STOCKBRIDGE, GA.- The Florida Gators recruiting class of 2018 has already landed two receivers for the class but that isn’t the stopping the coaching staff from looking for more playmakers for the class.
On Wednesday, GatorCountry.com visited with one of the Gators big receiver targets that’s left on the board and he’s a big physical player that has offers from just about everyone in the country.
That prospect is receiver Marquez Ezzard (6-2, 213, Stockbridge, GA. High) who has seen his recruitment blow up over the last few months.
“A few schools have been recruiting me hard,” Ezzard said on the latest in his recruitment. “Florida, Georgia, Auburn, USC. It has really picked up a lot.”
Ezzard has taken several visits this spring and also has several places in mind that he wants to see this summer.
“I’ve been to Ole Miss, I’ve been to Georgia, Auburn and that’s about it,” he said of visits this spring. “I want to visit Florida, I want to visit USC, I want to visit Oregon, and there’s plenty more schools I want to visit.”
One of those schools on the mind of Ezzard is the Gators and he has been talking a lot with running backs coach JaJuan Seider.
“We’ve got a good relationship,” Ezzard said of his relationship with running backs coach JaJuan Seider. “Every time we talk we can relate to a lot of stuff. He has a great personality and he’s easy to talk to.”
Seider is a name that continues to come in when prospects mention the Gators and Ezzard explained what that is the case.
“He’s a younger guy and he can relate to the recruiting process and all that stuff,” he said of Seider. “At Florida it seems like he’s comfortable. I think he’s from that part too. He feels a lot better about things there.”
When Ezzard and his family do make it down to Gainesville this summer to visit Seider and the Gators he knows what he wants to see.
“I’m ready to go down and see the campus,” Ezzard said of what he wants to see when he visits Florida. “I want to meet the coaches. I just want to see what I like because I’ve never been.”
Receivers coach Kerry Dixon is also recruiting Ezzard hard and he has explained how bad of need the receiver is for the Gators.
“He told me I’d have a chance to play,” he said of his talk with receivers coach Kerry Dixon. “I don’t Florida has that many receivers. Really that is the message from the whole Florida coaching staff.”
The home state team Georgia Bulldogs has been a school mentioned a lot with Ezzard and head coach Kirby Smart is personally recruiting the receiver.
“The same thing as Florida really,” Ezzard said on the message from Kirby Smart. “I can come in and play as a freshman if I put in the work.”
Many around the country believe that Georgia is the leader for Ezzard right now but he says that isn’t exactly the case.
“I mean Georgia is recruiting me hard right now. I can’t lie about that,” Ezzard said. “But my recruitment is wide open for every school.”
The receiver had said his plans were to have his recruitment finished up this summer but those plans have changed for Ezzard.
“I was thinking I wanted to do it early but I just might wait it out,” he said on a decision date.
When it does come time to make a decision, Ezzard says distance won’t play a factor because the schools he likes are all pretty close to Stockbridge.
“Those places are close. My family will be able to make the games. It ain’t that far,” Ezzard said on possible going out of state. “They are comfortable with it. They say it’s my decision so they are 100 percent behind me.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Ezzard doesn’t have any leaders but the impression he gives off is that Georgia and Auburn are two teams he likes a lot with Florida in the picture. The Gators need a good visit with Ezzard when he visits this summer.