Prairie State tight end includes Gators among top 5 preferred schools

The top school lists continue to pile up for Florida football as yet another coveted prep prospect included the Gators among their preferred destinations.

The top school lists continue to pile up for Florida football as yet another coveted prep prospect included the Gators among his preferred destinations, which was announced on Wednesday.

Former Purdue Boilermakers commit and three-star tight end [autotag]Eric Karner[/autotag] out of Elmhurst (Illinois) Immaculate Conception included the Orange and Blue along with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Iowa Hawkeyes, Michigan State Spartans and Texas A&M Aggies.

The 6-foot-5-inch, 220-pound end was offered a scholarship by UF on April 27 — three days after a high school visit by defensive line coach Sean Spencer. Florida followed up with a visit to his high school by tight ends coach Russ Callaway, after which Karner decided to plan an official visit to Gainesville for the weekend of June 9.

The coveted tight end also has official visits set with Michigan State on the opening weekend of June as well as Iowa the weekend of June 23.

Karner is ranked No. 586 overall and No. 28 at his position nationally according to the 247Sports composite while the On3 industry ranking has him at Nos. 485 and 29, respectively. On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine has the Hawkeyes leading in his recruitment with a 31.5% chance of signing him, followed by the Spartans (27.6%), Gators (17.9%) and Boilermakers (5.3%), respectively.

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1368]

[mm-video type=video id=01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc playlist_id=01eqbz250mdknqvm5z player_id=01f5k5y2jb3twsvdg4 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc/01gz591pdh0pc5ff0qrc-2405793ca1ac6b563e18ee86d305a820.jpg]

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.