The Florida Gators have hosted several 2017 prospects on campus over the last few weeks during Head Coach Jim McElwain’s football camp.
During the camp the coaches have been able to evaluate several of those 2017 prospects and they offered defensive tackle Cory Durden (6-4, 287, Newberry, FL High) after his performance last week.
“Coach McElwain was the one that told me that Florida was offering me a scholarship,” Durden said. “He was just explaining what being a Gator was about and how that Gators help Gators out. He said that he wants me and my cousin [Ja’len Parks] to be Gators one day.”
Durden was on the Gainesville campus during the spring and he got to meet McElwain but last week was the first time for the two to have a sit down conversation.
“I’ve met Coach Mac a couple of times already but he’s a real cool guy,”” Durden said. “He’s a cool coach and he’s someone that I could see myself playing for one day. I like how he’s a straight shooter when he talks to you.”
Defensive line coach Chris Rumph had the chance to work one-on-one with Durden, and he was able to give the defensive tackle some pointers on how to get better.
“I got to talk and work out with Coach Rumph during the camp,” he said. “He was just saying how he wanted me to come back up for some visits because he likes me a lot. He was working with me during the one-on-ones too. He was helping me with my technique.”
Despite living just down the road for the Gators’ campus Durden admits that he grew up rooting for Florida’s archrival.
“I’ve been a Florida State fan my whole life but Florida has been one of my dreams offers to be honest,” Durden said. “This was an offer that I’ve been waiting on for a long time and I’m glad to finally get it.”
Florida’s staff still has a lot of time to work on Durden since he’s only a 2017 prospect and the defensive tackle says he plans to be back in Gainesville soon.
“I’m going to come back up for some visits for sure,” he said. “I’m keeping my recruitment open because I want to see what happens with everyone.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Florida State is the school that stands out the most to Durden when he talks about his favorite schools, but the one coach that he mentioned a lot was defensive line coach Chris Rumph. Florida has a long time to get back in the thick of things here.
Andrew: When it comes to recruiting the Gators are usually the last ones to arrive at the party. Insiders Take usually has something like, ‘FSU is leading, LSU is the favor, etc.—–‘. I am not being critical of either you or Coach Mac. Rather, it just shows the devastation visited upon a once dominate program by the incompetence of Foley-Muschamp. It is going to be a hard road ahead and ‘voices from the echo chamber’ or the banning of non-positive opinions is going to change that reality
Same message, different week. Yes snowflake, we know that the program is rebuilding. I don’t know why you feel the need to cut and paste the same comment from week to week.
Where you look like a tool is calling Foley incompetent. Harsh words for who oversees arguably the best sports program in the nation. More national championships on his watch….have u been paying attention to the baseball/softball postseason? Apparently not. Yes, Zook and Muschamp were bad hires but for every Zook/Muschamp there is a Donovan, a Meyer, a Fehn, a Sullivan and a Walton.
If u want to say the football program is down – find. No argument here, but calling the best AD in the business makes you look stupid.
Good News/ Bad News? 4-Star Orlando OL Parker Boudreaux listed the Gators and several others as his ‘favorites’ That is the good news. Now, the ‘not so good news’, Boudreaux included Clemson in his list of favorites. Problem: Clemson has ‘owned’ the State of Florida the last couple of years when it comes to landing 4-and 5-Star talent from the Sunshine State. Can Coach Mac break that trend?