New Florida Gators coach Randy Shannon is known for his deep ties to the Miami and in his first week at Florida he has already offered multiple prospects from that area.
On Wednesday night his latest South Florida offer went out to linebacker Rayshad Jackson (6-1, 205, Miami, FL Norland), who Shannon had previously offered at Arkansas.
“Coach Shannon offered me a scholarship to Florida on Wednesday night,” Jackson said. “He was just telling that he sees me as an outside linebacker or a hybrid guy. He said that I could move inside if I gain the weight I need too.”
Shannon is hoping to use their previous relationship to get Jackson at Florida and Jackson believes in Shannon as a coach and as a person.
“We got a great relationship with each other because he had been recruiting me to Arkansas already,” Jackson said. “He’s a really good guy and someone that I can talk to about everything.”
With Shannon now at Florida the Gators were instantly a program that had Jackson’s attention and now, thanks to Shannon, Florida will get a chance to host the linebacker prospect on campus soon.
“FIU and Arkansas are recruiting me pretty hard right now,” Jackson said. “I plan to visit Arkansas on January 16th and Florida on January 23rd. I hope to make my decision after those two visits.”
The official visit to Florida will be huge for Jackson as he’s never visited Florida before but he has done some homework on the Gators football program already.
“I know that Florida has a great program and they produce a lot of great NFL prospects out of there,” Jackson said. “Knowing that they will get you to the NFL makes me want to go there even more but I need to see the academics and see how comfortable I am up there first.”
INSIDERS TAKE: If Florida wants Jackson then he will be a Gator in my mind. Shannon seems to really like him a lot as Shannon has basically offered him a scholarship twice.