Florida football is about to become synonymous with Freak Show. Jevon Kearse was the original “Freak,” striking fear into quarterbacks in the SEC coming off the edge with size and speed like they had never seen before. “Freak II” was Carlos Dunlap, who announced he’s leaving for the NFL Monday. Now, make way for “Freak III,” arriving on campus this summer.
Lynden Trail looks to be the latest version of the Florida Freak Show. He’s 6-7, 220 and right now has the look and demeanor of another freak, Ted Hendricks, who was a Dade County legend before playing for the University of Miami and the NFL. As Trail adds meat to his long, lean frame, he will start taking on more of a Kearse or Dunlap look.
He already looks like those two guys on film and Urban Meyer is already letting him know all about it. .
“Coach Meyer started it,” Trail said. “Jevon Kearse was The Freak and Carlos Dunlap was Baby Freak. Coach said I was a freak of nature and reminded him of Kearse. I came up with Freak 3.0, but Coach Meyer said he wanted to go with Freak III. He and Coach (Dan) McCarney have been calling me that ever since.”
Florida isn’t the only school that has noticed. Other schools keep calling Trail but he isn’t the slightest bit interested. Florida State and LSU continue to blow his phone up with regularity. Trail even had a visit to Florida State set up before a conversation with Coach Meyer made him realize that there was nowhere else he would rather be than Gainesville.
“A couple of schools have been talking to me, but you know I’m a Gator all the way,” Trail said. “I just don’t see myself going to either of those schools.”
The only visit remaining for Trail will happen when he heads to Gainesville with his family this weekend. He has been to the Florida campus for multiple games during the fall, but this weekend will give him a chance to spend some one-on-one time with the coaches and his future teammates.
“I’m looking for a lot of fun,” Trail said. “I want to spend some time with Carlos Dunlap if he’s there. I just want to get a tour of the whole school because I’ve never seen it. I’ve only been there for football stuff. Coach Meyer said that he wants to sit down and have dinner too.”
The interesting part about Trail’s commitment is that he hasn’t seen a majority of the Florida campus yet. He knows all about the football offices and locker room, but when it comes to where he will live and spend time in class, he hasn’t seen it. He’s known from the start that he wanted to be a Gator, and that has been settled in his mind regardless of anything else.
“I’ve always been a Gator at heart,” Trail said. “I was silently committed for like six months and nobody ever knew. I decided to come out after the All-Star game, and I’ve stayed committed.”
Trail now is counting down the time until he makes Gainesville his permanent residence. He will spend his fall running the 4X100 and doing the high jump for his track team. He jumped 6-8 during last track season, which put him in the top ten in the country. This season, his goal is to get 6-10 or higher.
But once that season ends, Trail’s main focus becomes putting on weight. The Florida coaches have told him to focus on track before putting on the weigh his 220-pound frame needs before he can play at the college level. He is trying to get on campus for the Summer A semester so he will have some extra time to add the weight and prepare for the 2010 season.
“I’m trying to come as quickly as possible, which is probably right after my graduation,” Trail said. “I’ll probably get enrolled in summer classes as soon as I can. I want to major in telecommunications, but I want to get my masters in four years since I’ll probably be going to summer classes every year.”
Most Florida commitments were sent scurrying when Coach Meyer announced his decision to resign as Florida’s head coach on December 26. Trail would have no part of it. Even when it looked like there was no chance Meyer would be his head coach, Trail knew where he wanted to play.
“Meyer talking about his resigning didn’t bother me at all because he’s a hard working coach and he’s been there for a while,” Trail said. “His record is great and he’s put in work. If anything, he deserves the rest. I couldn’t see it if it was a new coach that hadn’t done much, but man-to-man, I respect him for his decision either way. I feel no different towards him or the program, but I did not commit to Urban Meyer. I committed to the University of Florida because there’s where I want to be for the next four years.”
When Freak III isn’t terrorizing quarterbacks in the backfield, he is causing frustration in the heart of head coaches across the country on the recruiting trail. Just as top profile coaches are currently trying to raid Southern Cal’s recruiting class, many expected a similar thing to happen to Florida’s class if Meyer had remained retired.
But Trail and quarterback commitment Trey Burton took it upon themselves to make sure that didn’t happen. They split up the list of Florida commitments and began getting in touch with as many as possible, reassuring them that everything would be fine for the Gators. They talked to as many prospects who were committed at the time, most notably Mack Brown and Josh Shaw.
“Me and Trey Burton kept in contact with each other and we were keeping the other commitments calm,” Trail said. “We were trying to show that even though we aren’t together in Gainesville now, it’s going to be a strong bond and we’re going to be a family.”
The commitments in the past two weeks have only strengthened Trail’s opinion that Florida has the top class in the country. Two Saturdays ago, it was Chris Dunkley and Dominique Easley committing to the Gators at the Under Armour All-America Game. Last Saturday, the Gators landed Shariff Floyd, Matt Elam and Ronald Powell, giving them one of the biggest recruiting hauls in one day.
“I like to think we have the top class in the nation. Our defensive line is something that will have to be reckoned with,” Trail said. “Between me, Ronald Powell, Shariff Floyd and Dominique Easley, that’s going to be real tough for running backs to penetrate or quarterbacks to have time to drop back and throw the ball. Leon Orr might play on defense with us too.”
The commitment from Floyd had a special meaning. Trail had been all over the 6-4, 310-pound defensive tackle since they met at the Hawaii vs. Mainland all-star game last month. Trail ended the game with two sacks, and Floyd tormented the quarterback throughout the game.
But it was their relationship off the field that meant the most. They immediately clicked, and Trail didn’t waste any time selling the All-American defensive tackle on the Gators.
“I’ve been recruiting Shariff Floyd since the Hawaii-Mainland All-Star game,” Trail said. “We’ve been doing our thing, and he was telling me back then it was between Ohio State and Florida. I told him the whole time Florida was the place to be. I told him he had a great chance to start at Florida, and he told me he thought he did at Ohio State, so that busted my bubble for a little bit, but I kept coming at him. I told him he didn’t want to be in the cold all the time, but I don’t know what to tell him because it’s cold in Florida right now!”
The fourth quarter of the Army All-American Game topped it all off. Ronald Powell, potentially the top player in the country when rankings are updated, made it official that he would play his college ball in Gainesville.
“The coaches told me he was the only guy they were waiting on, and after he committed, they started cancelling official visits from other defensive line players,” Trail said. “Powell, Easley, Floyd and myself. We may call ourselves the fantastic four.”
Don’t be surprised if Freak III is leading the fantastic four to championships in the near future. It sure wouldn’t surprise him.