One of the first visits new Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain made last week was to see defensive end Byron Cowart (6-4, 250, Seffner, FL Armwood) and according to Cowart the visit went well.
“Coach McElwain came down to see me on Tuesday, it was a good visit,” Cowart said. “He’s really an offensive guy but I hope he gets the offense right. That was really what we talked about and he said that he knows what he’s doing and he will get it right. He did a good job at Colorado State and he says that he’s going to bring that success to Florida.”
First impressions are key in recruiting and according to Cowart the Gators head man gave a good impression on Tuesday.
“He’s a very energetic guy with a lot of confidence,” Cowart said. “He told me that he just got to Florida so he’s just trying to visit as many of the top guys as he can. He said that in order for him to win at Florida he’s going to need the top players to come so that’s why he wanted to visit me so soon.”
One thing that remains uncertain at this point is which coaches will return to Florida on the defensive side of the ball but Cowart doesn’t seem to worried about that right now.
“It’s important to a certain extent but it’s a business decision at the end of the day,” Cowart said. “I’m really not worried about who stays and stuff because I have to make the best decision for me.”
One thing that is for sure is that January will be busy month for the five star defensive end as he has three official visits planned with another one up in the air.
“I’m planning to take some officials in January,” Cowart said. “I’m planning to go to Auburn, Florida and LSU for sure and maybe to Florida State. I already took a visit to FSU but I’m not sure about an official or not.”
All of those visits could ultimately come after Cowart has announced his intentions as a January decision could happen.
“If I know where I’m going by the end of this month than I’m going to announce at the Under Armour game,” Cowart said. “If not then I’m going to announce on signing day or close to that.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Cowart truly just wants to know that Florida is going to succeed on the field and I believe that’s what he’s waiting to see that from McElwain. I think as long as McElwain builds a good staff then Florida will be squarely in the mix for Cowart. One thing is that Will Muschamp hasn’t spoken to Cowart yet.
Muschamp can’t talk to Cowart. In his contract he has a clause that he can’t talk to anyone he recruited while at Florida for 1 year. There are of course ways around it but he can’t have direct contact.
That’s only true if the school he goes to has not previously been recruiting that player. I don’t know about Cowart, but in the case of Ivey he can recruit him for Auburn. I hope that it’s not the case of Cowart wanting to see if UF gets better under McElwain, since there will be no opportunity to see that. If he comes to UF, it will have to done on faith since there will be no evidence on the field that UF will be better under McElwain.
Actually he can talk to Cowart because Auburn was already recruiting him.
Snowprint. This was a weak comment and comments like this are the reason why many on this board believe you are a Nole. I, for the record, do not believe you are a Nole. Often, I even appreciate your aggressive analysis.
There are many reasons for a star player to come to FL even in our current state. One obvious is that most star players carefully evaluate depth charts with the intent of perceived professional exposure. Florida has a long history of producing professional quality DE’s long before Will Muschamp came calling, and i think it’s safe to say, we will likely have many more over the next ten – twenty years.
Kid seems to have grown up a pretty big gator fan… as with CeCe and Ivey… all their positions happen to be positions that have a decent need for incoming stars…aka offer early playing time. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and remain positive that our University does continue to offer young men a great education, history and path to the NFL.
I believe it does and that these three in particular have a great future at both UF and in the League.