Rumph’s joking personality impresses LaBryan Ray

Last year’s Florida Gators recruiting class had three members hail from the state of Alabama and the Gators are trying to continue that into 2017.

Florida already has one commitment from Alabama in athlete Kadarius Toney and on Friday they hosted defensive end LaBryan Ray (6-4, 270, Madison, AL James Clemens) from the state for his first visit to Gainesville.

“I’ve always heard about the University of Florida a lot and how nice it was,” Ray said of the Gators visit. “Just to ride down there and see the campus and all that was great for me to get to see it. The campus is one of the best I have been to.”

Ray didn’t work out on Friday night but watched the coaches in action and he was impressed by some of the stuff the coaches were teaching during Friday Night Lights.

“They were out there coaching guys up and it was nice to see how they coach and the things they teach players,” he said on the coaching staff. “ Some of the drills they did were things I haven’t seen. Those are things I look at. They had that family feel putting their arms around players and just making them feel welcome.”

Friday night was also the first time for Ray to meet defensive line coach Chris Rumph in person and the meeting left the defensive end feeling comfortable with Rumph.

“I honestly didn’t know he was such a jokester from talking with him over twitter,” Ray said of Rumph. “We talked in person and from when I walked into his office you can tell he is a funny dude and a great person to be around.”

Over the last few months Ray has debated on releasing a cut down list of schools he’s interested in, but he says that he’s getting close to releasing it now.

“I am looking at about six teams right now,” he said. “I am still kind of working on things before I make that list public. I have about two or three schools I plan on going to see. I know I want to take an official visit to Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida.”

Ray plans to get back down for an official visit to Florida and other schools, but he says he has a few things he wants to see from the Gators on his official visit.

“Definitely the football part of things and if I did come back for a game I would want to see how a player approaches game day,” Ray said of what he’s looking for out of his official. “From the meetings the day before to pre game to the actual game and atmosphere. Just what football is all about on game day.”

INSIDERS TAKE: Ray has seemed to be all Alabama before this trip and the Gators still have work to do here. If Ray visits Gainesville again then the Gators coaching staff will have another chance to impress the defensive end.

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.