Gators OT Target Jacob Hood Announces Top 7; Commitment Date
Hillsboro (Nashville, Tenn.) offensive tackle Jacob Hood entered the closing stretch of his recruitment process on Thursday evening.
As a well-regarded and towering offensive line prospect, Hood announced his top schools remaining in contention in the final days of his recruitment while pinpointing a date and time for the final line to be drawn.
Placing the Gators alongside Georgia, Auburn, LSU, Miami, Ole Miss and Eastern Kentucky in his top seven, Hood marked Monday, Aug. 30 at 1 p.m. EST as the time he would close his recruitment and announce his intentions for his college career.
Hood has garnered 22 offers from prominent Division-I programs since May 2020, with his latest coming from the Gators on June 16, 2021.
Despite their late entry to the Hood sweepstakes, Florida has taken large strides in a short time to make SI All-American's sixth-ranked interior offensive lineman in 2022 feel comfortable with what the program has to offer him by emphasizing a hands-on approach of constant communication.
A consequential factor of UFs sluggish pursuit of the monstrous 6-foot-8, 340-pounder has been the inability to get him on campus for an official visit. In turn, Florida has left the door open for Georgia, Auburn and Miami to hold the upper hand of familiarity in Hood's eyes as he narrows down his choices to one.
Recruited as an offensive tackle by the Florida staff, Hood would join Tony Livingston and David Conner as the tackle commits in the 2022 class. Without Hood's pledge, the Gators sit drastically understaffed – from a talent standpoint – on the exterior of the offensive line for the cycle.
As a result, OL coach John Hevesy hopes their last-ditch pitches to the Tennesseean culminates in his services for the next three to four years. If not, the Gators will further slump into an unfavorable position for talent in the trenches.
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