With the ESP essentially over I wanted to take a look at how things currently stand. Florida currently set’s at 17th nationally in the composite rankings, and 7th in the SEC. Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn, and Tennessee all set ahead of UF currently. FSU currently sets at 14th nationally, and you’ll currently find Miami sitting way down at 33rd. Florida currently has 13 blue-chip commits given them a blue chip percentage of 62%.
Overall the day should be considered a W. While it was mostly known that the Lakeland trio would end up at UF, that shouldn’t tarnish the fact of landing three blue chip prospects from what should always be a UF pipeline school. Let’s take a look at the class as a whole right now.
QB- Mullen got his guy in Jones. He’s not someone that’s going to come in and take the starting job, but he doesn’t have to either. Jones is a dynamic athlete that will have time to develop under Mullen. At best he could turn into a very good QB, at worst he could be a very good utility player a la Trey Burton.
RB- Yes we missed on one of the best players in the nation. Florida had distance in their favor, family (brother on the team, mother a noted UF fan), and a scheme that has shown it will feature the RBs, but couldn’t close the deal. It is what it is, a loss, but Florida still signed a very good RB in Wright. After setting out for a year he bounced back to have a very productive season averaging 10.3 yards per carry. He’s not the biggest RB, but he should fit into the rotation at RB very well.
WR- Florida missed on its higher rater WR targets this cycle, but still ended up with some intriguing options. Westin is a tall rangy WR that should be able to go up and fight for the ball. Marks although not very highly rated was super productive and was one of the leading receivers in Florida this year.
TE- Zipperer was likely the top target and Mullen/Scott got their guy. Zip is not your traditional TE, but more of a TE/H-back hybrid somewhat in the mold of an Aaron Hernandez and I can see him being used similarly. He should be an instant impact type player and along with Krull, Gamble, and Pitts gives Mullen a wealth of talent at the TE position.
OL- Hevsey is not a dynamic recruiter, but he signed the deepest OL class, and one of the better ones, I can remember in a long time. It’s obvious that Mullen and Hevsey wanted to reshape the OL room and they have done so. Signing 7 OL gives you more room for error and while I feel like maybe a couple of the takes were reaches, overall it’s a solid group of OL and even if only 3 of them end up being solid SEC starters it will be remembered as a very good OL class.
DL- Still a lot of work to be done here. Signing Summerall and Humphries is a good start, but you need at least one, preferably, two more recruits long the DL. This group is still TBD.
LB- Probably the highlight of the class. The job that CRob has done with the LBs on the roster and the talent that he is helping to bring in should get him paid very soon. This might just end up being one of the better LB classes in the nation. While I’m not as high on Pierre as some the combination of Black, Hopper, and Diabate is a very good core of LBs. Pierre may actually end up filling out a big more and putting his hand in the dirt.
DB- A solid start to the class, but still need to add some high end blue chips if UF wants to continue to be mentioned in the discussion as DBU. S is a bit of a concern as all of the DBs signed and being targeted are listed as CBs. That will be something to watch.
With all of that being said this class still has a way to go. While there are currently 13 blue-chip recruits in the class none of those are 5 star prospects, nor are any in the composite top 100. In fact, only 9 are in the composite top 300. Zook, Meyer, And Muschamp had 12, 9, and 6 top 100 players, McElwain had 4. While UF currently sets in 17th, and should move up, Zook, Meyer, and Muschamp finished 1st(1st SEC) 2nd(1st SEC) and 3rd(2nd SEC) nationally with their second classes, McElwain finished 12th nationally and 6h in the SEC.
It’s a good class, and has room to get better considering some of the prospects left on the board, but right now this class is not up to what the gator standard of recruiting should be. The good news is that Florida should be able to surge past UT and possibly even FSU, but I don’t see Florida passing Auburn which will leave us at 6th in the SEC that is a bit of a concern. Here’s hoping for a strong finish. Go Gators!
Overall the day should be considered a W. While it was mostly known that the Lakeland trio would end up at UF, that shouldn’t tarnish the fact of landing three blue chip prospects from what should always be a UF pipeline school. Let’s take a look at the class as a whole right now.
QB- Mullen got his guy in Jones. He’s not someone that’s going to come in and take the starting job, but he doesn’t have to either. Jones is a dynamic athlete that will have time to develop under Mullen. At best he could turn into a very good QB, at worst he could be a very good utility player a la Trey Burton.
RB- Yes we missed on one of the best players in the nation. Florida had distance in their favor, family (brother on the team, mother a noted UF fan), and a scheme that has shown it will feature the RBs, but couldn’t close the deal. It is what it is, a loss, but Florida still signed a very good RB in Wright. After setting out for a year he bounced back to have a very productive season averaging 10.3 yards per carry. He’s not the biggest RB, but he should fit into the rotation at RB very well.
WR- Florida missed on its higher rater WR targets this cycle, but still ended up with some intriguing options. Westin is a tall rangy WR that should be able to go up and fight for the ball. Marks although not very highly rated was super productive and was one of the leading receivers in Florida this year.
TE- Zipperer was likely the top target and Mullen/Scott got their guy. Zip is not your traditional TE, but more of a TE/H-back hybrid somewhat in the mold of an Aaron Hernandez and I can see him being used similarly. He should be an instant impact type player and along with Krull, Gamble, and Pitts gives Mullen a wealth of talent at the TE position.
OL- Hevsey is not a dynamic recruiter, but he signed the deepest OL class, and one of the better ones, I can remember in a long time. It’s obvious that Mullen and Hevsey wanted to reshape the OL room and they have done so. Signing 7 OL gives you more room for error and while I feel like maybe a couple of the takes were reaches, overall it’s a solid group of OL and even if only 3 of them end up being solid SEC starters it will be remembered as a very good OL class.
DL- Still a lot of work to be done here. Signing Summerall and Humphries is a good start, but you need at least one, preferably, two more recruits long the DL. This group is still TBD.
LB- Probably the highlight of the class. The job that CRob has done with the LBs on the roster and the talent that he is helping to bring in should get him paid very soon. This might just end up being one of the better LB classes in the nation. While I’m not as high on Pierre as some the combination of Black, Hopper, and Diabate is a very good core of LBs. Pierre may actually end up filling out a big more and putting his hand in the dirt.
DB- A solid start to the class, but still need to add some high end blue chips if UF wants to continue to be mentioned in the discussion as DBU. S is a bit of a concern as all of the DBs signed and being targeted are listed as CBs. That will be something to watch.
With all of that being said this class still has a way to go. While there are currently 13 blue-chip recruits in the class none of those are 5 star prospects, nor are any in the composite top 100. In fact, only 9 are in the composite top 300. Zook, Meyer, And Muschamp had 12, 9, and 6 top 100 players, McElwain had 4. While UF currently sets in 17th, and should move up, Zook, Meyer, and Muschamp finished 1st(1st SEC) 2nd(1st SEC) and 3rd(2nd SEC) nationally with their second classes, McElwain finished 12th nationally and 6h in the SEC.
It’s a good class, and has room to get better considering some of the prospects left on the board, but right now this class is not up to what the gator standard of recruiting should be. The good news is that Florida should be able to surge past UT and possibly even FSU, but I don’t see Florida passing Auburn which will leave us at 6th in the SEC that is a bit of a concern. Here’s hoping for a strong finish. Go Gators!
