take him. There’s a couple other guys that they’re after, a guy like Trevon Mullen I don’t think Florida has a shot with him. Christian Fulton, Florida continues to be mentioned with LSU. I think he goes to LSU. I think they’re okay with a class of Gardner, McArthur Burnett, Javon Myers, Quincy Litton, Juwan Taylor. I think they’re okay with that class, and Aaron Robinson. I don’t know how I could forget Aaron Robinson. He is maybe playing the best ball of all the corners so far. He’s a guy that they really like a lot. They’re okay with the class they got now. They would just continue to mess around with pieces if they’re interested as this is a depth chart right now that needs to be basically restocked is the best way to say it. We’ll see what happens there.

To kind of finish off the run down of the recruiting, Eddie Pineiro is the kicker committed to Alabama. I think the Gators have got a great shot to get him there. That would be a very big pickup for Florida as they’re now looking for a walk on kicker as they need some depth there. Overall it’s good, but I want to touch real quick on this staff. Last week just a tremendous job of recruiting. Visiting over 100 and some kids on three days during the bye week. What a great job. This staff made news on Friday night of Coach Mac being at Nate Craig’s game and then tripping over real quick to see Javon Myers. That’s big. Head coach sees those guys that’s big. He goes to the panhandle, sees guys like Eli Stove, Janoris Robinson, Alex Leatherwood, the 2017 offensive lineman committed to Alabama. When’s the last time you saw a Gator head coach out like that as much as he is? This is huge. Huge for this staff. They’re creating momentum, and it’s a really good time for the Gators and for Gator recruiting. It is going to pay off for this staff. Guys like Drew Hughes, his recruiting staff of Marquel Blackwell, James Rowe, the list goes on and on there. They’re doing a great job of helping this coaching staff get kids on. That Vandy game, FAU game, and Florida State game is going to be very good for recruiting there. I think that things are going to continue to go well. This is going to be a very good class for the Florida Gators.

Quick couple notes. You got Antonius Clayton. He’s going to go into that Florida vs. Georgia game. He has to buy his own ticket, as it’s not a recruiting event for either team. He’s going to see the Gators there. That’s very big for Florida to see that one. Then Vanderbilt comes into town, and Lamical Perine, Velus Jones both told me they’re coming in. I expected several other big name guys to come in, and then that FAU game has got a couple official visitors coming in. David Reese, the Michigan linebacker, tells me he’s going to come in for the Florida State game on his official visit. Big time for these guys. Again, I can’t say it enough how good this recruiting staff has done. It’s a good time to be a Gator.

As always, I really appreciate you checking me out today, listening to me. I hope I didn’t bore you guys too much. I’ll have my recruiting mailbag on Thursday. If you’ve got any questions shoot them to me on Twitter. Shoot them to my email, Andrew@GatorCountry.com or post them on the message board at Gator Country. Nick and myself, we’re going to have a lot of great things this week and heading into the Georgia game and after the Georgia game. As I said, we got Ben Troupe coming on to be a guest writer and be on the podcast. Fee Bartley, former Gator as well, is doing things with us as well. Kevin Camps is doing a great job with us. PD is always doing a good job with us. Cassidy’s doing a good job. Basketball is heating up. Any suggestions just hit us up and let us know. If we can do anything better for you guys let us know. As always, find us on GatorCountry.com and find us on Twitter @GatorCountry or myself @AndrewSpiveyGC on Twitter. I really appreciate it. I will talk to you guys soon. Go Braves.

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.

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