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Published Apr 20, 2017
Tillman receives offer from childhood favorite Florida
Justin Johnson
Inside the Gators

The Florida Gators are off to a blistering start in the 2019 recruiting class.

Currently with five highly sought after commitments, the Florida staff is showing no signs of slowing down.

The Gators recently extended an offer to Marcus Tillman, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound safety out of Orlando, Fla. (Jones).

For Tillman, Florida has a lot more going for them other than just being his first major offer.

“I was just amazed because Florida has been my team since I was a kid, since I was like 5 years old I always wanted to play at Florida. It was just a blessing that they offered,” Tillman said.

He went into further detail of what drew him to Florida at a young age.

“Urban Meyer being there, Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin. The atmosphere, game day was amazing. It’s always had my heart since day one,” Tillman said. “I’ve been to Gainesville plenty of times actually. My mother, she used to live up there when she was a kid. I’ve been up there for a game, and I was up there a few weeks ago for a visit.”

While on that visit, Tillman got a chance to tour the campus, and meet with several of Florida’s coaches.

“We got to tour the campus, just look at the classes. Go around the stadium. Watch the spring practice. We got to see a lot of stuff. I got to talk to the strength and conditioning coach (Mike Kent), Jim McElwain, the Orlando recruiter coach (Kerry) Dixon, and the defensive backs coach (Corey Bell). I love all the coaches up there. They are cool guys.”

The Florida coaches let Tillman know how much they like his abilities on the field.

“They offered me at safety. They like my speed and my open field tackling ability, and just being a big safety at 6-foot-3, 203. They were amazed at my athleticism.”

Other schools have taken notice of his abilities as a safety, as Ohio State, Alabama, USC, Boston College and Penn State have been in contact with Tillman.

With two years of high school left, Tillman is in no rush to name any sort of leaders or even think about committing at the moment.

“I want to take it slowly and go all the way and see where I can go and play right when I get to college. That’s how I feel about the recruiting process right now.”

Tillman’s offer list is sure to grow going forward, and he would love to get offers from the likes of Ohio State, Alabama, USC and LSU.

At Jones he is being coached by former Florida Gator Elijah Williams.

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