When Florida scheduled its recruiting visits for Saturday’s season opener against Miami, the staff likely thought it would be a great selling point for the program. After all, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was going to be packed, and it was a huge opportunity to make a statement against an in-state rival.
Instead, the scene and recruiting section setup ended up being an unintentional favor for Miami.
For some reason, Florida had its recruits seated between the Miami fan section and Miami’s tunnel. So, right off the bat, recruits were separated from the pro-Gators contingent. And when Miami went on to dominate Florida, 41-17, at The Swamp, you best believe that the Miami players had their elevator pitches ready to go.
Florida Gators staffers were doing the most after the game yesterday. ushering Miami players away from recruits pic.twitter.com/BII3rRPfwL
— Footballville (@Footballville) September 1, 2024
Video showed Miami players shouting towards the Florida recruits about going to Miami. We could hear comments like, “Come to The U.” And “Don’t go here.” A Florida staffer even tried to make Miami players stop with their pitches, shouting, “Shut up,” and ushering Miami players towards the tunnel.
Miami players did not exactly walk into UF’s recruiting section: Florida inexplicably put the section between the only two sections officially for away fans, right next to the Miami tunnel so that when Miami hosted a victory party on the field with fans, recruits could join in. https://t.co/MLRARBo2Fv
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) September 1, 2024
Those efforts clearly didn’t work, and Miami took advantage of that poor planning. College football is officially back. Recruiting never stops.
