Someone tell why we should be excited by this kid. He's only 6 foot tall? 340? the 60th ranked DT. I;m sure the pumpers will make him out to be a future star.
I understand your perspective doesn't afford any consideration for the future in terms up gaining stars, being coachable, etc. Let's stick to your approach and where we are TODAY. Compared to yesterday, we now have a large kid, excited to be a Gator (and dreamed of playing for us), filling in a position of need for the roster. Yes, he is a 3*. Compare that to yesterday when we had no-star committed to that position of need.
You complain we aren't elite, and we won't be unless we recruit better. Fact is, we are NOT elite, and haven't been for several years. But TODAY we are better than we were yesterday, no?
We should not be desperate for any position as the flagship university in the fertile state of FL.
The overall talent on the team is slowly eroding away. The bulk of our roster is going to be 3 stars.
We should not be desperate at any position - agreed, but it is a fact of where we are TODAY based on recent years. The second two comments are predicting the future, something you will not tolerate from pumpers. Hypocrite much?
By the way, what state did we pull this kid from since we aren't recruiting Florida?
You don't get it. This is just SOP for this underachieving staff. It is status quo. Some of you will say the the exact same thing about every kid. Good get. Look at his film. He's underrated. Same crap. Over and over.
This is just the norm. I'm getting used to it. Saban, Jimbo, Richt, Smart are running circles around him.
You wouldn't let me continue to give credit to Mac and staff for pulling their first class from 100+ to 21st in a few weeks because that was SOOOoooo long ago. Ok, let me put it this way without projecting my view of the future and focusing only on the facts and where we have been that got us to today:
2015 - Took a class from 100+ to 21 in a few weeks. True or false? What negatives do you have about this staff given that performance?
2016 - Finished with a 13-14 ranked class, filled a lot of needs at OL. I forget which service we're supposed to use, but 247 had the class at a .887 avg rating. The coaches were on the trail for 13 months to find kids, build relationships, etc. Coaches had to sell a program that has sucked for years, and blew chunks the back half of the 2015 season, and still filled out a class of 25 kids. Some (you) will claim they should have done better, while others (pumpers) wills say they are getting there. Matter of opinion, we could have been better...but we also could have been worse, correct?
2017 - We are sitting with a mid 30's ranked class with only 6 commits.
HALF of them are currently 4*. We've got about 7 months to fill out the remaining 12-15 (?) spots....but you don't allow optimism, so we'll just stop and look at where we are TODAY. I have no idea what the curve has been like for past recruiting cycles for UF - how many commits and at what star ratings we've had 7 months before NSD. I won't interpret any lag, if there is one, in where we are today compared to May of last year in recruiting - could be saving spots for better players, could be the staff just sucks and can't seal the deal - that will prove out over the next several months. But to look at where we are now and complain we aren't where you want to be right now is your right as a fan....I just don't know how realistic your expectations are.
You complain we aren't up there with Bama and F$U.....that's true, we aren't up there with them in this year's recruiting class NOR are we in that rare air of elite programs. It's a fact. I'll appreciate your expectation and desire that we SHOULD be in that rare air, but fact is we aren't. We don't have an NC in recent years, or a high profile program competing for conference CGs or BCS bowls in recent years. It's who we are TODAY.
By the way, of those 6 commits we have right now, there are 56 ( can't tell what are commutable) offers from P5 schools. Of those schools, those 6 kids chose us over AU (1), UGA (2), F$U (1), LSU (1), MIA (3), MICH (2), tOSU (1).