UF hosting recruits committed elsewhere for UK

By
Gatorsports
-
50
448

Florida will host a handful of big names in The Swamp tonight.

Five-star defensive end CeCe Jefferson (Glen Saint Mary Baker County) is visiting for the third consecutive weekend, and Rivals100 athlete Tim Irvin (Miami Westminster Christian) returns to UF after attending Friday Night Lights.

Irvin’s teammate, four-star running back Jordan Cronkrite, will make the trip to Gainesville, too. He decommitted from Miami this morning.

Hurricanes RB commit Dexter Williams (Winter Garden West Orange) is scheduled to be at the game as well as Clemson RB commit Ray-Ray McCloud III (Tampa Sickles). McCloud and Williams attended FNL in late July.

Suwanee (Ga.) North Gwinnett tight end Daniel Imatorbhebhe, a Missouri pledge, will be at Florida all weekend on an official visit. The Gators offered his brother, 2016 receiver Josh Imatorbhebhe, on Friday.

Snellville (Ga.) Shiloh cornerback Jeremy McDuffie and New Smyrna Beach offensive guard Jalen Merrick may also make it to the UK game. McDuffie and Merrick camped at UF in June.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

50 COMMENTS

  4. This has the makings of a huge turn around in momentum for our program. New, big play offense that executes with discipline, resurgent defense, high calibre recruits clearly eyeing the Gators. There’s more to be gained than wins the next few weeks. Watch us utterly dismantle UK later this evening. Commitments are ahead.

  7. Gatormac, I don’t think anyone saw UF “utterly dismantle Kentucky.” So much for this great offense, it was silly to get excited over the first game against a paid scrub. One thing is true though, Florida is not boring, there was plenty of excitement and nail biting action last night, but I don’t think it’s what anyone had in mind hen they said that they wanted to see a different gator team this year. The big question is whether Kentucky is actually a good team or is Florida a worse team than last year? At least last year’s team destroyed Kentucky on the road, this year’s version is lucky to escape with a win at home. The only positive is that, finally, UF seems to have a great receiver in Robinson. Maybe this game was part of Will Muschamp’s secret plan to make Alabama overlook UF and not take them seriously. Yea, that’s the ticket!

  9. driskel never looks comfortable in the pocket…….a deer in headlights…….untimely picks will doom us if we don’t address this issue……he clearly threw a pick that bounced and was caught by demarcus………TREON HARRIS ALL DAY

  10. Well, fellas, I’m an old Gator. I vivid recall an outstanding Gator coach and team in 1993 on the ropes in Lexington against a much less talented, less well coached Kentucky team. Florida looked anything but impressive that day. Very late a redshirt freshman QB threw an improbable pass to his walk -on sophomore roommate in the Cats’ end zone. The Gators survived. No one could foresee that evening what Danny Wuerffel, Chris Doerring and their teammates would accomplish that year and the seasons that followed. Be wary of racing to your deconstructive conclusions based on a particular game. There were some awfully good Gayors who fought back four times last night to get that win and I’m proud of them.

  11. understood…….with that being said I’m proud also,but we have to address this same problem against elite teams…….driskeljust seems to me to loose alot ofcomposure at critical times…. it’s like what was he thinking…….missed a man in the end zone holding the ball to long…..over throws……then thank Gof the Kentucky defender didn’t get pick or game was over instead it bounced to demarcus for a big gain…….oh and the clock gettingto 0 in ot is on the quarterback or its 4th and 12…….we gotta do better or let treon get a chance……he clearly is calm……

  12. Gatormac To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen: I’ve seen Danny Weurffel, and Jeff Driskel is no Danny Weurffel. UF would have clobbered Kentucky last night with a decent quarterback. Uf did try having a vertical passing game, and the receivers constantly got behind UK’s secondary (after all it’s still Kentucky), but Uf doesn’t have a quarterback that can get them the ball. Roper finally gave up going vertical, what’s the use if you don’t have a quarterback that can throw? It’s just a waste of a down and gets you behind schedule. Maybe there is a good quarterback at Florida right now, but it’s not the guy that’s the current starter.

