What a finish, and what a swing late in this recruitment.<\/p>\n
Four-star running back Andrew Beard<\/a> went through one of the more fluid recruitments in the Southeast, and in the end, Florida<\/a> came from behind to land the No. 165 prospect in the Rivals Industry Ranking<\/a> out of Bogart (Ga.) Prince Avenue Christian<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beard, a Georgia<\/a> legacy, saw the Bulldogs set the early pace. Clemson<\/a> surged into the lead after offering earlier this year, and for much of the spring, the Tigers looked like the team to beat. But Florida<\/a>\u2019s new staff stayed consistent, the tone of the recruitment shifted late, and the Gators closed.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopment was a big thing in this decision,\u201d Beard told Rivals. \u201cThat matters the most to me, and they develop running backs and get them to the next level. Coach Foster is a great coach, and my goal is to get to the NFL, and I feel he can help me do that.\u201d<\/p>\n [ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]<\/a><\/p>\n The stage mattered too.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the SEC\u2026 that\u2019s the biggest conference in college football,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where you go to show what you can do. You play great competition every week, it is the best football every year, and you are seen when you play SEC football.\u201d<\/p>\n Beard is the fourth commitment for Florida this week. Sumrall is putting together a top class in his first full year at the Swamp. <\/p>\n \u201cWith the class they\u2019ve got\u2026 guys texting me every day, checking in,\u201d Beard said. \u201cThey all love it in Gainesville, and so do I. The coaches and the fans are amazing. The atmosphere is great. Florida has a lot of momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n Beard is excited about playing for the staff at Florida<\/p>\n Development and SEC were big factors in the final decision, which was made in the final hours, but it all started with the new staff back in January. Jon Sumrall<\/a> leads the way. <\/p>\n \u201cJust the passion, the energy, and how he has been a winner everywhere he has been stands out about Coach Sumrall,\u201d Beard said. \u201cHe has a great energy about him. He has come in and changed things. I feel like he can really build Florida back up.\u201d<\/p>\n The push came quickly. Especially over the last few weeks. <\/p>\n \u201cThey definitely came from behind to get my commitment,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have a lot of time, but every time I went down there, they made a great impression on me and my family. Then the way they recruited me made me more and more interested in them. They did a great job with me.<\/p>\n That familiarity mattered.<\/p>\n Running backs coach Chris Foster<\/a> and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner<\/a> had already built a connection with Beard before arriving in Gainesville, and that carried over immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t really a new relationship\u2026 just a new building,\u201d he said. \u201cThat got my interest at first. Then the visits. It\u2019s just a different energy when you walk in the building. They\u2019re always fired up and ready to work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a finish, and what a swing late in this recruitment. Four-star running back Andrew Beard went through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113891,28,30,29,5677,113892],"class_list":["post-264221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-andrew-beard-27-prince-avenue-christian","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-ga","tag-prince-avenue-christian-wolverines-bogart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}