At his current rate of recruiting success, Willie Taggart may have to upgrade to a double-decker bus.
USF's mesmerizing surge of late-summer verbal commitments continued Wednesday with three central Florida rising seniors pledging to USF simultaneously.
Cocoa quarterback Bruce Judson Jr., Apopka athlete Demetri Burch and Orlando Dr. Phillips receiver Emare Hogan all slipped on USF shirts and/or hats during a live press conference streamed on the Orlando Sentinel website.
They are the eighth, ninth and 10th players to make a non-binding pledge to USF since Saturday, a staggering windfall even in recruiting's madcap realm.
And while USF's resurgence — the Bulls are coming off an 8-5 season and are a trendy pick to win the American Athletic Conference's East Division — partially may explain the current parade of pledges, the trio that committed Wednesday said it was primarily won over by Taggart's staff.
"Really (it's) his swag," Judson said. "I mean, everybody in the office had the same kind of attitude every day. I've been there three weeks straight and they had the same attitude. Nobody mopey or nothing like that, it's all the same vibe."
Judson (5 feet 9, 203 pounds), a four-star prospect, represents a coup for Taggart. A onetime Ohio State commitment, he's ranked 14th nationally in the "athlete" category by 247Sports and has more than 30 offers. He said he has been told he'll get a chance to compete at quarterback for the Bulls.
Burch and Hogan are three-star recruits. Burch, Apopka's quarterback who is expected to transition to receiver at USF, said Wednesday that before he visited with the Bulls, he never had spoken to a head coach "more than five or 10 minutes."
"And I went to USF and Coach (Taggart) sat down and talked to us about an hour," Burch said. "And that let me know that's where I need to be."
The Bulls now have 12 commitments from the Class of 2017, including two locals — Jefferson offensive lineman Jean Marcellus and Hillsborough athlete Duran Bell — ranked in the top 40 of the latest HomeTeam 100 list of the area's top players.
Tebow: Always a Gator
Tim Tebow, preparing to begin another season as an analyst with the SEC Network and ESPN, said he remains close with Urban Meyer, his Florida coach when he won the 2007 Heisman Trophy and helped UF win two national championships. Meyer is now the Ohio State coach, but Tebow's loyalty remains unquestionably with his alma mater.
"Coach Meyer is like a father figure to me," Tebow said. "But I'm a Gator. I've been a Gator since I was a little boy. My mom and dad were Gators. I had two siblings that were Gators and I'll always be a Gator. So if they're playing in the national championship (Florida and Ohio State), Coach Meyer might have to be Gator bait."
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Explore all your optionsTebow, who turns 29 next month, also said he is intrigued about getting into coaching and politics in the future.
BASKETBALL: Former Alabama coach David Hobbs was named a special assistant to Iowa State coach Steve Prohm, a former team manager under Hobbs with the Crimson Tide. At Alabama, Hobbs won 110 games from 1992-98. He was later an assistant at Kentucky for seven seasons on Tubby Smith's staff.
Information from Times wires was used in this report.