  13. it wasn’t necessary the game I wanted to see…the 1st half jeff struggled some…but had several dropped balls ( at least 3 ) on third downs that could have made a big difference in the in the score, as they were moving the ball downfield…relax and enjoy the season…

  14. hey aux2, I guess it was jd playing in our secondary that got shredded or he missed the fg. Danny had 4 int against uk when he played. I think jd made a couple of bad passes in first half. I also think he was very clutch in second half and ot and pulled out a win. I am for whoever we have at qb. remember we were 2-1 last year when jd went out and yet he gets blamed for whole season. the year before we don’t win all those games without jd,s legs. how bout enjoy the win and hope we improve a lot this week and beat bama! GO GATORS!

  17. I dont think we get very far without the full qb package, and thats JD running the ball 10 times a game. Without that were toast, he’s not a great passer. Always seems to overthrow the deep ball, decision making still in question. At this rate Treon takes over by mid season.

  19. The game at Tennessee is critical now. I assumed the Gators would win easily over Tennessee since they were going to be better and Tennessee has no returning starting starters on either line. But now, after struggling to beat Kentucky, it’s wrong to assume that Florida is a better team this year. I still think Kentucky is a bad team and UF would have easily won with a good quarterback. I have no reason to believe that this team can beat Alabama. I wish I could think of one, but come up empty. Tennessee will probably lose to Georgia before the Gator s come to town. In no way do I think Tennessee is a good team, but I do think they are a step up from Kentucky. The Gators must beat Tennessee or I think the entire season goes up in flames. After that game, there is only the paid scrub and an awful Vanderbilt team that I could feel confident about UF winning against.
    If UF loses to Tennessee, it’s time to get rid of Muschamp and Driskel. The season will be over, no sense in thinking that Driskel or Muschamp are going to get any nbetter

  20. The game at Tennessee is critical now. I assumed the Gators would win easily over Tennessee since they were going to be better and Tennessee has no returning starting starters on either line. But now, after struggling to beat Kentucky, it’s wrong to assume that Florida is a better team this year. I still think Kentucky is a bad team and UF would have easily won with a good quarterback. I have no reason to believe that this team can beat Alabama. I wish I could think of one, but come up empty. Tennessee will probably lose to Georgia before the Gator s come to town. In no way do I think Tennessee is a good team, but I do think they are a step up from Kentucky. The Gators must beat Tennessee or I think the entire season goes up in flames. After that game, there is only the paid scrub and an awful Vanderbilt team that I could feel confident about UF winning against.
    If UF loses to Tennessee, it’s time to get rid of Muschamp and Driskel. The season will be over, why continue under the illusion that Driskel is going to get better or Muschamp will cure what ails Florida. Let’s be realistic, the Gators are not improving from last year, they’re going in the opposite direction. Even a bad UF team last year went on the road and demolished Kentucky, this year’s team needs three overtime periods to dispatch Kentucky at home. Roper and Summers are not miracle workers, UF is still trotting out Driskel and the same suspects on the offensive line. Maybe it’s time to admit that it’s the players, not the coaching, although it doesn’t take a genius to know that Driskel is never going to be a good quarterback.

  21. I agree with you GG, let Jeff run a little more often. A QB who is not a dual threat and misses on the deep ball, hinders this system. I’d guess the coaches didn’t want to show that weapon yet but there were a few plays there where if JD kept the ball he makes huge gains, scores and if nothing else, moves the chains and demoralizes a tiring defense. Another observation, if he’s not going to run, JD needs to act out his fake runs at full speed/quickness and force defenses to account for him and not sprint to the actual ball carrier…but I’d wager these things will be much better starting next week. Obviously we’ve go lots of issues to correct but I am proud of our fight and many other good things that I saw. We need more out of Leon Orr. Still no Adam Lane nor Alvin Bailey? LUV UF!

