Gators to add kicker Marvin Kloss as walk-on

UPDATE: Florida does not grant K Marvin Kloss admission

Though he was offered a scholarship and grayshirt by the South Florida Bulls, three-star kicker Marvin Kloss (Naples, FL) has decided to accept a walk-on offer from the Florida Gators and expects to make an impact right away, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

“If they can get me in, I’m going up there,” Kloss said of his pending admission status at Florida. “I want to play right away, and they’re a lot better [than USF] scholarship-wise with just one kicker and one punter on scholarship.”

His grade point average and test scores have already earned him a Florida Bright Futures scholarship, so it is likely that UF will grant Kloss admission soon. In fact, he told the Times that interim head coach and offensive coordinator Steve Addazio would be taking his paperwork to the admissions office on Wednesday. If Kloss shows promise on the field, he should have no problem earning a scholarship with the Gators.

UPDATE: The Naples Daily News reports that a low SAT score caused UF to initially decline Kloss’ enrollment application. “The only thing holding me back from making a clear-cut decision is that I got declined,” he told the paper. “[The Gators’ coaches] said it’s up to admissions to decide based on the number of students they have next year.”

Kloss had scholarship offers from the Purdue Boilermakers and Marshall Thundering Heard, which he declined in order to walk-on at Florida (or USF).

“With Marvin’s talent, if he does anywhere close to what he should do next year, he will [earn a scholarship],” Barron Collier High School coach Mark Ivey told the paper. “He has the opportunity if he performs to help on kickoffs next year at a minimum.”

ESPNU Evaluation: “Kloss has FBS leg strength and he has shown this at multiple camps. He is a very competitive athlete who gets great height on both his kickoffs and field goals. He has special leg speed and the ball comes off his foot very fast with a slow rotation. His control and accuracy on field goals are impressive. He is college-ready off the ground. […] Coaches will like his confident attitude.”

Photo Credit: David Albers/Naples Daily News