DT Jeffery, Focused on Rehab and Recruiting

One of the biggest needs this year in recruiting is size up the middle. That's exactly what Sarasota Booker DT Arthur Jeffery would bring. Find out how his knee rehab is going, what schools are calling and what he thinks of South Florida. Read on for the details.

One month ago USFNation spoke with DT Arthur Jeffery, at the time he was just starting on the road to recovery. Now it’s been 5 weeks since his surgery to repair a torn ACL and the 6-foot-4, 285 pound D-tackle says things are going as planned.

“Since I’ve had the surgery everything is coming along well.” Jeffery added, “They’ve got me doing various excercises, and now I’m able to walk pretty good on it.”

“I’m ready to run! I don’t think I’ve ever said that, but I’m really excited to start running again.”

Now that Jeffery is getting healthy, he has turned his focus to recruiting and thinking about his future.

“There are three schools that are calling me on a regular basis; Tennessee, South Florida and Arkansas.”

Jeffery is not ready to name a top 5, however, he does know two schools that he’ll take official visits to.

“I don’t have anything scheduled because it depends how my knee is feeling, but I know Tennessee and USF are definite visits for me. I’m going to take a couple more, I just don’t know where.”

The Bulls have stayed on Jeffery from the start of the ’09 recruiting season and didn’t back off even when he tore his ACL in late August.

“They (USF) have always been in touch with me, I usually talk with Coach Franks and lately I’ve been talking with Coach Hendricks. They tell me they can really use me at South Florida.”

Jeffery has been watching the Bulls throughout the season and attended the home game versus Rutgers two weeks ago. USFNation had a full report on recruits in attendance and there is a reason we missed Jeffery – he wasn’t down on the field.

“I didn’t go down to the field because I wanted to watch the defense warm up and they do it right in the endzone, so I sat in the first row and watched them go through their drills and pre-game routine.”

Tennessee is also telling Jeffery they need quality D-lineman, but the impending coaching change is something he’s more interested in.

“Their coaching situation is a definite question for me, I’ll have to see what they do.”

When it comes down to making his final decision Jeffery says there are a few main factors.

“Being close to home would be real nice, but if my best situation is out of state then I’m open to it. The academic support is important as well, I’ll see more of that when I start taking my official visits.”

Due to the injury to his knee Jeffery is pushing back his official visits until January when he’s more mobile. This means a final announcement likely won’t come until Signing Day Jeffery says. Stick with USFNation for the latest, we’ll have another update with him once a visit is scheduled.