  22. The QB and WR’s were out of sync in the passing game in the first half with several dropped passes and 3 deep balls that were just slightly over-thrown, but Driskel was sharp in the second half, completing 18 of 23 (78%) for 179 yards and 3 TD’s. His composure (and throw) on the TD pass to Robinson in the first overtime was a game saver.

    Jeff Driskel just beat the play clock on a fourth-and-seven play to throw a 9-yard TD pass to wide receiver Demarcus Robinson in the first OT period. The score tied the game at 27-27 and extended the game to a 2nd overtime. They then scored a FG each sending it to the 3rd OT. The Gator D then stuffed the UK offense and they then missed a 41 yard FG. UF then ran RB Matt Jones 4 consecutive (in your face) times for the game winning TD.

    On Any Saturday in the SEC ~~ That’s not just a cute PR phrase, that’s a freakin’ reality when you play in the SEC, and UK IS a pretty good team. Tenn and Vandy could both fall to them this season.

  23. TigerCatZeroZero “I’d guess the coaches didn’t want to show that weapon yet..” That makes no sense, why would a coach hold back something in a game that you are on the precipice of losing? If what you said was true, the coaches should be fired immediately. No need to wait, that would be proof enough that they don’t have a clue.

  25. I think Bama is the most overrated team by far in the top 10, worst team in Saban’s tenure. No QB that’s actually faced a real defense, and very limited playmakers on their defense. We all know Saban is a great college coach, but he is not working with much this year.

  26. da-muddler Sure Kentucky is a “pretty good team” and the deep passes were “slightly overthrown.” After all Kentucky is in the SEC, that should be enough proof that they are a “pretty good” team. Roper stopped calling vertical plays because Driskel’s passes were only “slightly overthrown.” Let’s hear some statistics that tell us that UF should beat Alabama. Isn’t UF averaging 55 points a game? I’m sure Alabama is worried about Florida, right?

  27. Derek I agree with you that Alabama is overrated this year. But I’ll relate a story to illustrate a point. Many years ago FSU lost a hard fought battle to Oklahoma. Barry Switzer complimented Bowden after the game and gushed about how good a job FSU’s coaches had one. Bowden told him that he’d be glad to trade his coaches for Oklahoma’s players. I think that, even if Alabama may be overrated this year, I’d still take their players over Florida’s every day, including Sunday.

  28. Having attended the game this past Saturday, I can only say this: our defense is mediocre, with an absolutely horrific pass defense. They looked like they had never played football before this game. There was no pass rush.

    The offense was VERY predictable. Jeff was awful for much of the game, and could not find any other receiver but Robinson. At one point, I think we ran #24 on first down about 5-6 times in a row. Many of those he was stuffed.

    I only see one game on our schedule that we have a good chance of winning.

  29. You gotta love all this negativity, the same negative people from last year, just the names have changed. Florida is 2-0, really 3-0. if they had been able to play the 1st game of the season. Florida will improve as the season progresses. I see Fla better than last year, I’m just not as BRILLIANT as all these negative predictors with all their negative predictions. OK all you BRILLIANT predictors, who will the next coach be to lead us to the promised land, since you have already written off the Gators this year and Muschamp. Go Gators.

  30. PEOPLE, THIS IS A RECRUITING ARTICLE! GO TO THE FORUMS TO COMPLAIN.

    Back to the topic at hand, Zach, how did Jordan Cronkrite like the atmosphere? It has to be a good sign that he decommitted and then came to the game.

  32. Homer J The product on the field will determine UF’s success in recruiting this year. There are guys like Cowart, Ivey, jefferson, etc. that are waiting to see if UF is a better team this year. Saturday night’s performance against kentucky is not the improvement they are looking for. Now Florida starts to play good teams, how they fare against them will determine if guys like Cowart choose Florida. Besides, you have to wonder how meaningful recruiting rankings are, when yo take into account that UF has ranked as well or better than anyone not named Alabama for the past five years or so, yet have not had that recruiting success transfer to the field. The last time UF went to Atlanta is when Tebow was still playing. Maybe the recruiting rankings are not as important as some would ave you believe.

