Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

The University of Florida coaching staff knew Proctor Academy's Stephen Alli was going to be a Gator, they just didn't know it would be this soon.

Alli, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound wide receiver who originally planned to spend a fifth year of high school at Proctor, will instead leave for Florida on Tuesday and join the team when it begins practice on Thursday.

"They asked him if he would be interested in joining the team mid-year," former Proctor Academy coach Chuck Reid said. "Proctor said they wouldn't allow him to graduate mid-year, but they would allow him to graduate now because he had enough credits.

"He's an outstanding student. He was being recruited by several Ivy League teams hoping he would fly under the radar.

"The one-in-a-million thing is that Florida had a scholarship that they didn't use this year. What's he going to say? 'I don't want to play with Tim Tebow and compete for a national championship?' He had the opportunity to graduate early and all the stars aligned."

Alli averaged 27 yards per catch on 13 receptions last season, when he helped Proctor finish 8-1. Seven of his 13 receptions were TD catches. He scored at least one touchdown in six of the eight games in which he appeared.

Alli played football in Canada before he enrolled at Proctor last year. He was one of 17 players in Florida's 2010 recruiting class.

Reid, who resigned from Proctor earlier this year to become the head coach at Loomis Chafee in Windsor, Conn., said the Florida coaching staff told him there's a chance Alli won't be redshirted.

"It'll depend on his development this year," Reid said. "They see him with a tremendous amount of upside because he's played so little football. They're really excited about him."