Petit-Frere enjoys Florida Gators visit but still open

The Florida Gators had several big name offensive linemen on campus for Friday Night Lights but one of the bigger targets visited the following day.

Offensive lineman Nick Petit-Frere (6-6, 272, Tampa, FL. Berkeley Prep) visited on Saturday and the visit was a good one according to the lineman.

“It was good, I enjoyed myself,” Petit-Frere said of his visit to Florida. “We just toured around the facilities, see the campus and things likes that. Talked to the coaches too.”

During the visit, Petit-Frere had the chance to meet with offensive line coach Brad Davis who is also his main recruiter.

“He was just kind of glad that I was there for the visit,” he said of Davis’ message. “He was just telling me that he liked me as a player and he was excited that I came down to get a chance to visit. His entire message throughout the day was that he was excited to see me.”

The relationship between Davis and Petit-Frere has grown a lot since Davis was hired and the lineman had nothing but good things to say about him.

“He’s a great coach,” Petit-Frere said of Davis. “He recruits well and he has a great personality. He has been very nice and amazing to get to know. I’m very grateful to have all of these offensive line coaches and coaches in general talking to me.”

Head coach Jim McElwain also had the chance to meet with Petit-Frere and the Gators head coach made sure to make the lineman feel welcomed.

“It was about the same message, he was just glad that I came up and got the chance to see everything,” he said of McElwain’s message. “He was cool throughout the day. It was a great chance to meet with him again.”

Over the last week or so, Florida has gained a lot of momentum in recruiting but Petit-Frere tried not to pay attention to that much.

“I’ve noticed it a little bit but I really don’t try to focus on that,” Petit-Frere said on if he has noticed Florida’s recent recruiting run. “It’s cool to see people that I know go to certain schools but I don’t want to base my decision on that.”

Not only does coaches recruit guys to schools now but other players do as well and Petit-Frere has heard from the Gators quarterback commit recently.

“He has reached out to me a little bit,” he said on if Matt Corral has talked to him. “It has just been little things like ‘hi’ and things like that.”

Over the summer, Petit-Frere not only visited Florida but several other out of state schools but visits for the summer are over he says.

“I visited Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, North Carolina and Duke,” Petit-Frere said on his summer visits. “I’m focused on getting better for my school and trying to get us back to the playoffs and to the state finals now.”

Much like he has been all along, Petit-Frere says that he has no leaders but he hopes to visits some places this fall.

“I’m still open to everyone,” he said on his process. “I think everything will start to work itself out, I have to see if I can take visits this fall or not. I’m not sure but I just hope I get the chance to take as many visits to games as I can.”

 

INSIDERS TAKE: Petit-Frere is very open in his process and hasn’t really started to narrow things down at all. Florida is one of those teams that he talks to a lot and they should be in the race until the end for the lineman.

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.