Florida Recruiting 2013: Can Gators Steal Derrick Henry from Georgia?

Given that the campuses of the University of Florida and the University of Georgia are only about 350 miles away from each other, the two rival schools have a tendency to battle it out for some of the top high school football recruits in the southern part of the country fairly often.

This year, numerous Florida commits held scholarship offers from Georgia, and vice-versa.

And even though this year’s recruiting battles are starting to die down with just a few more days until national signing day, it appears the schools will be ready to duke it out for another year as they both begin trying to land some of the top prospects in the 2013 class.

One recruit the schools could be fighting the hardest for next year is RB Derrick Henry, who plays for Yulee High School in Florida.

The 6’3’’, 230-pound Henry will likely be rated as one of the top overall running backs of the 2013 class and he’s already one of the most coveted junior prospects in the state of Florida.

Henry has been committed to Georgia since the start of his junior season, but there are recent reports from Scout.com that indicate schools like Florida and Alabama will likely join the bidding in the coming months.

Recently, Georgia has had great success landing elite running back recruits like Isaiah Crowell and Keith Marshall, but the more Henry actually looks at Georgia's depth at running back, the more turned off he may get, as Florida would likely offer him the chance to play early in his career instead of sitting behind other great backs for a few years.

It will certainly be interesting to see how it all plays out over the next year, and a lot can still happen before next year’s national signing day, but the battle for Derrick Henry will likely be one of the key storylines to watch for the 2013 recruiting class. It will be interesting to see if Florida will ultimately be able to steal away a top recruit from one its biggest rivals.