Now that the first FlaVarsity.com Top 100 in the books, I decided to take a short trip to South Florida and drop in some of the top prospects from St. Thomas Aquinas, Miami Central, Treasure Coast and Pahokee. It was quite evident all the players were just itching to get back on the football field.
I know in some fans eyes, they look at prospects as athletes and ‘celebrities’ to a certain extent (considering some dedicated college fans recognize these kids the second they set foot on their respective campus). This weekend though, I got to see a little different side when I got to know these young men on a personal level, outside of the game or practice atmosphere. In this week’s blog, I’ll give a recruiting update on some of these prospects.
Pahokee ready for record setting year
I could immediately tell upon arriving at Pahokee that the team’s mind was clearly on winning yet another State Championship. This year won’t be easy with the South stacked a little bit tougher (in their bracket) and the fact that Bolles moved to the 2B classification. The Bulldogs have won more State Championships then any school in the state with 10, so if the Blue Devils want to make history, they know it’s going to be a rough ride.
Some of the prospects at Pahokee we caught up with were LB Zachary Allen, DT Antonio Ford, WR De’Joshua Johnson, DB Merrill Noel, DB Raheem Buxton, and WR Chris Dunkley. The day started with Dunkley being a little late getting to the Pahokee Chamber of Commerce building. In the meantime, I got a chance to chat with Antonio and Zach. It was pretty clear that Wake Forest is going to be tough to beat. Zach likes the Deacons mainly because of how at home he feels with the school and the chance to play early is also attractive to him.
On the other hand, Antonio looked to be a little more open to everything, but the Deacons are also in position to make some noise. Antonio is a kid you would probably think wouldn’t hurt a flea, but let me tell you, it’s a total transformation on the football field. In addition to the two bits of good news for Wake Forest, the Deacons should also get a little surprise in the fact that Merrill Noel also informed me that he will be taking an official visit to Wake Forest. FSU and Wake are the only schools he will visit.
I also got a chance to speak with Raheem Buxton. Now here’s a kid that has worked his butt off probably harder than any Blue Devil on their roster and that dedication has earned him a Miami offer. You will see in our upcoming video interview that he is probably headed to Coral Gables. Like all the kids, Raheem was very well spoken but also had a little swagger in talking about Pahokee football.
The final Blue Devil I spoke with is one that I’ve gotten to know pretty well the past three years - Chris Dunkley. The speedy receiver surprised everyone when he walked into the Chamber Commerce building with a Central Florida shirt on. When we asked about the shirt, he quickly replied “Oh, no one is out. I told you I’m looking at all the schools in the state of Florida,” he said with a smile.
The general consensus of all the players we talked to was they are focused on one thing ? another state title.
“That’s all we think about. In Pahokee it’s about winning championships,” said Buxton.
In addition to several interviews with a few Blue Devils, FlaVarsity.com will also have a one-on-one interview with head coach Blaze Thompson. He’ll talk about some interesting subjects, which include his respect for the Bolles program in Jacksonville.
Miami Central trio staying together?
After meeting with Joshua Reese, Jeffrey Godfrey and Brandon Gainer, it became very apparent that all three kids would like to stay together and they plan to. At this point the only school with a possibility of taking all three would be Michigan or Florida State. Brandon explained it was pretty apparent that Florida State could be tough to beat. In fact, he even hinted that his mind was pretty much already made up. So we’ll see how that goes throughout the coming weeks.
With Jeff, he was a little more open with schools like Georgia, Oregon, Michigan, Florida State, Tennessee and South Florida in the mix. I did get the impression much like Brandon that Michigan and FSU were both high on his list, but so was Tennessee.
Not much different for Joshua. But he could be the wild card in how the commitments shake down for this trio. I will say that packages going to college don’t usually go through, but if you do believe in this one, you might have to ask yourself what would happen if Michigan offers with the other two?
What I was impressed the most with all three kids were how well these guys just fed off each other. In addition to the photo gallery we put up earlier, we will have video interviews with the trio..
The reigning National Champs - St. Thomas Aquinas
On a very wet day in Fort Lauderdale, we stopped at St. Thomas Aquinas. I was completely captivated by all the recent State Championships (from various sports) I saw on display in the George Smith Athletic Center. I also enjoyed speaking with the head coach the center is named after. I got to see a more laid back head coach George Smith, in a setting outside of Friday night game or practices. We mainly just talked about some of the past games and told a few interesting stories with his years in football at Aquinas. We will have that special video interview with Coach Smith later this week.
As far as the prospects go, we got a chance to talk to some of FV’s Top 100 members DB Keion Payne, Lamarcus Joyner, Brandon Linder, Giovanni Bernard and James White. We’ll have some video interviews coming soon.
With Keion, it looks to be a two horse race with FSU and Miami. I got the impression on several occasions in the interview that Payne would prefer playing in the state of Florida.
With Brandon, I see it as a three team race - Miami, Florida and Notre Dame. But, there were no real indications of an obvious leader. He was nursing a small foot injury, but in our upcoming video interview, we talked about living up to the storied history of great St. Thomas Aquinas linemen, the main schools in the mix , and touched a little on the huge game with Byrnes and St. Thomas Aquinas later this year.
With Gio and James, I could tell these were two kids just dealing with the learning curve of the recruiting process. Bernard spoke highly of Florida State, Florida, and Oklahoma. I was a little surprised that he mentioned the Sooners were still coming at him pretty hard, despite the commitment from Niceville RB Roy Finch. I know when the process first started, Gio mentioned that Oklahoma was one of the first schools he had interest in because of the style of their offense. James on the other hand probably doesn’t get the notoriety of a Gio, but he had a very intriguing answer to that.
“I like it that way because Gio really takes pressure off me in the backfield. If they are focusing on him, I know that will open me up with opportunities to break a big run off.”
At this point, James has several offers, but my impression was that Boston College is making a very hard charge for him and in my opinion would be the favorite.
Lamarcus was charismatic as usual. We chatted about playing with this kind of talent and how much we can expect to see him on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. He said for the most part he might play a little more offense because it brings out his versatility a little more and he knows in college he’s a defensive back the whole way.
Catching up with FlaVarsity.com No. 1 player
If you’ve never got a chance to meet with Treasure Coast LB Jeff Luc, do yourself a favor and attend one of their games. On the field, Jeff is an absolute terror, but off the field he’s about as laid back and easy going as you will find. He even asked me why do you think I’m the best player in Florida? Obviously seeing Jeff in the weight room throwing up dumbbell weights like they were pillows is an impressive site but even more outstanding was listening to Jeff talk about his teammates. I could tell throughout the entire conversation that he would rather talk about the other players on his team then talk about his skills.
Other details of our video interview: Jeff mainly breaks down some of the top schools involved for him and also releases a time table of when fans can expect a final decision. I got the impression that Florida, Florida State, USC, and Miami all have great shots. He in particular, he went into detail about the Seminoles and the Gators. In addition, he gave me a little history lesson about his name and talked about his progression of a top prospect. Stay tuned, because some of his answers might surprise you.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned next week as I make a stop in Jacksonville to check in on the defending 2A State Champion Bolles Bulldogs.
This post was edited on 6/30 11:40 PM by Michael L
This post was edited on 6/30 11:57 PM by Michael L
