Speculation Growing On Vanderbilt Commit Donovan Kaufman
When the dust settled on college football's early sighing period one name that was not included on the list of signees was that of Donvan Kaufman.
A three-star safety from Archbishop Rummel in Metairie La. Kaufman checks in at 5'9" 195 and is ranked as the 36th best safety in the nation and the 17th overall prospect in the state of Louisiana.
While Kaufman has been a Vanderbilt commitment since June of last year, the battle for his signature has ramped up in the last two months as Ole Miss, Florida State, and Baylor have all extended offers to the talented prospect.
Kaufman took an official visit to Vanderbilt on Dec. 13th and visited Florida State Jan. 17th. He is scheduled to visit Baylor Jan. 24th and set for an unofficial visit to Oxford the following weekend, Jan. 31st.
Of the Florida State visit, he told 24/7 Sports that “It was great. It was a great visit. I really liked it,” Kaufman said. “At the end of the day, it is out of here and Vanderbilt.”
New Florida State head coach Mike Norvell- formerly of Memphis- is scheduled for an in-home visit with Kaufman later this month.
Speculation around the recruiting world is that the Seminoles are now even with Vanderbilt for Kaufman's signature, so to find out what we could on where he stands on his commitment to the Commodores we reached out to him on Tuesday.
"I love Vandy, I'm still committed at the end of the day and that's for a reason," said Kaufman via text.
While he is not shutting down his recruitment, that answer is a look into where he stands at the moment. At least at this point, one should certainly feel that he is still solid in his commitment to the Commodores, but as we all know in recruiting things can, and often do change.
National Signing Day is just 14 days away-Feb. 5th- so until then, Kaufman is a solid commitment but that won't stop the Vanderbilt faithful from holding their collective breaths between now and then.
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A 29 year veteran of radio in the Middle Tennessee area and 16 years in digital and internet media having covered the Tennessee Titans for Scout Media and TitanInsider.com before joining the Sports Illustrated family of networks.