The recruiting race for Edgewater (Orlando, Florida) cornerback [autotag]Cai Bates[/autotag] has narrowed down to 10 programs. The rising senior named a top 10 of Florida, Alabama, Colorado, Florida State, LSU, Maryland, Ohio State, Tennesee, Texas A&M and UCF.
Once again, it’s Florida’s defensive backs coach, Corey Raymond, that has Bates so interested in the program. Raymond’s reputation for developing future NFL talent is one of the reasons Billy Napier made him a key piece of the coaching/recruiting staff.
“Coach Raymond at UF has a great track record with DBs and the culture of UF being close to home is a big factor for me,” Bates said to On3’s Hayes Fawcett.
There are no plans for Florida to host Bates over the summer yet, which suggests that Florida falls in the bottom half of this top 10. Bates is hoping to be committed by the end of the summer, so the clock is ticking.
BREAKING: Four-Star CB Cai Bates is down to 🔟 Schools!
The 6’2 185 CB from Orlando, FL is ranked as the No. 3 CB in Florida
Where Should He Go?👇🏽https://t.co/UrThztO6AW pic.twitter.com/aYcSyAYljQ
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 31, 2023
Right now, LSU is on top of the On3 recruiting prediction machine with 28.0% odds to land Bates. Alabama is a close second (18.5%), Tennessee is in third (15.9%) and Kentucky (9.0%) rounds out the top four.
Bates is a four-star talent by 247Sports, ESPN and On3’s measure. Rivals.com is the only recruiting service that thinks he’s a three-star recruit and fails to rank him nationally. The On3 industry ranking, which uses a weighted average of all four major services, puts Bates at No. 161 overall and No. 19 among cornerbacks in the class of 2024.
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