Florida has been working the recruiting trail hard in June. That hard work could soon pay off with one of Evan Stewart or Jaleel Skinner.
The flurry of official visits and other recruiting activities that have taken place in the month of June in order to take advantage of the available time to meet face to face has led to a number of wanted players in the 2022 class coming off the board. The Gators themselves have landed recruitments from CJ Smith and Shemar James following visits to the school, and Julian Humphrey and Isaiah Bond have used the opportunities to strengthen their conviction in Florida’s coaching.
There are still a number of high-impact players in the 2022 recruiting class still undecided on a destination, though. On Monday, ESPN detailed the best available 2022 college football recruits by offensive position, according to their rankings. The Gators have been tied to the recruitment of two of those players.
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The higher-rated of the pair is Evan Stewart, a wide receiver from the state of Texas. He snagged five stars from the ESPN staff and the eighth spot on their top 300 board. The Gators hosted him for an official visit, and he got the red carpet treatment from the team and a fellow 2022 recruit quarterback Nick Evers, another Texan and UF commit who has taken it upon himself to help in any way possible with Gators recruiting.
“It was fun; it was actually amazing. I loved it and enjoyed it. It was really fun,” he said to Rivals after his visit. “I mean, me and Nick, we were everywhere together. We were just talking about everything, what we liked, what was going on, and what our futures would be like if we were both to end up here.”
The other player who Florida has been making overtures toward included in the ESPN writeup is tight end Jaleel Skinner, a 4-star prospect ranked 68th on their board. While he’s slowplaying his recruitment, Florida is definitely in the mix to land a commitment from Skinner in the fall.
What stood out to Skinner on his official visit to Florida was how well he was treated by the coaches.
“I had all the coaches there with me doing the photoshoot,” he told Rivals after his visit. “They’re not going to change something from one player (to the next) to make it sound good. I really like that. They’re real genuine and they tell you how it is. They have great coaches and are great people all around.”
While the Gators’ 2022 recruiting class doesn’t have that star commit just yet, they’re hot on the trail of a handful of potentially high-end players. Whether their cornerstone recruit winds up being Skinner, Stewart, or someone else, it’s refreshing to know that they’re not pulling punches and are consistently making a good impression on good players.
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