Florida has already locked up two highly-touted prospects from West Palm Beach Dwyer in Matt Elam and Gerald Christian. Why not go for a third? In a weekend devoted to bringing in a bunch of top uncommitted talents, Florida’s staff made quite the impression on West Virginia wide receiver commitment Robert Clark.
Clark, who traveled with Elam and Christian, has always liked the Gators but didn’t get as much love early in the recruiting process and committed to the Mountaineers in late July.
However, he still kept in contact with Florida’s staff, especially former receivers coach Billy Gonzales. It didn’t hurt Florida’s chances that Elam and Christian were in his ear about the Gators. All that orange-and-blue influence finally pushed him toward an official visit in December. A visit that Clark said will have a huge impact on his final college decision.
“Florida is the best visit I’ve been on by far. I’m not gonna lie,” said Clark, who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. “It’s hard because I’m kind of committed to West Virginia, right now, but I love Florida more than I love West Virginia.”
That certainly isn’t good for the West Virginia staff. Hurting them even more is that Clark said Gainesville’s distance from West Palm Beach is starting to look much more appealing to him and he prefers Florida’s weather.
One factor from this weekend that really helped the Gators was the introduction of new receivers coach Zach Azzanni. Clark said he’s known Azzanni for a couple years now because of the work he’s done at Florida’s summer camps. Clark said the two had developed a solid relationship before and that it only got stronger in the past couple of days, which helped him get over the loss of formerUF assistant Billy Gonzales.
The more Clark talked about Florida, the more it sounds like West Virginia is slowing fading away. Clark said that after the “great” time he had in Gainesville, he will make a final decision this week on his future school. It’s coming down to Florida and West Virginia and the Gators might have stolen all of the Mountaineers’ thunder.
It also sounds Clark’s visit was something West Virginia tried to talk him out of.
“I told them I was taking all my visits and they were complaining that they don’t want me to take any more visits, but I told them I’m taking all my visits,” Clark said. “Oh well.”
3 stars, 5-10, 170. Is this the best we can do?