Is The Florida Five About To Split Up?
2014 was a bit of a roller coaster ride for the Texas Longhorns both on the field and on the recruiting trail. Despite showing some flashes on the field the team ended the season with two embarrassing losses to TCU and Arkansas and left everyone looking for answers. Lets be honest, 6-7 just doesn’t move the needle for recruits and the on the field product had a lot of people, including myself, worried on how this would hurt recruiting efforts for Charlie Strong and his staff on the recruiting trail. That was until Malik Jefferson and Deandre McNeal put the recruiting world on notice by deciding to take their talents to Austin and give the Longhorns some much needed momentum in recruiting.
More from Texas Football
- Texas Football: Quinn Ewers joins 7-Eleven Cleat Crew for charity event
- Texas Football: 4-Star A&M OT commit officially visiting for KU game
- How to watch Texas football vs. Baylor: TV, stream, game time
- Texas Football: Predicting each remaining 5-Star commit for Horns this fall
- Texas Football: Top 5 defenders during nonconference play
Since then the Longhorns have struck it rich in South Florida, by adding four more Floridians to the fold. These four recruits along with Cecil Cherry have been dubbed the “Florida Five” as they collectively decided to leave Florida and head to Texas to play for Charlie Strong. The four players include Tim Irvin, Davante Davis, Devonaire Clarington and Gilbert Johnson. All five of the Floridians filled major needs for the Horns and it showed that Charlie Strong still had some major pull down in South Florida. As we flipped over the calendar to the new year Strong and company landed these players in the span of a few days and set Texas up for what looked like a fringe Top 5 recruiting class. That was before things seemed to take a turn for the bad for the Horns.
Is the Florida Five heading for a breakup before they even get to Austin? As things currently sit, it looks that way.
After the landing the Florida Five it now looks like the group is potentially heading for a breakup that could leave Charlie Strong and Texas looking for other options with only a few weeks left before National Signing Day. Tim Irvin has been referred to as the ring leader of the group and his flirtations with Auburn since the hiring of Travaris Robinson from Florida has turned into a legit threat to flip to the Tigers on the eve of his scheduled arrival to Austin. It has been well documented that Robinson has heavily recruited Irvin for several years and his hire at Auburn has turned the tide in his recruitment. Irvin is likely to visit Auburn this weekend, and it has been said he is likely to change his commitment if he shows up for that visit.
Texas Longhorns
The bad news unfortunately does not stop there for Texas. Davante Davis is also in the process of still taking some visits and it is being reported that Florida is making up some serious ground on him. Davis is set to visit both Florida and Miami this month despite being committed to Texas and his recruitment, like Irvin’s is far from over. On top of that both Devonaire Clarington and Gilbert Johnson are both considered grade risks and there is a chance both may not make the necessary grades to get admitted into Texas. While it is said that both have made strides to get the necessary grades and scores to arrive in Austin on time, you never know until they actually make it to campus and start taking classes.
So where does Texas go from here and how does it recapture the moment it had just two short weeks ago? Well the bright side is that Charlie Strong and his staff still have plenty of official visitors scheduled to come in prior to signing day and they still have time to fill out needs for their recruiting class. Don’t expect Strong or his staff to tuck their tails and hide, this staff will go down swinging until the final whistle and will continue to hustle on the recruiting trail. Just like everyone else, we will just have to wait and see how things play out come National Signing Day.