With cornerback a critical need for the Florida Gators, who will lose four to graduation in the next two years, James Scott of Daytona Beach Seabreeze is a priority recruit. Rated four stars by Scout.com, Scott is tremendous in coverage. He talked with Gator Country about his senior season and upcoming visits.
“We are 4-1 right now,” said Scott. “I’ve been playing pretty good. I have one kick return for a touchdown and lots of tackles and pass breakups.”
Scott is being recruited to play corner at the next level, but due to injuries at Seabreeze, he’s anchoring the secondary at another position.
“I’ve been playing a lot of strong safety,” said Scott. “We had some injuries in our secondary that forced me to make that change.”
Even though he’s excelling at the new position, Scott knows his future is at corner. Still, in his most recent game, the 5-10, 165-pounder showed exactly what he could do at safety.
“We played Titusville this past Friday,” he said. “I had a bunch of tackles and two pass breakups. It was a solid team effort.”
He has a long list of schools that have offered scholarships but only five have made the final cut for this big hitter.
“Right now, I like Florida, Ohio State, LSU, Alabama, and Tennessee,” he said. “All of them want me as a cornerback.”
Scott went on a visit to Ohio State last weekend for their game against Penn State and came away impressed.
“It was fun,” he said. “It was a good experience around campus. I like the tradition Ohio State has and liked a lot of the people I met. I really liked the atmosphere of the stadium.”
The rumor last week was that Scott had cooled on the University of Florida and they were no longer one of his teams. In fact, he actually has a lot of good things to say about the Gators.
“I really like how they have been playing this year,” he said. “I grew up a Gator fan, so them winning this season is obviously very important to me.
“I really like the Florida coaches, too. The coaches came right into the program and completely turned it around, so they are obviously a great coaching staff. Coach Gonzales is recruiting me the hardest right now. I talked to him once or twice a week.”
Unfortunately for the Gators, James Scott could not make it to Gainesville this weekend, but did get to watch Florida dismantle Alabama in the second half for a decisive victory.
“Yeah, I got to watch the game yesterday,” he said. “I was flipping back between it and my brother’s (Georgia Tech cornerback Kenny Scott) game.”
The Ohio State visit is currently the only official that James has taken. However he plans to take more visits, with three already set up.
“I will be taking a visit to LSU on November 11th (Alabama at LSU),” he said. “I’m going to see Alabama on November 18th (Auburn at Alabama), and am looking at visiting Florida on December 2nd.”
Even though it’s trendy for recruits to commit early this year, Scott is not in a hurry.
“I may decide in December, but I am not sure at this point,” he said. “I want to take all of my visits and see where I think I would be the best fit.”
James Scott is one of the top recruiting targets in the state of Florida. Recruiting is important to him, but his primary goal is to get the Seabreeze Sand Crabs as deep as possible into the state playoffs. When he makes his decision it will be one he’s given plenty of thought into. The Gators are hoping that they will be the last team standing.