The Gators lost one recruit to FSU. He was a good one, Matt Elam. However yesterday we got two outstanding recruits at the UA game giving us 21 at this point. I found out something tonight I didn't realize. We have 11 of those guys coming in as Early Entries. That's half the class.
More and more kids are wanting to be early entries these days. No doubt it has to do with they all want to start as freshman and make a big impact and start impressing NFL scouts. I read all the time how kids who didn't play as freshmen say how tough it was for them, that they considered transfering but toughed it out. I think the only exceptions might be OL's a lot of those guys want to redshirt and spend the year in the weight room getting ready. But skill players all want to start/play as freshmen. Your class looks outstanding. In looking at the Rivals top 10. It's dominated by the SEC. ESPN has Fla, Alabama, Georgia, Tenn, LSU and Auburn in the top 10. Texas is at #2. We have 1 more ESPNU top 150 commits than you guys. FSU is back in the top 10. I think they will return to being a big force in Fla recruiting with Bowden gone and the new staff that Fisher has hired. They will probably take some players from UF next year. FSU is more willing to take academically risky kids if I remember correctly.
It kills their final recruiting ranking every year. With the noles......I believe it when I see it.....in Sept.
That's true about FSU taking more academically risky kids Terry. But when they do they are not usually competing with us. The really risky ones are filtered out and not usually recruited by Florida but are filtered out. There is a system in place where the admissions dept evaluates and if they aren't judged to be eligible then they are not usually invited. That does not mean we don't take some borderline people but it's usually conditioned on them passing. In the last four years I only remember one not qualifying and he came in the next January and is on campus now.
Another couple of things about the Noles Terry, they usually have several players who are recruited but don't qualify. I also expected that whoever replaced Bowden would go through the replacing a legend scenario. However with the rocky road the Noles have been on the last few years I doubt that Fisher has that problem and I expect their recruiting classes to get better. If they can get them all in school. :wink:
A lot of SEC schools used to (maybe still do) over sign kids in Feb because they know they all won't qualify. Signing more than 25 isn't wrong as sometimes the extras are early entried and will be counted against the previuos class, that's legit. It's the kids who can't or have no hope of qualifying yet are counted in the class and may result in the recruiting services ranking them higher. I do know that of course "recruiting" rankings are really sort of meaningless but still at national signing day a big deal is made out of them and I do believe it impacts future recruiting when kids see you are always ranked high. Terry
Terry, the SEC put a limit of 28 players for any signing period. What I am not sure of is does that count the early entries that count back to the previous class?
That's good, it's just silly to sign kids who you know won't be able to play just to pump up your recruiting rankings.