It has been a rough past couple of days for the Florida Gators football team and program with losing on Saturday to losing a commit on Sunday.
Like all things in life, things are never as bad as they seem and that was the case on Monday when defensive back Elijah Blades (6-2, 170, Pasadena, CA. John Muir) tweeted that he was still a Gator.
Blades explained why he tweeted “I’m still a Gator, y’all calm down.”
“Everything still good with Florida,” Blades said. “Everyone just thought I was going to decommit so I decided to send out the tweet to relax. I guess they were worried because of the decommitment from Fred [Hansard]. Fans said that he went back to be closer to home so fans think that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not doing that.”
The defensive back says that despite being a commit for months now, running backs coach Tim Skipper still treats him the same.
“I talk to Coach Skip and to Torrian Gray a lot,” he said. “Coach Skip always shows me love and we always talk. We really don’t even talk about football much anymore, we talk about school and family mostly.”
Skipper doesn’t beat around the bush when explaining how big of a need Blades is to the Gators class.
“He tells me that I can come in and start as a freshman,” Blades said. “He says that both of their corners Teez [Tabor] and Quincy [Wilson] are leaving so I can play early. He says I can compete for the starting job.”
Defensive backs coach Torrian Gray has also explained how big of a need Blades is and what’s expected of him when he gets on campus.
“Coach Gray is just telling me that I can play anywhere on the defense either safety or corner,” he said. “He said that he expects me to come in and make an impact and that he’s just glad that I’m on defense.”
Blades didn’t get to make it to a Gators game this fall but he says he watched them on TV and he has been impressed by the Florida defense.
“I think their defense is playing well and playing aggressive,” Blades said of Florida’s defense. “Coach Gray knows what he’s doing and he has the defensive backs set up each week and they just ball out.”
Like everyone in the country Blades says he sees the offense struggling but he thinks one thing can fix it.
“I think, to be honest, if we had a quarterback, we’d be undefeated right now,” he said. “All we have to do is get a quarterback and we will good. Coach Mac has the program going in the right way.”
Now that Blades season is over with, the defensive back has several official visits set up including one to Gainesville.
“I have an official to Washington State set up for next week,” Blades said. “My official visit to USC is January 20th and I have to set up visits to Nebraska and Florida. Florida is going to get the last visit for me.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Blades seems solid to Florida and he says a school like USC would have to win over his parents in order for them to have a legit chance. With Florida getting the last visit that at least gives the Gators a chance to turn any momentum the Trojans pick up into a positive for Florida.