Allen used Five-Star Challenge as an opportunity to recruit for Florida
ATLANTA, Ga. | This past weekend Florida quarterback commit Jake Allen participated in the Rivals Five-Star Challenge presented by Under Armour. Getting a chance to not just compete against, but to spend time with many other top prospects from around the country was something the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas standout enjoyed doing.
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“I had a ton of fun hanging out and competing with these guys in 7-on-7 and earlier in the day,” said Allen at the conclusion of the camp. “We had some real good players on our team, but we fell a little bit short. Credit to the other team in the Championship Game. I had a ton of fun out here and this is the last camp of the summer for me so I wanted to go out with a bang.”
A big part of these camp settings is all the recruiting that goes on behind closed doors among the prospects.
When Allen chose to end his recruiting process early last summer one of his stated reasons was that he wanted time to try and persuade others to join him in Gainesville.
The Rivals250 member was true to his word while in Georgia.
“This was a chance for me to recruit guys like Donovan Peoples-Jones and come out and have fun with them. Coach [Doug] Nussmeier told me that as soon as I got to Atlanta that I needed to go find Donovan. I made sure to hit him real hard so he could hear a piece of what I had to say. K.J. Britt is a guy I have been talking to and then Alex Leatherwood too, because that is one big ole boy we need blocking. I’m an open guy so anyone that wants to listen I am going to talk to.”
After spending a few days with the five-star wide out Peoples-Jones, Allen feels like the Gators are heavily in the mix.
“They want him really bad and I’ve had a few conversations with Nuss about him and we are going to take a big swing on him and if we hit it that’s going to be awesome. I think we have a shot. People don’t realize he grew up a big Gator fan, so I am going to take to him as much as I can because I want that guy. Every time I got a chance to throw to him I made sure the ball was on point.”
With the summer all-star camps now behind him, going forward the 6-foot-3, 204-pounder is looking to visit Gainesville a few times over the summer for one of the Gators football camps.
He is still working out the date, but Allen said he looks forward to working with the staff.
“I know I am going to go up a couple times this summer but I really don’t have a date ironed out just yet. I know they have a quarterback camp this summer and I plan on going to it but I can’t remember what the date it. I will work with the guys and bring the family.”