Before Florida, It's Jordan's Senior Season

Before he joins Florida's ultra successful football program, Tommy Jordan has some business remaining at Ridgefield High School.

The Tigers' larger-than-life senior offensive lineman is focused on leading his team into the state playoffs—a goal Ridgefield failed to meet last season despite a 9-1 record.

"Though this team is inexperienced, we have a lot of incoming talent with speed, more so than in years past, in my opinion," the 6'5", 300-pound Jordan said. "One of my jobs will be to lead them."

Recently named one of Ridgefield's captains for the upcoming season, Jordan committed to Florida in June. He will graduate from Ridgefield in December and plans to join the Gators for spring practice in 2011.

For now, however, he is concentrating on his final season at Ridgefield.

"He just wants to get the season going and end talk about Florida," Tigers coach Kevin Callahan said.

While senior quarterback Griffin McCarty is another captain, Callahan is looking for Jordan to lead the way in the trenches.

"With this young team, I am going to ride behind the big guy as far as he will take us," said Callahan, who is entering his 12th season at Ridgefield.

While Jordan will be departing, the future looks promising for the Tigers because of the 40 freshmen who participated in the team's summer workouts.

Ridgefield does have experience in the backfield, and Jordan will be looking to open holes for two returning seniors, running back Kevin Walters and fullback John Turner.

Jordan, who was recruited by virtually every major school in the Football Bowl Subvision, chose Florida partly because of its business program.

He also has an aunt who lives in Gainesville and has attended a few Florida contests, including quarterback Tim Tebow's final regular-season game last year against Florida State.

Florida coach Urban Meyer recently was quoted as being unhappy with the look of the Gators' offensive line, so there may be an opportunity for Jordan to see some action next season, which is rare for a freshman lineman in the Southeastern Conference.

Jordan, who plays offensive tackle and nose guard on defense for Ridgefield, could move to center when he joins the Gators' program.

"Since I will be graduating high school in December, I will go down to Florida in January and enroll in classes for the spring semester," Jordan said.

Last season, Jordan earned first-team all-state honors while being named the FCIAC Player of the Year. He also was selected to the Walter Camp team and was tabbed as the Connecticut State Lineman of the Year.

Jordan attended Florida's camp last summer and received an offer from the school on September 1.

He will be joining what arguably has been the top college football program in the country since Meyer's arrival in 2005. Under Meyer, the Gators are 57-10, having won national championships in 2006 and 2008.