Recruiting impact from Phillips resignation

By
Andrew Spivey
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With the resignation of Joker Phillips today, Gator Country caught up with a few recruits to get their reactions to the news.While many prospects were unable to be reached at the time of this story, here’s what we got:

Receiver Ryan Davis-

“I’m shocked honestly. I will see what’s up when I visit Florida this weekend or next weekend.”

Receiver K.J. Hill-

“Coach Joker leaving affects my thoughts on Florida. I don’t know what to see right now.”

Receiver John Burt

“No comment. It may or may not affect my recruiting but I’m not commenting right now.”

Receiver commit Tristan Payton

“I’m solid to Florida.”

Payton also tweeted this:

With the reactions in here’s my quick take on the preliminary impact:

  • I don’t think this hurts Florida with recruit in particular because Phillips wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball in recruiting, plus he wasn’t out on the road for the last few weeks of the spring evaluation period.
  • His area of Palm Beach through South Orlando wasn’t full of prospects for the 2015 recruiting circuit — with the exception of Tevon Coney — and the few 2016 prospects he was recruiting, like Tyler Byrd. Florida should have plenty of time to get Chris Leak into this area and recruiting again before anything could go negative.
  • Probably the biggest key is that offensive coordinator Kurt Roper has been hands on in recruiting guys like George Campbell and Tristan Payton so there is already a relationship built with another UF coach so it will not be starting over.
  • While I can sit here and say that everything will be fine and my points above can back that up, other schools will certainly use this against Florida. Chris Leak will also have to relate to the receiver recruits for Florida to hold onto them or land them in cases like George Campbell.
  • Last point it’s only June in the 2015 recruiting cycle and there are still 7 months until National Signing Day.

Stay tuned to Gator Country for the latest as things continue to unfold…

Andrew Spivey
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.

3 COMMENTS

  2. This is a blow to UF’s ongoing recovery program. UF was up to 21st at Rivals with the commitment of Jones, but this news deflates that momentum. It also comes at a bad time because many of UF’s most prized targets are coming to Gainesville now for the camp and instead of just selling the program and the coaches, now the elephant in the room is what happened to cause a position coach to depart out of the blue. It doesn’t help when you’re telling kids that no one is leaving, despite the very warm seat the staff is sitting on, and then someone leaves suddenly. Now, instead of going through the normal sales routine, you are having to put out another fire.

  3. The paradigm has changed drastically. UF is in trouble because it is now out that Phillips committed a major recruiting violation. The recruiting class for 2015 is now up in the air because UF now has a dark cloud hanging oer it’s head. Maybe the NCAA won’t impose a penalty, but just waiting for a decision will hurt recruiting. Let’s just hope the NCAA makes a quick determination. We all saw what happened to Miami’s recruiting while awaiting a ruling from the NCAA.