Young Guns at FNL

While Florida’s Friday Night Lights was an event for the top prospects in the 2010 class to test their skills against each other, a handful of 2011 prospects from South Florida came away with impressive camps.

The first two prospects that really had strong performances hail from Boyd Anderson, cornerback Harmon Brown and defensive end Shaun Ward. Brown’s knock will always be his lack of height, as he only measures in at 5-foot-8, but his play Friday night was huge. Brown had several pass break ups on the night going against some of the better wide receivers in the camp. He was quick with his breaks and did not mind getting physical with bigger receivers.

Ward has a linebacker’s body measuring in at 6-foot-1, 225-pounds, but Friday he caused fits for offensive linemen with his speed off the edge. Ward did a good job getting leverage, using his hands, and has mastered a lethal spin move. Ward has logged a 4.6 second forty in the past.

Cardinal Gibbons cornerback Tim Burton came into the camp knowing he had to lay down an impressive forty time to catch the attention of the Florida staff. Burton caught their eye with a 4.40 second forty, which gave him to opportunity to work out under the guidance of Gator’s defensive back coach Vance Bedford with the top defensive backs in the camp. Burton looked good during defensive back agility drills, showing he is a fluid athlete. The one-on-one portion of the camp held his own, but did not get many repetitions.

Burton was not the only prospect from Cardinal Gibbons that performed was, as 14-year-old lineman Bobby Hart had a strong camp too. More on the 6-foot-4, 265-pound Hart HERE.

Miami Northwestern’s Teddy Bridgewater has gotten a lot of attention early, and while he did not have an overly impressive night, it was still very solid. He got a chance to show his athleticism going through quarterback drills, and appeared to have bit more zip on his throws. He still needs to make a few more tweaks in his throwing motion, but it is a positive to see continued improvements from him. Bridgewater did play a little wide receiver during one-on-ones as well.

It is tough for free safeties to look good in these type of events that involve no hitting and ask them to cover receivers in press coverage, so Monsignor Pace’s Jabari Gorman lackluster performance during one-on-ones was not much of a surprise. The best part of Gorman’s night was how he performed in Bedford’s extensive list of drills, a workout that easily exposes those that have the hips to play corner and those who do not. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound Gorman performed better than expected during the agility drills and was significantly more fluid than Gator commit Demar Dorsey.

********************NOTES********************

-2011 DE/TE Van Davis from Royal Palm Beach spoke to Florida State assistant Dexter Carter on the phone prior to participating in FNL.

-2011 WR Kelvin Benjamin from Glades Central did not participate in the camp due to swelling in his knee. Benjamin measured in at 6-foot-6, 213-pounds and spent most of his night hanging out with current Gator and former Raider Deonte Thompson. Benjamin also spent time talking with head coach Urban Meyer as well.

-2010 QB Stephen Morris from Monsignor Pace had a decent night throwing the ball, but struggled at times with consistency. Morris was performing in hopes of landing a Gator offer, but it does not appear the offer will come.

-2010 WR Chris Dunkley from Pahokee came through on his promise of “putting on a show” in a big way Friday night. Dunkley was the top performer overall in the camp and was nearly unstoppable in one-on-ones.