The Florida Gators had a packed house full of prospects on campus on Saturday for junior day and while most of the prospects were instate prospects there were a few out of state prospects mixed in as well.
One of the top out of state prospects on campus Saturday was defensive tackle Darius Whitfield (6-3, 260, Mobile, AL. St. Paul’s) who had a nice visit and he also found out why Gainesville is home of the Swamp.
“Everything went well, it went real good,” Whitfield said. “I got to take a picture with all three of the different jerseys but I didn’t get to take a picture with the Chucky doll. I had a good time and I could tell why it was called the Swamp because they had some stuff in the trees that looked swampy.”
Head coach Jim McElwain was eager to meet Whitfield on Saturday and when the two sat down to talk, the message was very intriguing to Whitfield.
“Coach McElwain was just telling me that he was glad that I came up there for the visit,” Whitfield said. “He said that Florida will be down in the spring to watch spring practice and that he thinks I can play defensive end and defensive tackle like Dominque Easley use to play when he was at Florida. I liked hearing that.”
Saturday was the first time for Whitfield to meet new defensive line coach Chris Rumph and he was blown away by the Gators defensive line coach.
“I liked coach Rumph, he’s real cool,” Whitfield said. “I got to go to a position meeting with him and he was showing me different schemes and different techniques to use on the field. He’s a great coach.”
Rumph made sure to explain to Whitfield what he expected out of his defensive linemen in college on the field.
“He said that he wanted his defensive linemen to have fun and use their hands and be tough,” Whitfield said. “He said that he expects a lot of out of his defensive linemen. He knows a lot of ways to get his defensive linemen in a good position.”
The Alabama native grew up a Gators fan but he still admits that he doesn’t have anyone standing out at this point.
“The visit was a great success,” Whitfield said. “I still love Florida, and I will always like Florida. I don’t have any leaders right now. I have 17 offers so I have 17 leaders. I’m going to go back down to Florida again for sure.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Florida hit a home run on this visit with Whitfield and the Gators will be in the mix for him throughout his recruitment but Whitfield plans to wait until signing day to decide.