Florida four-star RB Rod Gainey ‘feels at home’ during Louisville visit, three possible OVs shared
A top eight for four-star tailback Rod Gainey is still in play, but a few teams are making the necessary moves down an important stretch ahead of summer official visits. The Tampa Tech (Fla.) standout has taken spring visits to UCF and Louisville with a Big 12 program on the schedule before taking eight down to a potential five official visit locations.
Gainey ran down his spring visit schedule thus far.
“I took one to UCF and one to Louisville, I’m planning on going to West Virginia,” Gainey said.
The time spent with the Knights was about building bonds with new running backs coach Kam Martin.
“It was a good visit,” Gainey shared. “Coach Jim Harris (RB) and I, he’s now at Miami, were close. I am getting a bond with the new running backs coach now.”
After the visit in Orlando, the course forward depends on UCF’s coaching staff.
“Their running back coach likes my film,” Gainey stated. “I still have the offer there; we’ll see with UCF.”
Saturday was Louisville’s chance to impress their four-star target.
“It was great,” Gainey said. “Everything was great. It felt like home. I liked everything about it really.”
Gainey continued, “I did the photo shoot, toured the campus, and I watched them practice. I saw some fans there I knew of from Twitter. I caught up with their coaches after practice, coach (Jeff) Brohm, coach (Chris) Barclay (RB), coach (Brian) Brohm, and coach (Mark) Ivey.”
The upcoming unofficial with the Mountaineers will be pivotal in Gainey’s recruitment.
“I’m really excited to visit West Virginia,” Gainey shared. “Coach (Chad) Scott (RB), I have known him for a while. I’ve been wanting to get up there. I want to get up there before I make a decision on any school.”
Asked which programs are reaching out on a consistent basis, Gainey shared, “The teams reaching out the most, the top schools are West Virginia and my guy at Mississippi State, coach (Greg) Knox (OA). They are hitting me up daily.”
Three programs are pushing out in front for official visits with Gainey.
“I’m looking at taking one to Louisville, West Virginia, and probably Penn State,” Gainey said. “Penn State has been hitting me up too.”
The relationship with the Nittany Lions was updated.
“Everything is good with them,” Gainey stated. “They want me to get a little bigger, but everything is good there. If I get a little bigger, everything is good to go. I am a scat back guy, they want me bigger to be more of a power guy.”
Gainey’s top schools, in no order, announced on Jan. 31: West Virginia, Penn State, Maryland, Louisville, UCF, Indiana, Florida, and Mississippi State.