The Florida Gators coaching staff is out on the road recruiting and visiting prospects to watch their spring practices, and this week they’re watching several instate prospects.
On Monday, offensive line coach John Decoster visited Syracuse offensive line commit Javeion Cooper (6-4, 295, Melbourne, FL. Central Catholic) at his school.
“It went great, it was a great time,” Cooper said of Florida visiting him. “Having a college coach at my practice, you know that was just a lifetime experience for me for the first time. Just talking to him and things like that, it was just great.”
Decoster watched Cooper go through drills in practice as Florida continues to evaluate him and the Gators’ assistant was impressed.
“He loved it,” he said on Decoster’s impressions of him at practice. “He had me do some side stuff for him and things like that. He was giving me a thumbs up and was like dang, good job man. He liked what he was seeing.”
After watching Cooper go through practice, Decoster went to meet with the lineman’s mom so he could get to know her.
“He had a meeting with my mom,” Cooper said of Decoster. “I say it was a big deal, my mom said it was a big deal for him to meet her and things like that and he got to know her. It was big because my mom had never met him. My mom said she likes him and likes what he’s talking about and things like that.”
Copper says Decoster’s recruiting pitch is laid-back, and their relationship is strong.
“He just keeps it calm and simple,” he said of his relationship with Decoster. “He just talks to me and lets me know things, and like he just makes me feel like we knew each other forever, like we’re homeboys.”
The Syracuse commit has plans to visit Florida, Florida State, UCF, and Syracuse, and he says he wants to see one thing in particular from Florida.
I want to see how college life is there,” Cooper said on what he wants to see during his official visit. “I’ve already seen the academics and seen everything I need to see with the coaching staff, so I just need to see how it really is on campus.”