  33. Recruiting is only “successful” when those players are properly coached. The 4 and 5-star recruits can only be as good as the game plan and coaching they are given.

    That is why I was so disheartened at the game on Saturday night. We have a number of great recruits, but they were poorly coached in that game. Defensive backs running down field with their backs to the ball all night long, so the Kentucky receivers were catching everything in sight. The Kentucky QB looked like Tom Brady on steroids.

    To say we need great recruits is an understatement, but to say we have great coaching is nothing but an overstatement.

  35. “Recruiting is only “successful” when those players are properly coached. The 4 and 5-star recruits can only be as good as the game plan and coaching they are given.” Obviously, coaching is important, but players must execute the plan or it is no good anyway. Coaches coach and players play. Players need to make plays regardless of the plan. I would have to agree with Jesse Palmer on this idea when asked about the difference between Spurrier offense and the up tempo ” I do not have a preference on either, it is not about the X’s and the O’s but the jimmies and the Joes’s, Players have to execute.” Muschamp is not a great coach yet, but he is only in his fourth year as a head coach and is still learning. He is a great defensive mind who recruits well and hopefully that will pay off soon. Saban recruits 4 and 5 star each year and I guess one could argue that he does not coach them up well either, but he does not win a title every year. He has a top 5 class year in and year out. Additionally, I think the quote earlier also makes the point about it being about the coaches.. “But I’ll relate a story to illustrate a point. Many years ago FSU lost a hard fought battle to Oklahoma. Barry Switzer complimented Bowden after the game and gushed about how good a job FSU’s coaches had one. Bowden told him that he’d be glad to trade his coaches for Oklahoma’s players. I think that, even if Alabama may be overrated this year, I’d still take their players over Florida’s every day, including Sunday.” Sounds like Bowden would have taken players over coaches as well….

  36. GoGator, sadly someone not named Muschamp. Recruiting is important, so is coaching once you get here. These are all 4 star guys in the secondary and they looked pretty bad against a team the could throw it around. Thats Muschamps responsibility to coach db’s so how that working? The guy is truly in over his head! Do hope he survives but not looking good.

  37. Aux2, I agree, we should have been doing everything we could to win that game and impress recruits – not doing so bothers me. We can’t go into games with the attitude that we must protect our QB. l have several dislikes about what I saw or didn’t see but I want to remain positive…but let me also mention, we have plenty of talent, I believe we’re “loaded,” why not use ALL of our weapons – besides, recruits love seeing a deep rotation. This game will pay dividends. Kudos to UK for the fight. LUV UF!

    Mail Stack: Zach, later in the week, can you list the recruits visiting Bama to witness this upset? Thanks in advance.

    • GIGator,
      Haven’t been able to reach any of recruits yet. I’ll try again tonight. Most of them are hard to get on the phone. I missed them after the game because it ran so late and I had to get quotes from my game stories.

  40. To clown-U little jimmy-wisher, UF never does anything and never wins a game against his mighty reFSUcks criminoles, (ignores record).

    To ox2, UF has to win the NC every year. That is the standard that he’s decided is the ONLY measuring stick to be used, (but he use’s a much smaller sick to measure himself I’m betting). UF’s 2013 W/L 4-8, recruiting class ranking #6, so we can all see how that W/L record totally controls the recruiting,,, (dweebs). And according to ESPN, Will’s 3 classes have averaged a #4 class with 21 flips.

