The National Signing Day Thread

[BMF]

Multiple recruits calling for Florida assistant to remain on staff

https://www.seccountry.com/florida/brad-davis-florida-recruits

Despite Jim McElwain’s departure at Florida, Curtis Dunlap plans to stick with commitment to the Gators.

And if he had it his way, there wouldn’t be a coaching change at his position. The 4-star offensive guard took to Twitter on Monday night to voice his support for Florida O-line coach Brad Davis.


Follow
@Curtisdunlapjr
Coach Davis is building something special among the offensive line! He NEEDS to be on staff next year!!!

6:42 PM - Oct 30, 2017 · IMG Academy

Dunlap will be the first Florida signee from IMG Academy and committed on July 18 after building a fast but strong bond with Davis, who was hired in early February. Dunlap told SEC Country he wasn’t strongly considering UF until Davis joined the staff and became his primary recruiter.

RELATED: Top OL recruits have Gators high on list due to new position coach Brad Davis

Florida’s other commitment on the offensive line — 4-star tackle Richard Gouraige — also connected with Davis and regained interest in the Gators after souring on former O-line coach Mike Summers.

“Ever since coach Summers left, no offense, but Coach Davis has been recruiting me harder,” Gouraige said back in the spring. “Coach Davis just brings that new style, just that new swag. He’s going to tell you if he really wants you or not. He’s just investing all his time in me.”

Like Dunlap, Gouraige and top-100 offensive lineman William Barnes both told SEC Country they hope Davis is retained. Barnes added that his interest level in Florida hasn’t changed.

LSU commit Kardell Thomas, a 5-star guard in the Class of 2019, is also advocating for the fellow Baton Rouge (La.) native.

“I’m still high on Florida if they keep Coach Davis,” Thomas said Sunday.


Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin and his next coach will hire a staff based on their wants and needs — not that of recruits, players or fans. However, Davis has clearly had an impact since his arrival and it will help his cause that recruits are going out of their way to support him publicly.

Davis sent out a series of tweets Monday, one addressing recruits directly.


Follow
Brad Davis @coachbraddavis
I won’t waste 1 day! Gonna continue enjoying competing as a Florida Gator and fulfill my obligation to spread Christ’s message to my guys!

1:43 PM - Oct 30, 2017





Follow
Brad Davis @coachbraddavis
And to all of our recruits, this is still FLORIDA! You come here to chase greatness......that will never change!

1:47 PM - Oct 30, 2017

 

[CGgater]

From a recruiting standpoint, I think Davis is worth retaining IMHO. I don’t know enough about his effectiveness with player development though.

 

[GR8 2B]

I've liked the Davis hire from Day 1, but every time I read a quote of his, I like him even more. He obviously does more for the Gators than just coach the OL. We need him to stay.

 

[YLGator]

This is the type of thinking that kept Summers around. This guy is a few months removed from North Texas, I think we can do better.

 

[GR8 2B]

This is the type of thinking that kept Summers around. This guy is a few months removed from North Texas, I think we can do better.

Who do you have in mind?

 

[YLGator]

I have no idea. Davis seems like a good enough coach and a good guy. Guess I'm just jaded that somehow Mac liked him. I want greatness all around and Mac seemed to avoid that at all costs.

 

[GatorInGeorgia]

(from gatorcountry):


Something happened and it goes beyond the allegation of death threats. Gene Chizic, who has some experience with getting ran out of town stated on SEC Now, that something fishy was going on in Gainesville. There is an old saying that I may not know the definition of porn but I know it when I see it. Well I agree with Chizic so I reached out to a couple of friends closes to the team, (yeah , I know, all of a sudden a lot of posters have inside sources). So take this how ever you want, I am myself just sick of the whole situation. Mc is and has been sensitive to criticism. This elevated things with the administration and got worse as the Noise in the system got louder. Some felt that Mc, had lost the desire to be here at UF. This is not after all Colorado State. Mc should have known what to expect from his tenure at Bama, but it's different being an OC and the guy. The administration believes the death threat allegations were made up. When he was called in to elaborate, the conversation was not good one.

Elephant in the Room: You will hear some rumors of big names thrown about, the reality is that the UF job is not as attractive as many of our fans think it to be. Now many will disagree with me on that, but I stand by that statement. Why just in the SEC UF is at best in the range of 2-5 depending who is making the call.

What is this azz jack talking about with something fishy going on in Gainesville? He already stated Mac was a sensitive wus and that the conversation about the death threats with the administration was not a good one. What’s fishy about that? He makes it sound like people were conspiring against Mac for no reason at all, which clearly wasn’t the case.

Regarding UF not being as good a job as us fans think and “only” being somewhere between 2-5 in the SEC, does he not realize that still makes this job AT WORST top 10 in the country? I’m curious as to which SEC jobs are better. My thoughts would be Alabama and maybe Georgia (although I personally think the UF job is better than the UGA gig). Other than that I don’t see TN, LSU or TAM as better and certainly not Aub, the Missy’s, USC, KY, etc. I think this guy’s been eating too many shrooms.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Something fishy doesn't necessarily mean something the UAA did something fishy.

 

[alcoholica]

Something fishy doesn't necessarily mean something the UAA did something fishy.

Yeah, i took the fishy comment to mean that things weren't being disclosed about the real reasons he got fired. Maybe more to do with the debit card scandal or maybe some interactions internally that went bad. Just behind the scenes stuff that hasn't made the public realm

 

[Swamp Donkey]

or maybe some interactions internally that went bad.

