http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20080123/NEWS/215197538/1090 Julio has left the building A week ago, the Gators were feeling pretty good about their chances of landing Julio Jones, the nation's No. 1 wide receiver prospect from Foley, Ala. But the positive vibes quickly disappeared on his visit to Gainesville this past weekend. Things were going so badly that the UF coaches told Jones to leave early. Word is that Jones was trying to do some recruiting for Oklahoma during his stay in Gainesville. Jones visits Oklahoma this weekend, a good indication that maybe he's going to be a Sooner. Alabama has been considered the leader for Jones for quite some time, but it appears Bobby Stoops is going to pull this coveted prospect out of the state.
http://blog.al.com/rapsheet/2008/01/gainesville_sun_reporter_we_we.html Well, this has been an interesting morning. It started with that article in the Gainesville Sun reporting on Julio Jones being asked to leave Florida early on his recruiting visit. It stated he had been recruiting for Oklahoma. (Cue pandemonium.) Yikes! Yet two phone calls later, I'm told that none of it is true. First, I called Todd Watson, Julio's high school coach at Foley. "Ridiculous. Never happened," Watson told me. Watson recently spoke with Florida receivers coach Billy Gonzalez -- who is recruiting Julio -- and was told "everything went well." Ok, then. Next, I called the reporter Robbie Andreu, a longtime UF beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun. Turns out, Robbie agreed with Watson's assessment: "I was wrong, we were wrong," Andreu just told me. "My source turned out to be not right." Andreu said he has since spoken with someone else at UF who informed him Julio did not leave early. "And he was not recruiting for Oklahoma," Robbie said.
He had a bad visit at OU in the future? Jones visits this weekend. He's also paid his own way on an unofficial.
Darn, that would have been good news. Oh well, we are still in the running for him. Probably 2nd right now behind Bama, but I'm just talking out of my *** so don't take anything what I have to say worth anything.
If Julio passes up on the opportunity to catch passes from Sam (standing behind a fully Senior Soonerlayas Mountain range), that'd be his own fault.
Which of his handful of unofficial visits to OU did he not have a great visit at? And like others have said, he hasn't had his official visit yet.
My interpretation would be good for you guys and not so much for us.... with the caveat that those verbals are very solid, and not soft. But, you never can tell what's in a kid's heart or what's on his mind untill he gives you full disclosure... and even then sometimes not. I've always thought it would be pretty monumental upset to get the young man out of Alabama or the SEC. But at this point I think both our schools have put together monster classes as it is. Losing Julio isn't going to break either one of us. He would just be.... the capstone, shall we say.
The thing is, no one has been able to really read Julio all year long. If he doesn't end up at Alabama it won't be the end of the world, but I sure will be a little sad on signing day. I think most 'Bama fans, like myself, want Julio really bad, not just because he's one of best in the country, but because he's from south Alabama, where we have slipped in recent years in terms of recruiting. We've completely dominated there this year, but losing Julio would be too much for most of us. But if he chooses OU, he'll have a great career anyway. Plus, he'll be wearing Crimson one way or the other.