    Driskel – 58%, 295 yds, 3 TD’s, 1 Int — Career W/L 14-2 as the starter against Top 5 SoS’s.
    Quick, somebody dump this guy cause he’ll never be a competent D1 QB….
    Rushing 237 yds — Passing 295 — Total Offense 532 yds.
    After just two games, the Gators are currently: Plus 7 on Turnovers.
    Offense is: Plus 13 in Explosive Plays, with 593.5 yds/gm, 2-0, 1-0.
    SECe Standings:UF 1-0, SCa 1-1, UGA 0-1, UK 0-1, Mizz 0-0, TN 0-0.
    UF is now entering the toughest 7-8 game stretch in college football….
    @ UA – @ TN – LSU – Mz – ns-UG – @ VU – SC + @ #1 BCS-NC FSU
    So if Florida doesn’t win the SEC-C and at least make the Playoffs, then Muschamp/Roper can’t coach. And since Driskel can’t play QB,,,, we’re obviously doomed forever… Gee, I wonder why all these genius guys with their highly sought after opinions aren’t multi-millionaire college football coaches? Why don’t we fire Will and hire up someone like this Ox2 guy???

  41. da-muddler Are you O.K.? I have no idea what point you were trying to make, maybe it’s some cryptic message that I’m too dense to figure out. Please stop the statistic barrage. They don’t mean much against a paid scrub and a bad team. At least we will find out if UF is any good this Saturday. The only stat that matters from that game will be the scoreboard. I’m beginning to wonder if you are a statistics professor with the obsession you seem to have with them. I think you’re following the wrong sport. try baseball. Statistics are everything in baseball and do have great meaning. That’s not true in football. Anyway, we’ll see Saturday if UF is better this year, maybe they just had a bad game against Kentucky. Even great teams have bad games sometimes. But I’m leaning to the hypothesis that UF is still a bad team and will not have a winning record this year. Will Saturday prove my hypothesis to be null or give more data that shows it is still a valid one?

  42. The people who aren’t pissed about how the Gators have played under muschamp…… are your typical casual fans who don`t really give a crap if we are winning or not……..real fans want the best for their team….I`m sick of it….we are the next UT if something doesn`t happen soon……I could live with a really bad year…. but I picked up the pitchfork the second we lost to Georgia Southern….we are in the 4th year of the muschamp era and it feels/looks like we are starting from scratch….

  43. Murk, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m a passionate Gator fan who loves to win. Losing is miserable and I’ll get more pissed off than most. If you don’t believe me check out my facebook page during the games. I go take it a little too far sometimes. But I am NOT ready to throw in the towel on Muschamp yet. 2012 was a miraculous season led by GREAT coaching. I wasn’t thrilled with the offensive performance, but winning is all that matters and he was winning. 2013 is a throw away year. With all those injuries, we weren’t gonna be good. We definitely had more problems, hence the Pease and Davis firings. And now this year we are 2-0 and I’m not so pessimistic that that win column won’t go up drastically. This team is looking more and more like the 2012 team. You forget that we thought we’d handle TAMU too, they also ended up being a tougher team than we expected, we struggled in the first half, and came back in the 2nd half to win a close one. Most fans weren’t happy after that one either, me included. Then we took that experience and used it to beat Tennessee in a hostile environment a week later and we racked up one of the most impressive resumes in the country. It’s good to get that experience early and get out with a win. You can show your team the film, correct things, and you build the confidence to win those close games that can make all the difference. Don’t count out Muschamp’s Gators just yet.

  44. I was not upset about the 11-2 year, but certainly was not happy about last year. I am waiting to see if last year was a result of an incredible amount of injuries or more related to the coaching. If the Gators have a losing year this year, I will jump on the replace Muschamp bandwagon.

    Did you see that Georgia Tech had to score in the last minute to pull out a win against Georgia Southern. I doubt Georgia Tech was playing their 4th string quarterback and a non game day roster walk-on at middle linebacker.

