Adams: Florida prep players large presence at UT camp : govolsxtra.com

You could have had a Tennessee-Florida all-star game at UT’s indoor practice facility Friday.

You had current Vols running sprints and doing agility drills shortly after lunch. Later in the afternoon, high school football players were scheduled to hit the field for another UT summer camp.

And the campers wouldn’t all come from just down the street. In fact, 58 of them were expected to come from Florida, including 13 from Pahokee High School.

Yes, that Pahokee.

Last month, Pahokee High School principal Ariel Alejo demanded and received a public apology from UT first-year head coach Lane Kiffin for what he regarded as disparaging comments about the school and community during the recruiting process. After the apology, Pahokee vice-mayor Henry Crawford Jr. said Kiffin and his assistants were “welcome anytime.”

Obviously, Pahokee is just as welcome in Knoxville.

Nu’Keese Richardson of Pahokee beat the campers here. Richardson, who signed with UT in February, was easy to spot in shorts and no shirt as he worked out with the Vols veterans. He was the guy with the small but muscular arms and no waist. Suffice to say the 5-foot-8, 160-pound receiver won’t present an easy target for defenders.

Richardson could be more than a top prospect. In the best-case scenario for UT, he could be a trendsetter.

“Definitely,” Kiffin said in a telephone interview. “Anytime you get a great player from a great school, it can start a pipeline. The kids from his school come up here and see Nu’Keese working out and having fun — that’s how you create a pipeline.”

Florida has been a recruiting priority for Kiffin ever since he signed on with the Vols. That’s one of the reasons he hired former Auburn assistant coach Eddie Gran, who has been recruiting Florida his entire career. Those Florida connections follow him wherever he goes.

And they’re already paying off for the Vols.

“It’s so exciting to have so many top players in our camp from Florida,” Kiffin said.

There’s another Florida contingent from Treasure Coast that’s as big as Pahokee’s. Kiffin said he had never had a camp with so many out-of-state players from the same school.

Under NCAA rules, he can’t comment on individual players attending the camp. But Pahokee High School assistant head coach Johnathan Johnson welcomes the opportunity to talk about his players, who are finally getting the publicity they deserve, according to him.

“We’ve have at least 11 (Division I-A prospects),” he said in a telephone interview. “We’ve never had this much notoriety.

“We have a poor rural area. It’s easier to look over kids in that area. But lately, people have noticed that our athletes are going to college and graduating.”

They’re also going to the NFL. And that got Kiffin’s attention.

“It’s (UT’s) first time coming down,” Johnson said. “They don’t usually recruit our area.”

Their recruitment won’t be affected by the controversy stemming from Kiffin’s comments, according to Johnson.

“It was never (a problem) between Coach Kiffin and our staff,” Johnson said. “It was the administration that felt their toes were stepped on. They voiced their opinion.”

If Johnson is correct in his assessment of Richardson, that recruitment alone will be a huge plus for the Vols.

“He’s one of the toughest kids I have ever been around,” he said. “He knows the game backwards and forward. I’m looking for great things out of him.”

And, based on the camp attendance, the Vols are looking for great things from Pahokee.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com.