Many SEC coaches put on the full-court press last week during the final days before the recruiting dead period, a month-long stretch during which staffs may have no contact with prospective players beginning Dec. 15.

Alabama’s Nick Saban and first-year Florida coach Jim McElwain stopped by Armwood High in Seffner, Fla., to visit one of the nation’s top uncommitted players, Byron Cowart, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound pass rusher with offers from several elite programs.

Cowart has official visits remaining at Auburn, Florida State and Florida in January. Will Muschamp’s recent hire at Auburn improves the Tigers’ chances at landing one of the Sunshine State’s top-rated defensive players.

“I’m just happy that he’s going to one of the schools that I am considering,” Cowart recently told the Orlando Sentinel. “They’ll be in there and I’m taking my official visit to Auburn like the (Jan.) 16th or 17th, and I’m taking an official to Florida State and official to Florida.”

Cowart plans to announce a verbal commitment at Under Armour All-America Game Jan. 2. Another sought-after SEC target on the defensive side of the ball is Roquan Smith, a four-star outside linebacker from Montezuma, Ga. Said to be a Bulldogs lean, Smith tweeted from his official visit to Athens on Saturday and apparently liked what he saw from Jeremy Pruitt and Georgia’s defensive staff. His three official visits remaining include LSU (Jan. 16), Ole Miss (Jan. 23) and UCLA (Jan. 30).

Kentucky has a leg up on competitors in the running for uncommitted target Damien Harris, a five-star tailback just 40 miles south of Lexington in Berea, Ky.

Harris visited the Wildcats over the weekend after in-home visits from Saban, Mark Stoops and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer. He’s expected to pick Kentucky or Alabama on National Signing Day.