  45. Not exactly Murks3ason. The previous 3 seasons were miserable failures on the field – even the 11-2 season – we were stagnant and recruiting was taking a nose dive and I shared your feelings. However, Coach Muschamp (with Roper) has fixed the root of our program’s issues and we’re much better for it on and off the field, and recruiting is looking up. Our program is still recovering and it will probably take another 2-3 years to erase this “wait and see” mentality that we’ve earned with the top recruits. Regarding the game, players and fans expected to roll over UK and didn’t respect their fight and worst of all we don’t seem to realize EVERYONE will ALWAYS give us their best and now EVERYONE (judging from our recent past) feels they can WHIP OUR @$$! We made mistakes and bolstered their confidence. We had a TERRIBLE game , but the difference now (or at least this game) is the players did not execute. Missed assignments, beat in coverage, dropped balls, killing drives, over/under throws – all on the players….but they will get better – this year. The only coaching fault I would point out was our nervous tendency to stick with 1-2 players at a position when we have 3 or 4 who can strike fear/panic in players/teams (A. Bailey, A. Lane, V. Showers, T. Harris, A. Debose, C. Thompson to name a few). Like it or not, we’ve got our coach…Coach Muschamp. LUV UF!

  46. Tiger – I obviously have a different definition of miserable failure. 11-2 with wins over LSU, South Carolina and FSU I do not consider a miserable failure. The offense was not good, but overall the team was. If they only lost two games this year – however they did it – I would be happy.

    I will agree with aux in this regards, we have not seen enough to say that Muschamp (and Roper) have fixed the root of the program’s issues. I certainly hope they have, but won’t base that assessment on just the first two games. They go out and have a good game against Alabama and I will start to believe that they have.

  47. Gator863, Let me clarify, when I say “fixed” I am suggesting we will be competitive, not necessarily win them all or win IT all. winning 11 and dropping 2 should have been something to be proud of, but I wasn’t because I felt we were playing “stall ball” and it turned the players, fans and recruits off – thus we now have this “wait and see” mentality from so many top recruits who love the UF brand and fans like yourself. Revert back to THAT style of play and I’ll have my pitchfork – again. Alabama is in for a fight…the past 3 years I wouldn’t/didn’t feel that way. Remember when the Spurrier led Gators went into Bama and showed the world they were ready? This is a program changing game…give a GREAT performance and the top recruits in attendance will feel Orange and Blue, whether we win, lose or draw! LUV UF!

  48. Some of you people re totally unbelievable. I have been a Gator fan since 1947 and have seen the best and the worst, but what I do not remeber is the incessant whining among college fans that the internet exposes. Driskel is no S.O.S., D.W. or Tebow, but he is 14-3 in games he has started. Muschamp is no SOS, but he did go 12-1 year before last before the injury bug killed the Gators last year. If we would be positive about our team, it might help their morale as wello influence High School kids considering UF.

  49. Ox, I on the other hand understand everything that you post here, and I’m usually LMAO at it and U, and yes you’re correct, you are too dense. Please stop with your attempts to tell me how or what to post and concentrate more on your own hysterical scrub quality rants. For someone who thinks that the scoreboard @ Bama is the only thing that matters, you post an awful lost of extraneous bs. Is that because your bs always trumps anyone else’s quoting of the game stats. (rotf) I’m beginning to understand that you are a professor of bs, cause you are seen slinging it so often. Stats in football don’t matter??? (really LMAO) And since UF has lost the last 3-4 games played @ Bama, if we lost this game too it will prove that Will can’t coach and Jeff can’t QB??? (you’re such a prize) I’m leaning to the hypothesis that you’re another of the self-promoting clueless. And finally, sorry, but DATA (that includes the score and the W/L record btw) is totally irrelevant in your world…. Now you have yourself a real negative day…. :~)) PS – And it’s apparent to me that over-hyped athletes aren’t the only ones who can suffer from Entitlement Syndrome. It’s just a game played by boys on Saturday afternoon, not some earth shattering event, so get over yourselves. The important things are being done by mostly unsung hero’s (also boys) who are out dying for their fellow citizens and country. (no stats in that btw — snicker)