Travaris Robinson’s departure from Florida cost the Gators a 2016 commitment Monday.
Cocoa cornerback Chauncey Gardner decided to reopen his recruiting process.
To Everyone Wondering, Florida is still high on my list but I have opened my recruitment to everyone due to coaching changes.
— Chauncey Gardner II (@StillDat_) January 5, 2015
The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder flipped from Miami to the Gators in June after camping at UF.
Robinson, Florida’s former secondary coach who is now at Auburn, primarily recruited Gardner and heavily factored into his summer decision.
Gardner currently holds seven offers, including Notre Dame and Ohio State.
The Gators now have two verbal commitments — athletes Tyler Byrd and Tre Jackson — in their 2016 class. Both were recruited as cornerbacks by the previous staff.
We want kids who want to be here pull his scholarship, and give it to someone who won’t take it for granted. He changes his mind like he changes his under wear.
With the low odds of making it to/in the NFL, I hope he realizes if he wants to make a name for himself that can pay off after his CFB career is over, he’s better off staying in Florida; and there’s no better school to use as his launching pad than THE University of Florida.
@uncle leo – overreact much? He’s a high school junior trying to figure life out. Coaching changes always affect verbal commits. Plenty of time for him to decide before 2016 gets here.
2016? Who cares? there will be plenty of time to develop relationships between now and when next year’s recruits sign up. Even if UF’s record isn’t great, there will some evidence on the field to evaluate whether or not UF is improving. After all, that’s what recruits really want to see. Talk is nice, but selling snake oil can only get you so far. Sooner or later there has to be something tangible. McElwain was hired with one main task: Improve UF’s offense to where it looks like it can compete. Even if it doesn’t show up in the record, recruits will be able to tell if UF’s offense is no longer a joke and that will bring recruits for both sides of the ball. @016 is too far away to worry about now, UF needs to worry about the abysmal 2015 class that is dead in the water right now.
Cggater ever hear of commit to the school not the coaches. I’m not gonna spar with you but that’s the way it’s supposed to go my friend and where our program is now we need kids who want to play here not make excuses before they even put on the uniform.
Yeah my 10 year old decommitted today around 11 a,m,, recommitted and then saw the Ducks replay beating FSU and deccommitted yet again. I think by the time he is 13 or so he will be back in the fold.
On another note DJ Humphries and Tyler Moore will be playing real fantasy football next year as they are kind of doing so right now.
Right on g8ter27. I dont think either will make. maybe 1 more year of learning might get them a job. GO GATORS///
We have had the same coaches for 3-4 yrs, and we all know the results. Muschamp style ball, let the new hires show what they can do, and some of the 2016 commits will be back. Like what Iread about new hires, now time to show and tell. Get some 2015 commits and let the games begin.. GO GATORS//////
I have no problem with the young man looking around some. He was obviously impressed with Robinson as a coach. Coach Mac should have someone in place equally impressive, if so, this young man will re-commit to UF and if not we should wish him the best of luck. (unless he’s playing the Gators!)
Why post a 2016 decommit? That’s what’s wrong with the process now!
Uncle Leo,
It’s ridiculous to say kids are supposed to commit to the school and not the head coach. If that were the case Albert and Alberta would be the ones recruiting these young men. Saying one is supposed to commit to the school is something school marketing departments made up to protect themselves in situations like this. Alabama doesn’t get top recruiting classes year in and year out because of their academic excellence, it’s due to the head coach.
Now that I’ve said that I do agree that we want kids that want to attend the University of Florida but looking back at my time at UF my love for the school and team didn’t start until after I was there for a while. Lastly, if I had thought at the time that another school, coach or professor would have given me a better opportunity to get to my chosen profession I would have changed schools immediately.
Fully understand why recruits would want to wait to get to know the staff before committing to Florida. But I am sure the improvements this staff will mike and the direction they will take the program will have plenty of top recruits coming to Gainesville in the future. Go Gators.
2016 commits and decommits are absolutely meaningless right now. And frankly, with all the heat on Kirby Smart and the departure of Chavis from LSU to Texas A&M, our new coaching staff may well turn out to be the best in the SEC. Give it time.
These young boys H S jr for 2016 only know 1 thing, The sap is rising, their minds dont work during this period of time. So, it will take time to get a balance between sap and brain, then he can start making some decisions.Give them time and they will show up. GO GATORS////
there always is indoor football Moore and Humphries can play if they don’t make a NFL team.
The very reason that I don’t often look a year ahead in recruiting. Flippers are almost never solid commits. If they flip once, it’s pretty easy for them to flip twice. I’m really only interested in NSD 2015, not 2016. Next fall will be soon enough to begin to look at a 2016 class….
da-muddler You finally make a little sense. It is too early to worry about 2016, but flippers are not to be shunned. UF’s roster is full of them, and Fowler was one who turned out to be on of the best players, if not the best on UF’s team this year. By the way, I have a new nickname for you since you seem so fond of them. Instead od Adam “Wrecking Ball” Lane, I now dub him Adam “I crapped in my pants” Lane.
Wow. Check out this article from June 2014 in the Denver Post (paste it into Google) on new strength and conditioning coach Mike Kent:
strength-coach-mike-kent-strong-addition-csu-rams
I guess the meeting with Collins and Robinson did not go too well.
While I suspect T Robb was just finishing out the season before joining Champ at Auburn, what might not have gone well was the hiring of Randy Shannon as recruiting coordinator. While it’s certainly possible that Shannon was a contingency plan if T Robb left, it’s just as likely that Shannon is another example of Coach Mac wanting to builder a superstar coaching staff. And while T Robb is a great recruiter, he’s Shannon Lite.
Robinson, who just recently was considered “critical” to keep at Florida, is now “Shannon Lite?” How quickly the fangs come out! In other recruiting news, Jalen Merrick, who was probably going to enroll at FSU early, has hit a snag over an online course and may not graduate early. If this is not resolved in the next couple of days, it means that UF will still have a chance to get him. THis is a guy UF desperately needs, it’s at a critical position and George Brown is now talking about visiting elsewhere, so the offensive line recruiting is getting sticky. With Ivey again delaying his decision, it’s getting very dicey for UF to get some quality offensive linemen this year.m
Patience – recruits and verbal commits have not had much of chance to sit down and talk to the new coach and have not had a chance at all to sit down with the new coordinators. Let’s see what happens when they have. Would be surprising if this turned out to be a really good recruiting class, because of the changes in the coaching staff and lack of time. I do think that it will be better than some of the gloom and doom messages that have been posted.
@aux2, no fangs. T Robb is a great recruiter. And it’s perfectly understandable that he may have wanted to go back to his alma mater. Wish him only the best. But he isn’t a former head coach and former NFL player who owns South Florida in general and Miami in particular.
TAMPA GATOR, YOU ARE RIGHT AND IT IS A LONG TIME BEFORE HE WILL MAKE A “solid” decision. On the field victories will change many minds. He’s a junior in high school, there are plenty of decisions yet to come from him before he “REALLY” needs to make that decision. GO GATORS!!!!