Florida freshmen get jump start on school, football
GAINESVILLE — For more than a decade, Florida has been among the nation's leaders in getting star high school senior football players enrolled in school as soon as possible, and many other teams have followed. June and July are key months for all those wide-eyed new players about to begin a new part of their careers.
But January has become a special time as well for a growing number of high school stars who graduate early and enroll in college. Florida leads the way with the strategy. Tim Tebow, who played a key role in the Gators' national title run last season, was among the early enrollees.
Coach Urban Meyer says there is "no way" Tebow could have played last season had he not left high school behind shortly after Christmas to dive into the Gators playbook.
This year, a record 69 players in the six BCS conferences graduated high school in
December and enrolled in college in January, according to a survey done by USA Today.
That's an increase of 16 from last year and a 97 percent jump from just three years ago, when there were only 35 early enrollees.
Notre Dame is among the schools taking notice of Florida's benefits. Jimmy Clausen, considered the nation's top quarterback recruit by some services, enrolled in January and hopes to play in the fall.
Florida led the nation with eight early enrollees. Meyer notes that two offensive linemen could be competing for playing time.
"That wouldn't happen if they got here in August," Meyer said.
But even he was a little uncertain if bringing recruits in as early as January was such a good idea — until he tried it.
"I was very leery of it at first, and it was kind of thrust in our lap," he said. "Now, I think it's a tremendous advantage. We make it well known, especially the way we're going to recruit from here on out, we recruit every freshman now to play. Obviously your chance of success, of more playing time early, if you come in early, it's better for the player."
Florida had several recruits just out of high school play well in the spring game and get a huge jump on earning playing time. Two of those were tight end Aaron Hernandez and quarterback Cameron Newton, who suffered a small crack in his back and was put in a brace a few weeks ago but still is able to study the game and get prepared to play in the fall.
Cameron Newton, who completed 20 of 30 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown in the April 14 spring game, said just "learning the ropes" is a huge advantage. He could start the fall as Tebow's top backup and play right away. Cameron Newton was pushed by family members to enroll early while still in high school.
"It's the best thing that ever happened to me," he said.
While the majority of the nation's prep stars are arriving on campus in the coming weeks, some of the elite have already been in town, and in the playbook, for close to six months.
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