With the early signing period approaching, the Gators still have things to do with recruits and their coaching staff. The Gators have to move quickly and make some moves before the early signing period, and there are still a few questions marks going around the football program. New head coach Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators still need to secure or land recruits and hire another coach. Here are three things the Florida Gators must do before the early signing period.
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Lock up Matt Corral
In the past few weeks, the Florida Gators QB commit Matt Corral has taken official visits to Alabama and Ole Miss. Florida fans are starting to get worried about their QB commit leaving the class to another SEC school. Dan Mullen and his staff will host their top commit as he will be taking an official visit to Florida this weekend. Mullen will also fly to California for an in-home visit with Corral and his family. Mullen has also hired Houston offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to be his QB coach at Florida. If everything goes as planned, Corral will sign with the Gators and enroll early. Corral will compete with Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask for the starting quarterback job in the upcoming spring and fall camp.
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Hire a DB Coach
Dan Mullen has done a great job of retaining and hiring coaches to his staff. There are still a few positions open for the Gators, but the biggest position they need to hire the defensive back coach. The Florida Gators secondary has a reputation of being “DBU” with all of the great defensive back that have come out of Florida. Corey Bell was not retained by Dan Mullen, but they are a few big names out there for the Gators. Florida’s top choice for the defensive back coaching position is Patrick Surtain Sr. He was a Pro Bowl corner in the NFL for ten seasons but now coaches at American Heritage. Surtain would be a slam dunk hire with his ties to South Florida. His son his son, Patrick Surtain Jr., could end signing with Florida.
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Sign most of their class
The Florida Gators currently have 14 commits in their class and at least half are expected to enroll early. Players like Matt Corral, Dameon Pierce, and Randy Russell are expected to sign on December 20th. Even those who aren’t enrolling early should sign with the Gators on the early signing period. Having recruits committed but not signing shows that they’re still looking at other schools. Dan Mullen needs to secure the majority of his class so he can focus on the remaining targets who’ll sign on National Signing Day. This is a huge class for the Gators as they could finish inside the top ten if they land a few top-ranked recruits.
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