re: "Recruiting Season" 2023 Class

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From the beginning of his interaction with Florida’s coaching staff, El Dorado (Kan.) Butler Community College offensive lineman Cooper Lovelace was impressed by the team’s attention to detail.

At first, Florida head coach Billy Napier asked Lovelace to put together an evaluation tape that consisted of agility drills, mobility tests and more. A week later, Florida wide receivers coach Keary Colbert attended one of Butler Community College’s spring practices, presumably to watch Lovelace in action and advance the Gators’ feel for a player who is quickly becoming a highly-sought-after 2022 prospect.

From there, the Gators increased their social interaction with Lovelace. Offensive coordinator Rob Sale spoke with him over the phone shortly after Colbert’s visit while Napier and co-offensive line coach Darnell Stapleton continued their dialogue, too.

After one more workout, the Gators extended the 6-foot-5, 320-pound lineman a scholarship offer. Lovelace was overjoyed by the development and impressed with the process required to reach it.

“I can tell you, whoever they offer right now, they’re not just offering anyone,” Lovelace said. “Quote from one of [Florida’s coaches] was, ‘It doesn’t matter if you have 45 offers, if you don’t fit what we’re looking for, there’s no point just to throw a name in the hat.’ They were being very thorough, which I appreciate completely greatly on my side of it. I don’t want it to be where I get there and all of a sudden they don’t know my name or who I am or any of that.

“I appreciate teams that are like that,” he continued. “Some people don’t. Some people just want an offer and want to go viral and blow up and I really don’t care about blowing up. I guess I had a video blow up once before and I had my phone super hot but it’s a lot to handle. I play football. I don’t do social media.”

Lovelace’s recruitment has exploded recently. The Gators extended him a scholarship offer on May 2, which he announced just hours after reporting an offer from Oklahoma State. A day earlier, Lovelace announced an offer from USC, which joined a list that also reportedly includes Arkansas State, Central Michigan, Iowa State, Kansas, Kent State, Louisiana, Massachusets, Rice and Tulsa.

And after three years at Butler Community College, Lovelace said the attention from so many Power 5 programs has been surreal. His conversations with certain coaches have left him speechless as he tries to reconcile a roller-coaster start to his football career.

“When I was on FaceTime with (USC head coach) Lincoln Riley the other night, he was at his house, I literally screamed,” he said. “I lost it. I’ve been keeping it so cordial as much as I can but it was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Dude, what is going on right now?’ He offered me on the phone call 90 seconds in and we talked for 20 more minutes and I couldn’t tell you one word that came out of his mouth after he said that and I was having a full-on conversation and then it was the same thing with coach Napier calling me (on Monday). I didn’t even know what to say. The Florida Gators. It’s surprising but it’s not.”

Lovelace’s football journey has been anything but conventional. He only started playing the sport as a senior at Shawnee (Kan.) Mission East High School and didn’t garner the collegiate attention he thought he was capable of due to his late start in the game. It’s what led him to Butler, where he redshirted in 2019.

A year later, Butler’s football team never even saw the field due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the 2021 season essentially becoming Lovelace’s first.

With three years of eligibility remaining, he is trying to find a team that can help him achieve his potential. Development his foremost consideration as starts to take official visits, starting with a trip to USC on Friday and Florida more than likely a week later.

“We’re working on next weekend, the 13th, 14th and 15th going [to Gainesville] on my [official visit] there,” Lovelace said. “People got summer workouts so it’s not like I’ve got unlimited time.

“Once the ball started rolling, it’s never going to stop. Now I got to do my job to quality control and filter through who’s going for hype, who’s just trying to get another guy to fill the room or who’s trying to develop someone and take someone in who can help them out. We can both win from the exchange.”

Lovelace said his official visits will offer an opportunity to get an in-depth look at the programs pursuing him and he has no plans to hold back when it comes to asking questions and obtaining the information he’s seeking from his potential destinations.

While some prospects like to use their official visit time to take photos or other activities that have little to do with football, Lovelace said those things aren’t for him.

“When I get there it’s one of those things where the chains are off the wall so there’s nothing to stop me,” he said. “I have to go through the curtains, right? I got to go talk to the strength coach for 90 minutes if I want to. I don’t care about going to ax-throwing or whatever, which some people do on recruiting visits. I don’t care about that at all in the slightest. I can go in to watch film and go over their spring ball tape, teaching tape, how they run the meetings. Being able to peel it back and really get into the nitty-gritty, that’s where you really find out who the coaches are.”

Exploring how he might fit at a perspective destination is going to be among Lovelace’s primary focuses as he takes his final three official visits. He then hopes to announce his commitment at some point between May 18-23 and enroll shortly after.

“It’s kind of hard to make a life-changing decision when you’re 25 hours away and you’ve never actually seen their face,” Lovelace said. “I’m a pretty good judge of character and getting in front of people is the best thing I can do and I can already tell you I like [Florida’s] staff. That’s why I want to go down there.”

Lovelace said he bet on himself by taking the junior college route and now he is seeing the decision pay dividends. In fact, he said he feels as though his journey is what sets him apart from other offensive line prospects available right now.

“I know I put in years of work and there’s not a guy in the portal that can actually mess with me,” he said. “Offensive linemen, a lot of these guys’ work ethic is kind of busted being kind of fed with a spoon. You don’t get fed with a spoon at junior college. The work-ethic side and the want is all there and I knew this would come along. It’s just a matter of when.”

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