Ex-Gator WR appears headed to USF

All signs continue to point to USF bringing in former Florida receiver Chris Dunkley this fall, as his coach at Pahokee High School said Wednesday morning that there is nothing to wait on except for USF receiving his formal transcript from Gainesville.

"Honestly, I believe it's going to happen with USF," said coach Blaze Thompson, noting that he continues to get calls from other programs interested in the former five-star recruit, who redshirted in his only season with the Gators.

Thompson said Cincinnati called about Dunkley on Wednesday, joining West Virginia and Marshall as schools that have expressed interest in Dunkley. Thompson said Dunkley has his final grades for the spring semester -- a grade-point average between 2.5 and 2.6, he said, which is enough to meet the NCAA requirements to transfer and accept a scholarship elsewhere. He said USF has confirmed his spring grades with Florida and is awaiting his official transcript, potentially the final hurdle to Dunkley signing scholarship papers with the Bulls.

Dunkley, 5-foot-11 and 174 pounds, was rated as the No. 8 receiver in the nation by Scout.com in 2009, choosing Florida over schools like Alabama, Georgia, Miami, West Virginia and Michigan.

USF is also in the mix for another Gators transfer, Bradenton Manatee running back Mike Blakely, who enrolled in Gainesville in January only to find the head coach, offensive coordinator and running backs coach had all changed from the coaching staff he signed with.
USF has received a release to speak with Blakely, and Manatee coach Joe Kinnan said Wednesday morning that Florida granted Blakely a release to all schools except the rest of the SEC, Florida State and Miami.