UA Game: Home sweet home for Gators TE signee Keon Zipperer
As many had expected, it was a tight race between Florida and Miami heading into the home stretch of Keon Zipperer’s recruitment.
There was even a belief that a strong showing by the Hurricanes during his official visit to UM could propel them to the top spot on his list.
However, when the pen was put to paper a week ago, it was the Gators who ended up with a National Letter of Intent from Zipperer.
The 16th-ranked tight end in the class of 2019 discussed with GatorsTerritory’s Corey Bender a few of the factors that led to UF landing his signature:
“It just felt like home,” Zipperer said of Florida. “I’m really from the area, Florida’s only two hours from me. For the next three years, they will have 36 games and 25 of them will be at home. The players love me; I can see that they want me and need me a lot.
“The coaches were the same way. Really, the coaches recruited me, but the players did everything for the coaches. I feel like if you want a kid that bad, just have your players do all the work because it will make it easier.”
For Zipperer, his recruitment was up in the air until his OV to Miami concluded on the Sunday before he made his decision. The four-star prospect ultimately believed that his connection with the current Gators was stronger than the one he had with those on the Hurricanes’ roster.
“I knew it was going to be UF like a week before I signed,” Zipperer said. “Before the Miami visit, I wasn’t feeling UF. I just went to Miami and everything was good, but something didn’t feel right. I went to Florida on my official and everything felt good.
“The players, I couldn’t see myself around them every day,” Zipperer said of UM. “The players, they’re from there, so they stay like that. I was just like, ‘I’m good with Florida.’”
While he is skilled on the football field, Zipperer also had a talent for purposefully misdirecting various fan bases on social media. Although he already knew where he was going to go for college, the product out of Lakeland wanted to tease a fan base in particular one last time.
“It was crazy,” Zipperer said of the days leading up to his signing. “After I told myself that I’m going to Florida, I just went to my Twitter and posted about Miami and Miami and Miami. Then, I just went to Florida.”
Along with his relationship being strong with Florida’s players, Zipperer talked about how a couple of people on the staff stood out to him. Zipperer, who lists himself at 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, praised head coach Dan Mullen for his turnaround season and discussed his bond with tight ends coach Larry Scott.
“You can see that he’s changing it around,” Zipperer said of Mullen. “They went to a bowl game this year. I can see that he’s doing a really good job turning Florida around.
“Coach Scott is like a father figure. He comes from where I come from. He tells me all the time he got it how I got it; he got it out the mud. That’s how I’m really digging it right now.”
When it comes to what he needs to work on the most to see the field next year, Zipperer said one area he is currently trying to improve upon is how fast he is:
“Only thing I’m really working on is my speed,” Zipperer said. “Trying to get down to like a 4.5 or 4.6 and I’m good.”
Stay tuned to GatorsTerritory.