Friday was a huge day for the Florida Gators due to the fact the Gators hosted quarterback Dwayne Haskins (6-2, 188, Potomac, MD Bullis School) for a visit.
Florida is in desperate need of a quarterback and this was the first time Jim McElwain hosted a quarterback and got the chance to roll out the full tour to Haskins.
“It went well, I got to speak to coach McElwain and coach [Doug] Nussmeier a little bit,” Haskins said. “Speedy was my tour guy and he took me around the campus. This was my second time coming down so it was nice to see it again. We also got to try the jerseys on. My favorite was the orange one.”
Haskins has seen several college practices over the last two years but the Gators practice was very familiar looking to him.
“We got to watch the practice also and it was good,” Haskins said. “I liked that it was fast pace and up-tempo because that’s how we practice in high school. The offense we run in high school is a lot like the offense at Florida. Coach Nussmeier was working the guys hard.”
The quarterback was with his 7-on-7 team so he didn’t get a lot of one-on-one time with the Florida coaching staff, so Haskins plans to return to Gainesville again to get that time.
“I plan to come down for the spring game so that I can talk to coach Nussmeier more,” Haskins said. “He was telling me some things about how he coaches the quarterbacks but I want to learn more about him and I also want to learn more about the offense. He was telling me that it was going to a mix of what he ran at Michigan and what coach McElwain ran at Alabama.”
Haskins has a poker face and he isn’t ready to tip his hand as to where he’s leaning but Florida is a school on his mind.
“Florida is one of the top schools that I’m looking at,” Haskins said. “Growing up as I kid I liked Florida and it’s a great opportunity for me and there are some other schools that have a good opportunity as well. I would like to make my decision in June.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Heading into the visit Maryland and Ohio State were two schools looking good for Haskins and I believe those two, plus Florida and Alabama, are squarely in the mix. If Haskins comes back for the spring game then that will show how much true interest he has in Florida. Right now I would say Haskins ends up elsewhere but the next visit could change my take.
“He was telling me that it was going to a mix of what he ran at Michigan and what coach McElwain ran at Alabama.”
I was really hoping to see a lot of what Mac ran at CSU but maybe we don’t have personnel for that?? Not really sure if they ran much of anything successful at Mich last year. lol
I think you will see a lot of different things this year and next year is when you will see Mac’s true offense come out.