The Florida Gators are looking once again in 2017 for help on the offensive line and on Tuesday night head coach Jim McElwain visited the Gators lone lineman commit.
McElwain and linebackers coach Randy Shannon visited offensive line commit Kadeem Telfort (6-7, 300, Miami, FL. Booker T. Washington) and his mother broke down how the visit went.
“The visit went awesome. We had a great conversation with each other,” Telfort’s mother Gerta Telfort said about the in-home visit with Florida. “We talked academics, living arrangements and just how he’s going to transition from high school to college. I got all of my questions and concerns answered.”
Telfort is going to be able to early enroll at Florida and Shannon broke down the pros to arriving early for college.
“He basically said that by Kadeem coming early, is an opportunity for him to be ahead on the field and to be able to graduate in three years,” she said. “It will also help to transition early so he can adapt to the college atmosphere. He can adapt to the tutoring and the academic coaching. It will help him get ready for the season.”
Telfort’s mom, like most mothers, wants to make sure her son gets a good education and that was something McElwain ensured her.
“They said graduating from the University of Florida would be an A+ for him,” Telfort’s mom said. “It’s a well-known college and Coach McElwain was telling me that all of the alumni help each other out. It will help him open some doors that he’s going to enter into in life.”
This was Mrs. Telfort’s first opportunity to meet McElwain and she says the visit went well after she had some playful jokes for the Gators head man.
“The first thing I did was joke with Coach McElwain and told him that he looked different on TV,” she said. “I told him that he looked much bigger and he said ‘I am big.’ I explained to them that I appreciated them. Not only is Kadeem an athlete but they took the time out to get him ready for college. Coach Shannon really took the time to help and explained that he needed the extra classes during football season in order to be able to go up there in January. I appreciated that he took the time and effort to do that for him because Kadeem doesn’t have a male figure in his life. I thanked them for all of they have done.”
This coming weekend will be the first chance for Mrs. Telfort to see Gainesville and she has some things she wants to see.
“This will be my first time to see Florida,” Telfort’s mom said. “I want to see the safety they have just in case of a tragedy up there. Not that I’m expecting one but we know how this world goes so I just want to make sure they have a good plan. I want to know what happens and just basically see where he’s going to stay. I just want to see how everything is set up.”
After several other schools tried to flip Telfort, his mother says that they’ve reached a final decision on where he will attend school.
“The plan is for Kadeem to be in Florida in January,” she said when asked if Florida was the final pick. “He has two classes left but he has got all of the eligibility stuff done and the test scores were done. He will be heading up on January 3rd or 4th.”
INSIDERS TAKE: This is a huge win for the Gators to be able to hold onto Telfort in this class. Randy Shannon really did great work with Telfort and his family because Miami and others were we really trying to flip him.