It's really sad to hear Gators fans talk about how the place should recruit itself. Texas and Notre Dame fans are delusional in this way. Indiana basketball fans are the same way.
The biggest single factor in recruiting is what school and coach will give the best chance of winning championships. When Mac arrived in 2015 every high school recruit had watched the Muschamp version of Florida since they were 13 years old. Their only memories of Florida was receivers blocking each other, losing to Georgia Southern and a coach that was out of control and hated offense. The Gators weren't just bad, they were a national laughingstock. No offensive player in their right mind even considered Florida as a backup plan.
The name Florida wasn't a selling point to offensive players. It was the exact opposite.
In the 80's Pell had to pay players to come to Florida. In the 90's Spurrier got the recruits to come without a lot of effort because they knew he could win championships. In the 00's the recruits were lining up because Urban walked into a loaded roster and produced right off the bat. Then Muschamp burned the place to the ground.
Those of us who are a bit older remember championship seasons, but to high school kids that's ancient history. Some of these recruits don't know who Spurrier is and were 8 years old in 2008. They have never seen the Gators dominating the grid iron. To them Florida winning a national championship is kind of like the Loch Ness Monster. They've heard people talk about seeing it, but it's really hard to believe.
Telling a recruit that the Gators won a national championship in 1996 is the same as telling them that Army won a national championship in 1914. They're not impressed by dusty trophies from way back then.
Florida will recruit itself again when the recruits can see with their own eyes that championships are possible at Florida. The good news is that Florida currently has the #1 ranked class in the country for 2019. The recruits are starting to see the potential again.