Here are some of the bullet points:
Florida finished the 2017 recruiting season with a flourish that led to a No. 13 ranking in
ESPN's recruiting grades, but that is only the latest in a string of strong showings in this area. Over the past five years, the Gators rank in the top 10 nationally in five-star recruits (five), four-star recruits (72) and ESPN 300 recruits (52). There are four SEC teams in front of the Gators on those lists, but Georgia is the only SEC East club to make that claim, so Florida could arguably have the best talent in that division.
The losses of Jarrad Davis and Joey Ivie to graduation were compounded when Caleb Brantley and Alex Anzalone declared early for the 2017 NFL draft. According to Stats LLC, this quartet accounted for 197 impact plays, a wide-ranging metric that includes any type of pass-rush impact (sack, pressure, etc.), tackles for loss and passes defensed.
Taven Bryan,
Keivonnis Davis,
Cece Jefferson,
Jachai Polite,
Jordan Sherit and
Jabari Zuniga combined for 232 impact plays on 1,827 snaps last season.
Duke Dawson had the third-lowest completion percentage allowed among the 10 Florida defenders with 10 or more targets last season (34.4 percent, according to Stats LLC) and the highest passes-defensed percentage among Gators defenders with 20 or more targets (25.0).
Florida ranked 11th among Power 5 teams and second in the SEC in ESPN Stats for special teams.
Gators tied for last in the SEC and tied for 59th out of 65 Power 5 teams in rush yards per carry before first defensive contact (1.8). But Scarlett ranked fourth in the conference in yards per rush after first defensive contact among the 23 running backs with 100 or more carries last year (2.6). The main impediment for Scarlett posting even better numbers is that he ranked 21st in that group in rush yards per carry before first defensive contact (2.4).