Florida Gators safety commit Jeawon Taylor (6-2, 192, Montgomery, AL Park Crossing) took his official visit to Florida over the weekend and accomplished his main objective for the trip.
“The official went great, you’re going to have fun on all of your official visits,” Taylor said. “I really haven’t seen the dorms, because I usually go down there for the games and leave after afterwards, so I wanted to look at the dorms. I already saw the facilities so I just wanted to see where I was going to be laying my head down at and I did that.”
Defensive coordinator Geoff Collins has been one of the lead recruiters for Taylor and he had a simple but direct message for the safety.
“Coach Collins was saying the same thing, that they want me to be a Florida Gator,” he said. “He said to come in and work hard and get on the field, simple as that really. He told me that they need a safety to come in and play early.”
Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain met with Taylor on Sunday and made sure the safety knew he was wanted in Gainesville next season.
“Really Coach McElwain was just glad that I’ve been a Gator for so long now,” Taylor said. “He said that he was happy that I was a Gator and that I’m a great player. He wants me to come in and be ready to play next year.”
One of the question marks heading into the visit was how much not having a defensive back coach would affect Florida’s chances with Taylor, but he answered that question after the visit.
“They didn’t really talk about the defensive back coach that much, they said a few things here and there,” he said. “The new coach really isn’t going to be coaching me because Coach Collins coaches the safeties. It would be nice to know who it is but it doesn’t really affect me.”
Taylor and fellow commit Lamical Perine are very close friends and the two of them did some recruiting over the weekend.
“Lamical and I were just trying to see where [Kristian] Fulton and [Tyrie] Cleveland head was at,” Taylor said. “If you look at this class it’s going to be real good, so we were just trying to get those guys to join us.”
Despite having a great visit to Florida over the weekend, Taylor says he still has a decision to make on Wednesday.
“I’m deciding between Florida and Georgia tomorrow [Wednesday] at 9 A.M.,” he said.