Florida Gators host Miami linebacker commit

Over the next few months prospects will visit the Florida Gators’ campus on weekends but on Friday the Gators were able to host Team Pro Impact,  a 7-on-7 team based out of Jacksonville, as the team was traveling to a tournament and stopped by Gainesville for a quick visit.

One of the prospects that was able to visit Florida on Friday was Miami linebacker commit Mike Pinckney (6-0, 216, Jacksonville, FL Raines) who says he enjoyed the quick pit stop in Gainesville.

“It was a good little visit man,” Pinckney said. “They had some nice facilities and everything. We went on the field and ate lunch there and then went and looked at the facilities and looked at the new facilities. We got to try on the jersey’s in the locker room too.”

The visit only lasted about two hours but during those two hours Pinckney got to meet several coaches including head coach Jim McElwain and linebackers coach Randy Shannon.

“I got to talk to Randy Shannon, the new head coach, coach McElwain, and a few other coaches,” Pinckney said. “Coach Shannon is a cool guy and he was just telling me about the guys they have on the team and the guy they signed this year. He was telling me about the program and stuff.”

Pinckney says that he remembers Shannon from his glory days of coaching the Miami Hurricanes during the early 2000’s.

“Coach Shannon is a great coach and I’ve heard a lot of good things about him from people,” Pinckney said. “I remember that he coached at Miami and he had a lot of great players play for him down there.”

Pinckney came on to campus thinking he didn’t have an offer from Florida but after speaking to McElwain he realized that he did have an offer from the Florida Gators.

“Coach McElwain told me earlier last month that I had an offer from Florida to play inside linebacker,” Pinckney said. “Coach McElwain said he’s rebuilding the program up right and that he’s fired up about me and a couple of other players on my team. He said that he was excited to have me down here.”

Now that Florida has offered Pinckney the Gators are squarely in the picture, as Pinckney is close to the Gators 2016 commit.

“I’m 100% solid to Miami but if anything changes I’m keeping my options open to others,” Pinckney said. “I’m going to be visiting Florida some more with my boy Rick [Wells]. I’ll be down there with him some more.”

 

INSIDERS TAKE: If Florida makes Pinckney a priority then I think the Gators have a great shot at flipping him because he plans to visit Florida several times, plus the uncertainty at Miami helps Florida here.

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.