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Comparison of Recruiting in the State of Florida

Discussion in 'Gator Football' started by Escambia94, Feb 14, 2019.

  1. Escambia94

    Escambia94 Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE) Moderator

    The Florida Gators are once again on top in the state of Florida! Here is how the big-3/ plus-1 finished in the 2019 recruiting class rankings overall, and at key positions:

    Overall class ranking
    1. Florida #9
    2. FSU #18
    3. Miami #18
    4. UCF #56
    1. Florida: 4* Jalon Jones
    2. Miami: 3* Peyton Matocha
    3. UCF: 3* Dillon Gabriel
    4. FSU: NOBODY
    FSU failed to recruit a QB for the second consecutive year, with only Justin Blackmon available as a true scholarship QB.

    Running Back
    1. Florida: 4* Nay'Quan Wright
    2. FSU, Miami, UCF: NOBODY
    This might be the first time in modern history that neither FSU nor Miami landed a running back in a recruiting class.

    1. Florida: 4* Arjei Henderson, 3* Dionte Marks, 3* Ja'Markeis Weston, 3* Trent Whittemore
    2. Miami: 4* Jeremiah Payton
    3. UCF: 3* Jamarius Good, 3* Amari Johnson
    4. FSU: 3* Maurice Goolsby
    Two of the three 3* Gator receiver recruits have shown potential to grow beyond their star rating, according to two other sources. Henderson was one of Mullen's first offers when he took over at Florida, and he snuck under the recruiting services' radars under the assumption he was going to FSU.

    Tight End
    1. Florida: 4* Keon Zipperer
    2. Miami: 3* Larry Hodges
    3. FSU and UCF: NOBODY
    The recruiting battle for Zipperer was a heated one that many thought Miami would win, but Keon chose the Gators.

    Offensive Line
    1. Florida: 4* Michael Tarquin, 4* William Harrod, 4* Deyavie Hammond, 3* Wardrick Wilson, 3* Kingsley Eguakun, 3* Ethan White, 3* Riley Simonds
    2. FSU: 4* Dontae Lucas, 3* Maurice Smith, 3* Jay Williams, 3* Darius Washington, 3* Ira Henry
    3. Miami: 3* Jakai Clark, 3* Zion Nelson, 3* Adam ElGammal
    4. UCF: 3* Allan Adams, 3* Matt Lee, 3* Lokahi Pauole
    Florida recruited nearly twice as many offensive linemen as FSU, and stole two of them from Miami at the very end of the recruiting season! FSU got the only other blue-chip offensive lineman.

    Defensive Tackle
    1. Miami: 4* Jason Blissett, 3* Jared Harrison-Hunte, 3* Jalar Holley
    2. Florida: 4* Jaelin Humphries
    3. FSU: 3* Malcolm Ray, 3* Tru Thompson
    4. UCF: 3* Keenan Hester, 3* Noah Hancock
    Apparently Florida likes recruiting kids named Jaelin or Jalon. Florida will need to beef up recruiting along the defensive front, especially if the Gators want to compete for the SEC championship.

    Defensive End/ Buck/ Edge
    1. Florida: 4* Mahmoud Diabate, 4* Khris Bogle, 4* Lloyd Summerall
    2. FSU: 4* Quashon Fuller, 4* Curtis Fann, 3* Derrick McClendon
    3. UCF: 3* Dallas Corbett, Kam'ron Green, Tre'Mon Morris-Brash, Raymond Cutts, Jalen Pinkney
    4. Miami: 4* Jahfari Harvey, 3* Cameron Williams (3*)
    FSU actually put together a good group of edge rushers, including a Gator target Quashon Fuller. Florida pulled together an equally impressive group rather late in the recruiting cycle, not even counting Louisville graduate transfer Jon Greenard. This group may later get credit for convincing Todd Grantham to stay at Florida rather than go to the NFL.

    1. Florida: 4* Tyron Hopper, 4* Diwun Black, 3* Jesiah Pierre
    2. FSU: 4* Jaleel McRae, 4* Kalen Deloach, 3* Kevon Glenn
    3. Miami: 4* Avery Huff, 3* Samuel Brooks
    4. UCF: 3* Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste and Tatum Bethune
    This is the best group of LBs I have seen at Florida in a long time. Some of these players might grow into edge rushers as well.

    1. Florida: 4* Chris Steele, 4* Kaiir Elam, 4* Jaydon Hill, 3*/4* Chester Kimbrough
    2. FSU: 4* Akeem Dent), 4* Travis Jay, 3* Renardo Green, 3* Jarvis Brownlee
    3. Miami: 4* Christian Williams, 4* Te'Cory Couch
    4. UCF: 3* James Tarver, Jarrad Baker, Justin Menard, Tay Gowan, Ryan O’Keefe
    Of course #DBU put together a great recruiting class.

    1. FSU: 4* Raymond Woodie, 4* Brendan Grant
    2. Miami: 4* Keontra Smith
    3. Florida and UCF: NOBODY
    The Gators did not land a true safety in this class, so I expect the Gators to convert a cornerback.

