I just checked ESPN recruiting rankings put out on Jan. 10th and UF checked in at #4. The Gators have since picked up 2-3 top recruits so I think they will be in good shape on NSD. Since 2006 UF has ranked #1, #2, #4, #5 and #1 in ESPN's recruiting rankings. Looks like maybe a top 3 finish this year to go with it and that is amazing I think considering the coaching change. Muschamp has some great viddles in the cupboard to work with it seems.
I do Don. A dozen teams or more cherry pick athletes from the state of Florida and there isn't hardly enough just for UM and MSU up in Michigan.
What's interesting about the rankings is that Scout has the Gators at number 23 and Rivals have us at 18. I anticipate a top 10 or so ranking but not as good as ESPN has us.
I think these recruiting rankings are BS. The recruiting services set these up to hype themselves. If Florida is addressing its needs with the kind of kids that they want, then that is all that matters. Where is TCU ranked? How about Nebraska? Texas has finished top 5 for the last 5 years at least. So much also depends on how many stars these kids have. I would put a whole lot more stock in the evaluating ability of the coaches. 8)
...and how the coaches choose to use that talent. UF this past season had a very strange and difficult offense.....hard to watch at times.
With the shift in population to the SEC states and esp Fla, it's no shock that UF annually has excellent recruiting. Texas has excellent recruiting every year as well, again population and of course weather. USC the same, tons of HS football players with in 300 miles, great weather. I don't know what would have to happen for UF to not have an excellent recruiting class, might have to be a long slide like FSU has experienced. Their recruiting over the last 10 years is down from where it was when they were in their hey dey from the mid 80's till the late 90's. But it's rebounding fast now that Fla kids see the program trending up again.
AJ, Nebraska has historically not had recruiting classes that are as highly ranked as Oklahoma, or Florida, or Alabama but they have had some of the best teams in college football. That was my point, no offense intended to the Huskers. :wink:
Actually, I was less than honest on my post KP.....gettin' this kid was pretty easy actually.....here's the original quote before I edited it.... :twisted: However, (pause for effect)... Tampa Bay Dave....this just proves one thing about the presence of CORNHUSKERS......we are everywhere..... :twisted:
While I don't think that recruiting rankings are complete BS, there is an element of BS. Having said they can be BS, I will also say that I prefer classes with high average stars. What does come with the higher ranked players seem to be a sense of entitlement and they are just there for a short time before moving on to the NFL. The high ranked class we had last year seemed to be a very difficult class to manage from what I have read.
Well I for one am happier when we have a class loaded with 4 and 5 star players. Doesn't guarantee success, of course. They have to be developed and they have to be managed. It's a great story when teams with no 5*, few 4* and mostly 3 and 2 star kids do well, but personally I'd rather have lots of 4 and 5 star guys!
Terry, I hear what you are saying and that is a good goal, but I am not worried at all about whether Alabama finishes #1, #10 or whatever. We need DL's and DB's. I hope we get the best ones around that want to play at Alabama.
I too care little about where we end up in the rankings.....having a bunch of 4 and 5 star kids can't be a bad thing and may well be a good thing. But at the end of the day, if Tressel has a kid in camp for several years and seeing how he measures up against other elite players up close and personal and he wants him to play at Ohio State, I don't give a flip how many stars Tom Lemming wants to attach to him....in short I trust Tressel's view vastly more than any of the "gurus"....
Well I'm all for coaches being able to evaluate talent and develope that talent. As I said it's certainly a great story when you can point to players on your roster who were unknown and who have developed into outstanding players, I just would rather have a whole lot of those 4 star and 5 star players and a few of those hidden gems. Case in point. UC in 2009 a team full of mostly 2 star and 3 star players, more 2 star than 3. Kelly developed them, coached them, willed them to 12-0 record in the Big East. When faced with a UF team full of 4 star and 5 star players, they were clearly physically superior. Now Kelly didn't coach them in that game, but I dare say even he couldn't have overcome the physical differences in the teams. Ohio State every year has a top 10 recruiting class with mostly 4 star and 5 star kids, JT does get some kids from Ohio who aren't and some of those kids become great players. Maybe they were overlooked, maybe it was the coaching and player developement. But I don't think even BuckeyeT wants the Cinncy roster.
No I wouldn't swap rosters with them.....I guess my point is that to distinguish between the school with the best class and the school with the 5th, etc best class is largely folly imo.....the differences at that level are so small as to be at least negligible if not completely non-existent and often, a school with lower "stars" has filled their needs better than one that has not, making the # of stars irrelevant..... I mean really now, "Elite Recruiting U" has an average of 3.81 stars and is well ahead of "Not Quite Elite Recruiting U" with an average of 3.65 stars, etc seriously? Somebody is gonna tell me that Elite U had a demonstrably superior recruiting class to "Not Quite" - that's just bullbleep, at least in my view. Now oversigning does provide a material advantage.....but that's another animal. I would agree that you could take the top ten or so and throw them in a hat and call it square and that they do have a modest edge on those just below the top tier and a vast edge on those outside of the top 30 or so.....
On that we can agree, that is that there is little difference between the top recruiting classes and to declare somebody "#1" is nuts. But hey this whole thing supports quite a large industry of Website owners, psuedo-scouts, etc!
....not to mention providing entertainment for a bunch of old knuckleheads debating it online as well! :lol: