Florida’s coaching staff has turned its full attention to recruiting, last week hitting the road to visit top prospects. One top target is defensive end Lorenzo Carter (6-5, 235, Norcross, GA), who had an in-home visit that went very well according to Carter’s mother, Lisa Carter.
“It was a really good visit,” Lisa Carter said. “It was Coach T-Rob (Travaris Robinson), Coach (Brad) Lawing, Coach (D.J) Durkin and Coach (Joker) Phillips. Lorenzo’s dad and his sister were the main ones in the room with Lorenzo and the coaches. It went really well with those guys though and Lorenzo got some questions answered.”
Towards the end of the football season there was a lot of speculation that Florida had dropped down for Carter and according to his mother that was somewhat the case.
“To be honest with you we were a little concerned at the beginning when the reports came out by coach (Will) Muschamp having to go and stuff,” Carter said. “We were like, whoa, we have to look at this close. But all of us in the family didn’t change our opinion on Florida it just made us look closer.”
With the season officially over and athletic director Jeremy Foley holding firm that Muschamp will be back at Florida, the Carters reached out to Muschamp to talk about his status at Florida.
“We’ve spoken to coach Muschamp about this several times and he has reassured us he isn’t going anywhere,” Carter said. “I actually told him that I could relate to him because people are always talking about how great Lorenzo is when he has a good game but when he has a bad game they are talking about how overrated he is and stuff like that so it’s kind of the same thing. When coach is winning he’s the greatest but when he loses to no fault of his own he’s the worst.
“We did talk to him though and reassured him that we are real interested in the program and like him a lot.”
When recruiting a prospect it’s huge to win over the parents and that’s one thing that Will Muschamp has done with the Carter family so far in his recruitment.
“We all love Coach; we love his personality and his energy he brings,” Carter said. “I think he’s a little defensive-minded coach but with Lorenzo playing defense that’s a positive for me. I love how he interacts with the players and I have seen him a couple times with the players. When children hang out around you they like you and I see that with coach as the players hang around him a lot.”
Carter took an early official visit to Florida during the Tennessee week and hasn’t been back since and chances are he won’t make it to Gainesville before he signs in February.
“We would love to go back down there but I don’t see it in our schedule,” Carter said. “Lorenzo still has some officials left and he has basketball. We are going to take officials to Georgia and Alabama and one to LSU. The last one may go to Florida State but he hasn’t decided.”
Gator fans may be freaking out that Carter won’t see Gainesville for five months before he signs his LOI in February but according to Mrs. Carter visiting Florida again isn’t needed.
“It doesn’t hurt that we aren’t visiting again, really,” Carter said. “We talk to them often so the communication is there. We have seen everything and nothing is going to change down there. So it’s really about developing a relationship and we have one with Florida.”
Spivey Says: For some time I thought Florida was slipping for Carter but after a long conversation with Mrs. Lisa Carter I feel as if Florida is at the top of Lorenzo’s recruitment. Georgia will be some concern but the family doesn’t have as great of a relationship with Mark Richt as they do with Will Muschamp.