The Florida Gators recruiting class continues to look for defensive backs in the class of 2017 and on Thursday the Gators offered a JUCO at the position.
Receivers coach Kerry Dixon made the call and offered JUCO cornerback Jhavonte Dean (6-2, 180, Brenham, TX Blinn College) early on Thursday.
“Coach Dixon was the coach that offered me, but Coach [Torrian] Gray got on the phone afterwards,” Dean said of who offered him. “Coach Dixon was telling me to make sure I got my classes right so I could be a mid year graduate and that they need guys to enroll early.”
Dean grew up in South Florida and attended South Dade High School so getting an offer from the Gators was a big one for him.
“The offer means a lot to me, every since I got to JUCO and opened up my recruitment from Cincinnati, the first school that stood out to me was Florida,” he of the offer. “I always wanted to go to the Florida Gators so I kind of caught some excitement when I got this offer from Florida.”
The JUCO cornerback already has a connection with Dixon that dates backa few years and that was something that came up on Thursday.
“Coach Dixon told me he was glad to offer me again because he had recruited me at FIU,” Dean said of Dixon’s message to him. “He was telling me that it was a second chance to play for him now. I told him I was happy and that’s what’s up.”
Dean says that he has a good bond with Dixon as that he really likes talking to the Gators receiver coach.
“I have a pretty good relationship with Coach Dixon from when he was at FIU,” he said of his relationship with Dixon. “He’s a straight forward guy and he’s a nice guy. He’s really outgoing and I love his personality.”
Defensive backs coach Torrian Gray has never met Dean, but the two talked about several different things on Thursday night.
“Coach Gray was kind of talking to me about the offer and he was telling me to stay on my grades and stuff,” Dean said of Gray’s message. “I’m getting to know Coach Gray and I’m actually texting him now. So far he has told me that he needs corners because there is a couple of guys leaving early. He said I have a great chance of making an impact early on.”
Being an instate guy Dean knows a good amount of things about the Gators football program despite never visiting campus before.
“I think Florida has been really successful in recruiting and in the draft, they had two defensive backs taken in the first round,” he said of Florida. “ They have a really nice background of success with defensive backs and guys like Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin.”
Dean also has two other connections to the Gators in players that he played with earlier in his playing career.
“I played with C.J Worton at South Dade and we won a championship together,” Dean said of the guys he knows at Florida. “I played with Antonio Callaway since we was like five years old. We played little league ball together for the longest time.”
A few months ago Dean says he didn’t expect to get all of these offers but right now he’s in the process of checking out these big offers that he has recently received.
“I’ll have two years left to play once I enroll in college,” he said. “Right now I’m taking visits and I’m going to Alabama this weekend. I’m going to visit Florida in July, Coach Dixon is setting a visit up for me. I’ll take official visits this fall and I kind of know of the schools that I want to take official visits too. Florida will no doubt get one.”
INSIDERS TAKE: Dean says he wants to make a decision in either August or September. The JUCO cornerback talked very highly of the Florida offer and the Gators are team that will play into his decision.