Welcome to 1st and Ten Florida!
I want to briefly introduce myself, share how I got into recruiting and discuss the site. I have been married for over 20 years and have five children (four boys and a girl) and two dogs. I was born at Shands, and both my parents attended Florida. When I tell people I was born a Gator, I mean it. My all-time favorite Gators are Brandon Spikes, Percy Harvin, Fred T, and Danny W. I have been following Florida with a passion for over 40-years.
So how did I get involved with recruiting? I was working for a television station in Atlanta when I met a guy by the name of Jamie Newberg. Living in Atlanta and meeting Jamie (fellow Gator), who was working in recruiting at the time (Border Wars), I was immediately hooked into the crazy world of high school football recruiting.
The first recruit I ever spoke with was Jeremy Brown. Jeremy hooked me up with Coach Chuck Heater. Coach Heater told me Urban wanted me to come down and meet him, so I did, and as they say, the rest is history. Urban helped me tremendously by getting me in the building for staff meetings (FNL) and introducing me to the rest of the staff. My entire coaching tree started with Urban and branched out quickly, as you can imagine, with the coaches he had back in the day.
Charlie Strong and I became close friends, and when he went to Louisville, Scout.com wanted me to start working the Louisville site. I went up and sat in on the staff meetings in Louisville once a year. Rinse and repeat, and we were doing the same thing in Austin, Texas, over the next couple of years. During this time, I met a ton of coaches that I still speak with today. It is a very small world.
When things went south for Charlie in Austin, they wanted me to start working back into the Florida market slowly. When the Scout/24/7 merger went down, they felt they were taken care of with people on the UF side of things, so it made sense given my relationships with the UF staff to go out on my own and start 1standTenFlorida.com, which I have been operating for the last three years and has brought me to all of you.
I started 1st and Ten with one goal in mind: to create a community for passionate Gator fans like myself. A place where people would get to know each other over the years, sharing each other's passion for the Gators and hatred for the Noles, Dawgs, and Vols. I have met some wonderful people during this journey, but my heart was always with the Gator Nation. My passion has been Florida football & recruiting for a long time.
Now, more about the site. You will see two of my close friends, HeismanGator and EH, starting to post a lot more moving forward. I will have people moderating each board, and all the rules will apply to everyone, including myself and any moderator, intern, or anyone else that belongs to this community. I am not going to be heavy-handed. I do have a couple of rules I have tried to maintain over the last couple of years that have served me well. We do not attack other members, moderators, or myself. I work very hard to keep the boards clean without the use of profanity (Dropping F-Bombs). I am coming to this board with an open mind 1000% and a CLEAN SLATE for everyone to have a fresh new start and the best user experience possible. I also understand we all need to have thicker skin and not be so easily offended. There is nothing you can say that will offend me. If you want inside access into Florida, that is what I can provide. If you're going to use foul language and insult others constantly, and hijacking threads this might not be the place for you. I only ask that you give it a try before you assume anything about how I want to run things. Some of you have called this home for years and I respect and understand that and I will not be heavy-handed.
The bottom line and most important thing you need to understand is that I work for every person who makes up this community. I am available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year. Anytime you ever need to reach me, you can send me a direct message through the site, Twitter, or email.
Jason@1standTenFlorida.com is my email and Twitter
Jason_Higdon.
I will never talk about a recruit unless UF has legit interest and will not do clickbait. I will always shoot you as straight as I possibly can, no matter the topic. I got in some real hot water during the Muschamp days because of an injury story I broke regarding Dominique Easley, and because of what went down, I stay away from team injuries as much as possible. Unless I am talking to a recruit's counselor (which I will not), you will not see me directly talking about a kid's grades.
I want a fresh start for everyone, from the name change to the boards.
Swamp Talk becomes
The Swamp: The Swamp is all Florida all the time (Premium), where I invite you to pull up a chair and talk recruiting and Florida sports.
Gator Blue Board becomes
The Locker Room: The Locker Room is the place to talk Gators sports (Free)
Gator Lounge becomes
The Parking Lot: The Parking Lot is where you can go discuss things other than Florida sports (Free)
The Ticket Exchange remains.
You will get out of this site as much as you want. I will do my very best to answer any recruiting questions you may have. If I don't know the answer, I will tell you, but usually, within 12-24 hours, I will be able to get back to you with more information. This is a tough job, no question. I have zero issues with any of the guys or anyone else covering UF sports for a living. I will not talk down to anyone or be nasty about someone I have never met, and I hope you take the same approach. I will not put one member or group of members above this community. Every member needs to understand the community comes before any individual. I am incredibly fortunate for the opportunity, and I am excited to get to know each of you and how you became a fan.
Be on the lookout for my Most Likely List and RedZone list. The MLL is something I have kept pretty detailed records of regarding any kid that Florida was seriously looking at during the current cycle. If I put a kid in the RedZone, it means I feel he will announce and ink with the Gators.
I removed every recruit in the RedZone the Sunday after Florida lost to LSU. This week I will add a few players back onto the list, starting with LB
Shemar James and RB
Trevor Etienne, and others, so make sure you are on the lookout for the Visit, MLL, and RedZone post.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please come straight to me and let me know. If we need to jump on a call, we can do that as well.
Ok, let's do this! See you on the boards.
Jason
