Florida Gators recruiting notebook for June 13th

It has been a busy past week in Florida Gators recruiting news, as the Gators picked up a new commitment, plus offered several prospects that camped with the coaching staff.

Florida not only held camp in Gainesville but the Gators coaching staff was also present in Jacksonville, Virginia, Michigan and Tampa for satellite camps this past week.

GatorCountry.com brings you a Florida Gators recruiting notebook to get you caught up on all of the big news from last week.

Satellite Camps

Let’s start with the satellite camps as the Gators coaching staff had a lot of their top targets show up at these camps.

First up was Jacksonville, where big defensive back targets Shaun Wade and 2018 DB Tyreke Johnson showed up to see the staff. The Gators are in the mix for both prospects and both of those guys will return the favor with a visit Gainesville this summer.

In Virginia the Gators had one their top safety targets Devon Hunter show up for the camp. Hunter has a great relationship with defensive backs coach Torrian Gray. Hunter, like Wade and Johnson, says he plans to visit Gainesville this summer. Florida and Clemson look to be the top two teams for Hunter, but the Gators are the team most coaches fear in his recruitment.

When the Gators took their football bus down to Tampa for the Sound Mind, Sound Body camp they were met by several big name prospects. Auburn offensive line commit Calvin Ashley, receiver commit Daquon Green, defensive end Zach Carter and athlete Devan Barrett were all in attendance. Head coach Jim McElwain has made it point to work the Tampa area hard since he arrived in Gainesville.

Tampa wasn’t the only camp on Sunday as the Gators also had coaches in Detroit, Michigan for a satellite camp also. In Michigan the Gators were able to see receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones and offensive lineman Jordan Reid (6-3, 286, Detroit, MI Cass Tech) in action. The Gators are strongly in the mix for both prospects and both players visited Gainesville earlier this year.

New commit

2019 defensive tackle Jaquaze Sorrells (6-3, 240, Largo, FL High) was a guy that caught offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier’s eye this spring and was invited to camp this summer. Sorrells checked in at 240-pounds and ran a 4.77 forty during camp, while drawing high praise from defensive line coach Chris Rumph. Sorrells is the second commit already in 2019 joining safety Jaleel McRae.

 

Visitors on campus

Florida will continue to host prospects on campus this coming week and they will have one big one in particular on campus. Last week was the same case as they had two of their top targets on campus for visits.

Linebacker Ventrell Miller (6-1, 225, Lakeland, FL Kathleen) was one of the prospects on campus. Miller is a high target for Florida at linebacker and the Gators are battling Miami for his signature.

Tight end Zech Byrd (6-6, 235, Millbrook, AL Stanhope Elmore) visited Florida on Saturday and a good visit he said. Byrd is one of the Gators top targets at tight end and Florida is battling Alabama for his commitment. Byrd doesn’t have a timeline for a commitment at this time though.

One visitor that will step foot on campus on Monday is tight end Jimmy Jaggers (6-4, 244, Roseville, CA High) who landed in Tampa on Sunday. Jaggers is a guy that running backs coach Tim Skipper has been recruiting hard and McElwain has also spoken to him several times. The Gators are looking for a traditional tight end in this class and Jaggers fits that mold.

 

New offers went out

With players on campus for camp that means the Gators coaching staff is able to evaluate guys and eventually hand out offers to those guys. That happened this past week as the Gators offered several underclassmen who camped in Gainesville.

2018 Receiver Jalynn Williams (5-11, 185, St. Petersburg, FL Northeast) picked up what he called his “dream offer” from Florida on Thursday. Williams now has five offers and is drawing interest from several other schools.

2018 receiver Xavier Williams (6-0, 180, Hollywood, FL Chaminade-Madonna) camped and earned an offer on Thursday as well. Williams who has offers from Alabama, Florida State, Georgia and others is a big time 2018 prospect.

On Saturday Florida offered 2018 athlete Kearis Jackson (6-0, 191, Fort Valley, GA Peach County) after a camp. Florida joins the likes of Florida State, Alabama and Georgia on the offer list.

Cornerback Ambry Thomas (6-0, 174, Detroit, MI Detroit MLK) picked up an offer following his performance at the Detroit satellite camp. Thomas has a lot of interest in Michigan and Michigan State.

While in Nashville for satellite camp the Gators were able to evaluate offensive lineman K’Rojhn Calbert (6-5, 285, McMinnville, TN Warren County) and they offered him on Friday. Calbert is a prospect that has had an injury prone high school career and that’s a big reason many SEC schools are just now offering. On Friday alone Calbert picked up offers from, Mississippi State, Florida, Tennessee and South Carolina.

 

That’s all for this Florida Gators recruiting notebook but make sure to join GatorCountry for all of the latest recruiting information as this week promises to be full of news. The Gators will once again be on the road for satellite camps.

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.