QB Marcus Stokes Believes Florida Gators Are Building ‘A Great Culture’

2023 quarterback Marcus Stokes recaps his first visit with the Florida Gators.

Photo: Marcus Stokes; Credit: Zach Goodall  

As the Florida Gators have begun digging into the quarterback class of 2023, only one signal-caller from the Sunshine State has appeared to pique the coaching staff's interest thus far.

That prospect is Marcus Stokes, who plays prep ball at a high school Florida fans are well aware of: Nease (Fla.), where legendary Gators quarterback Tim Tebow strapped up the pads nearly 20 years ago before rocking orange and blue. 

As one might expect, Stokes' ties to Tebow were mentioned aplenty when he made an unofficial visit to The Swamp on Saturday.

"Oh my goodness. Every single coach came up to me and they were like "Oh yeah, that's Tim Tebow's old school!'" Stokes explained to AllGators. "And I was like 'Yeah, yeah. Not the first time I've heard that.' And it won't be the last, definitely won't."

It was the first time, however, that Stokes made the trip slightly southwest to visit the program as a recruit. He has yet to receive an offer from the Gators at this time — he admitted that a Florida offer would be "a big one" — but with that being said, head coach Billy Napier and his staff have shown enough interest in Stokes to get him on campus and get to know the Jacksonville-area product.

"This was my first time, my first visit being here. I mean, I've been to a couple of games, but it's my first time really interacting with all the coaches and stuff like that," Stokes said. "I think they're building a great program here, a great culture, and the coaches are doing a really good job with recruiting."

Stokes shared that he met with the majority of the Gators' offensive coaching staff during his visit, sans UF's offensive line coaches. In particular, he spent time with Napier, quarterbacks analyst Ryan O'Hara and personnel analyst Joe Hamilton.

The staff made it known that they believe Stokes would be a good fit in the Gators' offense, and after observing the team practice on Saturday, Stokes feels the same way.

"I would fit very well in their offense," Stokes said.

"I thought their practice, I thought it was run really well. I asked my dad in the beginning why it was so quiet and he was like, 'Because it was a teaching moment that the coaches were doing.' And then at the end, the energy started picking up and I was like, 'Oh crap, there's a lot more energy now.' So I started to understand why my dad said that, and I started to get better insight on why."

Stokes' recruitment has begun to take off over the last few months, with Power 5 offers from programs such as Penn State, Indiana, Virginia Tech and Utah rolling in this year. He has plans to visit several of these programs, among others, in the coming weeks.

"I've got a tour coming up, about one week tour. We're gonna hit a couple of schools," Stokes explained. "I think the furthest southwest we're going is Ole Miss, and then we might hit a couple of schools heading up to Indiana, and then we'll head back to Pennsylvania, to visit some schools out there like Cincinnati. I'm going back to Penn State. Then we'll head back down south to Virginia, like Virginia Tech, then we'll head back home."

As for Florida, Stokes acknowledged that he is aiming to make a return visit for UF's spring game on April 14.

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