Mack Brown reaffirms UF pledge

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Another piece of recruiting drama has ended it appears. Lithonia, Ga., Martin Luther King running back commit Mack Brown has apparently ended his recruitment from other schools.

Brown recently told Rivals.com that his only remaining official visit will be to Florida this weekend. He was originally expected to visit Florida then Florida State and Tennessee. Brown said that he made his decision to cut ties with other schools before the news that Lane Kiffin was going to take the job at USC broke. Kiffin was thought to be a factor in his recruitment to Tennessee, but Brown said he wasn’t.

The only real threat was Florida State. When Urban Meyer originally resigned, Brown told me FSU coaches called him immediately, after cooling off their recruitment of him for most of the fall. Brown told me that the FSU coaches informed him that he’d be the No. 1 running back next fall if he signed with the Seminoles.

It was the recent in-home visit from newly hired running backs coach Stan Drayton that Brown said was a main reason for his reaffirmed commitment to the Gators.

At 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, Brown is expecting to be the every-down back Meyer has desperately wanted. Don’t expect him to stay under 200 pounds. A hamstring injury bothered him throughout his senior season, but with proper training this summer, Brown should bulk up quite a bit before the fall.

34 COMMENTS

  1. With Tennessee out of the picture, the Gators will eventually end up with a 3100 point recruiting score from Rivals. com making it the best recruiting class of all time. Additionally, after leaving the Oakland Raiders and the Volunteers you would think USC would dial it down on the Kiffins; with pending sanctions both may be going from the frying pan into the fire.

  2. this doesn’t mean anything unless florida start using their bigger back in games and move rainey and demps to the slot. to me! moody, gillise, and mack should be the main rb’s for uf and rainey and demps should move to the slot. Debose should be moved to a reg. wr position, kinda how uf played with caldwell and harvin in 2006 and 2007. D. thompson and one wr pos. and hines at david nelson old position. debose should take over cooper pos.

  3. It is funny to me that some of our fans can game plan better than the coaches who have won 2 national championships in 4 years. Including 26 wins the last two seasons, the most ever in a 2 yr span by FBS teams. Make sure you put an application in to Urban Meyer for the next coaching opening.
    I will say this on my own part, I wish the Gators were as creative every game as they were in the Cincy game and also the Georgia game.

  4. I love to follow the recruiting, if only to follow Gators through their whole career. We sure have to be cautious, though, about getting excited over how our recruiting class “ranks.” Let’s see. USC had the highest ranked class ever in 2006 so that would mean in 2009 they ought to be producing a national champion…..oops. Not even close.

  5. Ed, great work as ususal but does anyone know whats going on with Seastrunk. He said he was staying away from USC because he didnt like the situation . I believe it may come down to UF & texas, please tell me what you think. In addition what do you think Lattimore going to do? Thanks again!

    Maury

    Class 2002

  6. It is probably better that he chose to go to Florida because the recent addition of Debrale Smiley would decrease the playing time and need for a back of his size. I know all the numbers says he’s great, but hear it first from me that Debrale Smiley will turn a few heads next year…if he doesn’t tear them completely off. He is a beast at 240 pounds and I’ve seen him time as low as 4.5 in the 40. Hate to tackle anyone that size with those kind of tools.

  7. Mizzle, Seastrunk is reportedly down to USC, LSU, Oregon and Auburn. With Auburn also in the hunt for Lattimore and already having Michael Dyer and Seastrunk skeptical on USC this leaves Oregon and LSU. Oregon might have the upper hand but don’t count USC with Kiffin. Lattimore will not be coming to UF; he was never interested in us to begin with. Like Seastrunk he has Auburn and Oregon as his finalists but I expect him to end up at either Penn State or South Carolina.

  8. Seastrunk was told by UF staff that there was no room for him in this class. Such was reported on the ESPN recruiting show, yesterday. He had become very interested in UF. Brown is much better and believe it folks, he will be up to 220 in no time – 20 of that will be in his legs.

    Why do we have people telling Meyer how to coach? I can understand opinions, but, for some to say things that make it sound like the coaches haven’t a clue makes you wonder why they aren’t coaching some big-name school instead of hanging out with us. There are so many things that go on behind the scenes and fortunately, Meyer is not one to put players’ business in the street. I feel pretty confident that Moody would have made it known if he felt he was being mishandled. Now that he has had the bone spurs removed from his ankle he will become more durable and be able to go harder in practice. The running game was one of the best, so, I say, keep coaching Meyer!!!

    Yes, Brown is going to be something special! I got to see him play while visiting a relative. He looks just like a cloned Emmit Smith or Alabama’s Mark Ingram. By the way, has Ingram declared for the draft? I believe he is a red-shirt sophmore, so he should be eligible, right? He would be at the top of the draft, Im sure and I sure would like to seee him leave!

    Peace, with a hair crease!

    John C

  9. Florida really needs a go to back. If you could put all the desired characyrisitics into a morph machine what would you have, a Mark Ingram clone?
    That guy has to be pretty good to win the Heisman!

    Can you see John Brantley making those Tebowesc pile driver drives? Matt Elam payed some running back in the allstar games. Is he good enough to play both ways at times? No one said that this can’t be done. Tebow took the Florida team “on his back” at times to get them through tough times. Florida needs a mud-bogging, 4 wheel drive, monster truck of a running back besides all the Porches, Maserattis, Corvettes that we have now. At least in the garage!! And keep those sport cars gleaming!

  10. @John C

    Mark Ingram is staying for another year. I know, it sucks! And we have Alabama in Tuscaloosa next year. Maybe we can put Powell at MLB for that game, if he’s everything they say he is. Our linebackers laid an egg in the SEC Championship game against Ingram along with everone else on the field, but next year will be different. We’ll beat them by 10! GO GATORS!!!

  11. COLLAZO, Jordan Hicks is the name you’re looking for. He is supposedly down to us, Texas, and Ohio State. He is from Ohio, but has some Texas ties. That said, he is very interested in UF still according to reports. With the defensive class we are pulling, it may be enough to get him to want to be a part of it. Meyer and Co. are scheduled to do one last “in-home” visit with him. Keep your fingers crossed.
    Henderson, and more importantly his father, are said to have a great relationship with Addazio. They have been rather “close to the vest” as far as a decision is concerned so it is hard to get a read on him. He has one more visit scheduled to Miami at the end of the month. Hopefully, he wants to be a part of this class as well.
    The Green boys, Chaz and Christian (no relation), from Tampa are scheduled to visit this weekend. Chaz is an OL with huge upside and Christian is a WR/ATH. Both would be big-time pick ups if we could land them.

  12. Don’t let Mack Brown’s 185 lbs. fool you. His braun reminds me of Erict Rhett (and reminds someone else in these forums of Mark Ingram)! He’s hard to tackle and gets lots of YAC!
    BUT, neither Erict Rhett nor Mark Ingram had/has the balance and lateral agility of Emmitt Smith, the open field speed & stride (gate) of Ted Ginn, nor the downfield “smooth-jukes” of Percy Harvin!
    I’m not saying he’s as good as EACH of them; I’m saying he has at least a modicum of each of their respective talents! And as such,
    he has the potential to be better than ALL of them!!!
    Yeah, I said it!!!
    GO GATORS!