    • Florida: N/A. Walk-on P/K Taylor Waxman
    • FSU: K Ryan Fitzgerald
    • Miami: P Louis Hedley
    • UCF: K Daniel Obarski
    Overall Summary
    The ratings may not reflect it, but this is one of the most complete, well-rounded classes that Florida has pulled together in recent memory--especially when considering the transfer players. With the right coaching, this class could be the foundation of an SEC championship team. If the Gators can keep pulling together classes like this, then I foresee a bright future for the mighty Gators.
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2019
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  2. DRU2012

    DRU2012 Super Moderator Staff Member Super Moderator

    Frankly, let me first concede that I do NOT fully grasp nor am well-informed in the manner of WHOM exactly rates pending recruits in the "multi-star" system used, nor the criteria applied in doing so...
    Having admitted that, it is in a certain uncomfortable ignorance that I pass THIS along:
    Lately-noted in various places online is the supposed "likelihood" that several of our "4-star" prospects (among both 2020 commits AND at least a couple in our already-set 2019 class, for whatever THAT'S worth at this point) are in the process of being "re-evaluated", and will soon be re-classified as "5-star" recruits. There is even a 3-star apparently "close to/about to be" moved up from "3-" to "4-star" status... I will do a bit of "retracing" of my link-search history from the last few days, try to pin down some names and positions associated with all this (I'm NOT just pulling this stuff outta thin air, I swear ! LOL)... But since it HAS been not just an admitted "area of weakness" in my depth of understanding but, as far as that very "4-star vs 5 star question" at least, one that has involved what has been a glaring, several-season gap between us and those 3 or 4 teams at the very top of the current overall national rankings lists. Over the last few years this has been a clear and GROWING lack in our recruiting results--one that I admit has been really bugging me: since even BEFORE Mullen got here, 5-star recruits have been something noticeably missing from Gator prospect- and resulting final class-lists.
    I can honestly subscribe to, and annually support here Mullen's (and even before his arrival, my own analyses') strong arguments that our Coaches' own "longterm plan-based" and "team-balance/lockerroom chemistry"-influenced target-lists for eventual recruiting success have its own focus, separate-but-more-specifically-valid-to-US, BUT: It still seems we have apparently been MISSING OUT on even being IN on the pursuit of those very few young prep players coming up who are at the very TOP, that very real handful of the "notably superior" whom in truth we KNOW are "out there"... If you were ever a kid who played sports, or even just lived in a place and/or went to a school where such competition was followed and valued, you KNOW there are such among you. Hell, even as kids you all become aware of such individuals even from a distance.
    (For example, in Florida we started hearing about Emmit Smith by my Sophomore year at UF--even though (way I remember it--I may be jumbling it with someone else) he was at that point still just a relatively "young'n'small" lower classman dominating the field Friday nights at a previously unheralded mid-level program way over in East Polatka, Fla.!!! I'd heard he was gonna be a Gator, at his mama's insistence (that much I DO recall well) by the time I graduated and moved to CA to go to grad school--which indeed came to pass, A FULL TWO YEARS LATER as I recall it now...It may all WORK differently now, but the "back channel", unofficial but nonetheless word-of-mouth "scuttlebutt/rumormill" circuit is just as accurate and in the end, truly predictive as ever, I suspect. When it comes to TRANCENDANT talent, it is real, it is damn near unmatchable onfield at that level--and a confident Coach HAS to at least TRY to build a kind of "automatic in-state highway" to his program for such Stand Outs...We used to have that at UF--but only AFTER the public efforts of a highly publicicized string of Head Coaches in the 70s and 80s slowly and steadily, FINALLY bore fruit--in the very arrival of young stars like Emmit, and (especially with Spurrier's eventual, seemingly inevitable, even FATEFUL ensuing installment as our Coach at a key point) our ensuing rapid evolution from "sleeping giant" to SEC Champs, mythical "Best in Florida" (at a time when all THREE of the then "Big Three"--Miami, FSU and us--ALL with hot, creative and charismatic Head Coaches at the helm) rose rapidly to national prominance in their respective conferences, all at the same time.
    I won't get into a recounting of how each of us LOST that hard-won edge, nor where each is at today in trying to reclaim it--only note that we are, and it appears WE at least are at present furthest along in reclaiming it.
    Indeed, it is not unrealistic to predict that UF are on the verge of getting "it" BACK--and I would argue that our beginning to reclaim that "in-state 5-star pipeline" is at least a SIGN that this is so, and quite REAL, as "good and positive SIGNS" go!
  3. Escambia94

    Escambia94 Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE) Moderator

    The star ratings are not always a good sign, but it is known that having more of them is better than not. If you ask the older athletes who played before 2010 or so, they will tell you that it was easy to "buy" stars from recruiting services. Nowadays the ratings are more influenced by camps as well.

    That being said, a good coach will know how to reconcile recruiting service rankings against internal rankings. My guess is that after spending a decade in Mississippi where 4* and 5* athletes are rare (unless you pay for them, as Ole Miss did), Dan Mullen learned how to find diamonds in the rough, and he developed a knack for polishing some of the rougher ones.
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  4. DRU2012

    DRU2012 Super Moderator Staff Member Super Moderator

    @Escambia94, in particular--and THE WORLD AT LARGE (at least that portion that follows and loves major college American Rules Football; For our purposes here, "the rest do not matter!" LOL):

    Thankyou for frankly "ripping away the veil" of look-the-other-way reality that we all "suspect" and/or have heard muttered about for years (there was no other explanation for much of it!), E--...Even Ol' Miss's damn near "red-handed" revelations are mostly met with yawns and a general NO-story.
    I can only assume that too much "biz as usual" at work here, too many jobs in broadcasting and "sports journalism" (quotes here because none too many modern "Grantland Rices" out there spring to mind) depend on the whole ediface NOT being seen a fraud!
    But yes, sir: I too cannot stress enough the importance our Coach's (I believe) very real and sincere trust and dependance on his and his braintrust's own "private ranking lists" in shaping, in ultimately CHOOSING and going AFTER the actual players who will eventually FORM our SEC-dominant, annually challenging-for-NATIONAL-CHAMPIONSHIPS Florida Gator Football TEAMS--which I now pretty damn confidently predict will prevail throughout the 20's, at LEAST.

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