Former coach Urban Meyer once told the media that a nightmare scenario for his program would be a standout local athlete signing elsewhere and then coming back to beat the Gators.
Each one of Steve Spurrier’s 12 teams at Florida featured at least one scholarship player from Gainesville, Fla.
After Meyer’s 2008 class included GHS defensive end Earl Okine, UF’s third 352 signee in five years, the football program signed just one hometown product over a 10-year period (GHS receiver Chris Thompson in 2013).
That drought ended under coach Dan Mullen and his staff, who’ve landed back-to-back Gainesville recruits in the last two cycles: Buchholz WR Trent Whittemore and Eastside QB Anthony Richardson.
In the coming years, Florida’s passing game could feature an Alachua County connection for the first time since Doug Johnson and Travis McGriff were setting school records in 1998.
In a three-part series this week, Gators Territory will look at how Mullen recruits his own backyard (Tuesday) and profile Whittemore (Wednesday) and Richardson (Thursday).
Up next: Whittemore has drawn comparisons to Chris Doering, but the Gator Great calls them inaccurate. A look at Whittemore's "freakishly athletic" skill set that prompted Mullen to honor his scholarship.
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Chris Doering has never seen Trent Whittemore play, but followed his career for years.
The local newspaper kept him up to date.
“I still get the Gainesville Sun in my driveway every morning,” Doering said, “so I read the stories and I knew the legend.”
Florida’s redshirt freshman receiver has drawn comparisons to the Gator Great, especially around town. Doering, however, doesn’t see it.
“It’s a natural comparison being the fact that he’s a Gainesville guy and a white wide receiver. For us, I think that’s where the similarity ends,” Doering said of Whittemore. “Trent is a much bigger, stronger, more physically-gifted athlete than I ever was.”
Doering knows Whittemore’s parents well. His father, Buchholz coach Mark Whittemore, was an all-area receiver with Doering in 1990 and the two trained together during the offseason. Doering then attended college with Trent’s mother, former Gators volleyball player Missy (Aggertt) Whittemore, a two-time All-SEC first-team selection who finished her career (1992-95) second on UF’s all-time assists list with 4,464.
