With the recruiting dead period over and National Signing Day approaching in just three short weeks, the Florida coaching staff has to hit the recruiting trail hard to put together the 2015 recruiting class.
The current class has just eight verbal commits and ranks as the 94th class in the country per Rivals.com.
Let’s take a look at the top committed and uncommitted prospects that the coaching staff will be looking at in the weeks to come.
Offensive Targets
New head coach Jim McElwain has spoken about recruiting for depth along the offensive line, which is an area of need. Florida loses starters Tyler Moore, Chaz Green and Max Garcia, as well as Trenton Brown next season.
UF has three offensive linemen who are verbally committed to join the Gators in 2015, including Michael Horton (6-foot-4, 320 pounds, Atlanta, Lakeside High) Tyler Jordan (6-foot-5, 270 pounds, Jacksonville, Bishop Kenny High) and Brandon Sandifer (6-foot-3, 332 pounds, Warner Robins, Georgia, Northside School).
The top offensive tackle in the 2015 class, Martez Ivey (6-foot-5, 271 pounds, Apopka, Apopka High), is considering Florida among Alabama, Auburn, Florida State and LSU.
He took an official visit to Florida last October. The biggest threat to Florida is Auburn, which he officially visited last November.
Getting Ivey would be very big, but Summers has done well getting Jordan, Sandifer and Horton to commit.
Florida is also in need of explosive playmakers at wide receiver, something that severely lacking last season with the exception of sophomore Demarcus Robinson.
Ryan Davis (5-foot-10, 161 pounds, St. Petersburg, Lakewood High) looks likely to end up at Florida.
The four-star prospect is the eighth overall receiver in the 2015 class. He is more of a slot receiver, which is a definite area of need as well. As a senior last fall, he had over 2,000 receiving yards.
The staff is also currently trying to flip receiver Auden Tate (6-foot-4, 199 pounds, Tampa, Wharton High) from his verbal commitment to Florida State. He is scheduled to take an official visit to Florida on Jan. 23.
Defensive Targets
The two obvious targets on the defensive side are five-star defensive ends Byron Cowart (6-foot-3, 252 pounds, Seffner) and Cece Jefferson (6-foot-2, 245 pounds, Glen St. Mary, Baker County High).
Jefferson confirmed via his Twitter account (@cecejeferson7) that his last official visits before Signing Day would be to Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU. Current Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp was recruiting Jefferson while he was still at UF.
Cowart has an official visit set for Gainesville on Jan. 23.
In an effort to build linebacker depth, Florida has three players on its radar.
New defensive coordinator Geoff Collins is expected to make a visit at the high school of Adonis Thomas (6-foot-3, 219 pounds, Lawrenceville, Ga., Central Gwinnett High) on Thurday. Thomas committed to Florida over the summer, but decommitted in October.
The No. 7 ranked linebacker in this year’s class, Roquan Smith (6-foot, 203 pounds, Montezuma, Ga., Macon County High) and four-star linebacker Jeffery Holland (6-foot-1, 225 pounds, Jacksonville, Fla., Trinity Christian) are also big targets for building Florida’s linebacker corps.
Follow Morgan Moriarty on Twitter @Morgan_Moriarty
New head football coach Jim McElwain following his introductory press conference on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