A whole lot of that.

There are apparently some issues with the credit card thing.

Water under the bridge. That beaver already floated downstream.

 

[BMF]

What is this azz jack talking about with something fishy going on in Gainesville? He already stated Mac was a sensitive wus and that the conversation about the death threats with the administration was not a good one. What’s fishy about that? He makes it sound like people were conspiring against Mac for no reason at all, which clearly wasn’t the case.

Regarding UF not being as good a job as us fans think and “only” being somewhere between 2-5 in the SEC, does he not realize that still makes this job AT WORST top 10 in the country? I’m curious as to which SEC jobs are better. My thoughts would be Alabama and maybe Georgia (although I personally think the UF job is better than the UGA gig). Other than that I don’t see TN, LSU or TAM as better and certainly not Aub, the Missy’s, USC, KY, etc. I think this guy’s been eating too many shrooms.

I hear where you're coming from w/ these comments. First off, this guy posts weekly over there and I've been cutting and pasting it here for months, so he's not some random (I have no clue how much "inside" stuff he gets, but he's pretty good w/ his assessments). I have no clue what the "fishy" part means, but as others have pointed out, there's obviously things we aren't being told (and it should be that way, dirty laundry isn't something that should be made public).

As far as job rank goes, I think UF is a top 10-15 job. I think it used to be a top 5 job, but Foley and his oversight/cheapness have cost us a few spots. One could argue that LSU, A&M, & UGA are equal/on par/better (money, fans, facilities, location, etc). IMO, Texas is the best job in the country and Alabama is the best job in the SEC. You can make arguments for Oklahoma, FSU, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Penn State, Miami, Auburn, Va Tech and several others for top 10 jobs (and certainly all of those listed make the top 20).

 

[BMF]

Michigan offers Chase:

https://www.seccountry.com/florida/florida-recruiting-jamarr-chase-Michigan

New offer for Ja’Marr Chase
Wide receiver could be the position group impacted most by Florida’s coaching change.

The Gators already had a fight on their hands to keep top-100 WR commits Jacob Copeland and Ja’Marr Chase, and now it’s open season on them.

A new school entered the mix for Chase on Monday, with the Under Armour All-American received an offer from Michigan.

Blessed to say i received a offer from the University of Michigan. pic.twitter.com/NafTK9nHjx

— Ja'Marr Chase (@10jayy__) October 30, 2017


Florida and Michigan went head-to-head last year for 5-star WR Donovan Peoples-Jones, who chose to play for the in-state Wolverines. And here’s a selling point for them: they have zero WR commits in their 2018 class.

Chase was already planning to officially visit Florida, Georgia, LSU and TCU, and now Michigan might be in line for his fifth trip.

Despite Chase’s consideration of other schools and visits, his father told Jimmy Chase of 247Sports they would stick with Florida “for now” and wait it out.

After visiting LSU earlier this month, Chase told SEC Country’s Sam Speigelman he will not utilize the early signing period in December.

“I’ll wait until Signing Day just because I want to make sure everything is right for me,” Chase said. “I don’t want to rush something because anything could happen. People could de-commit and I don’t want to sign early and mess up any of my chances.”

Both Chase and Copeland have declined interviews this week pertaining to Florida. Copeland also wants to his take official visits, with Alabama, Florida, Georgia and UCLA being likely destinations.

Gators WR commit Tyquan Thornton is probably the most solid pledge at the position, but it’s unclear where things stand with Corey Gammage.

He announced Sunday that he was re-opening his recruitment, but deleted the tweet shortly afterward and hasn’t clarified his commitment status since.

 

[GatorInGeorgia]

I hear where you're coming from w/ these comments. First off, this guy posts weekly over there and I've been cutting and pasting it here for months, so he's not some random (I have no clue how much "inside" stuff he gets, but he's pretty good w/ his assessments). I have no clue what the "fishy" part means, but as others have pointed out, there's obviously things we aren't being told (and it should be that way, dirty laundry isn't something that should be made public).

As far as job rank goes, I think UF is a top 10-15 job. I think it used to be a top 5 job, but Foley and his oversight/cheapness have cost us a few spots. One could argue that LSU, A&M, & UGA are equal/on par/better (money, fans, facilities, location, etc). IMO, Texas is the best job in the country and Alabama is the best job in the SEC. You can make arguments for Oklahoma, FSU, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Penn State, Miami, Auburn, Va Tech and several others for top 10 jobs (and certainly all of those listed make the top 20).

You make a fair point about us maybe dropping a few spots, but I don’t see that it’s anywhere near a 10 or more drop to #15. I also think your list is more wrong than right. Miami is nowhere near as good a job as UF. Ditto for Auburn and VT. The Miami job struggles to crack the top 20 and probably doesn’t, IMO. Aub & VT MIGHT land somewhere between 15-20, but nothing special. I agree with you about Texas, Bama & Ohio State being towards the top of the list. USC isn’t a premier job IMO. They would be top 20 but I think would struggle to reach top 10. Ditto for Oklahoma. Clemson’s on a good run (mainly due to Dabo being a great recruiter and a very good coach) but laid dormant for so long that I don’t think they’ve got enough history to be top 5, although they probably are top 10. TAM is definitely not a better job than UF. They weren’t much of anything prior to joining the SEC and while they’ve risen somewhat b/c of their conference affiliation, they fall in the same area as Aub and VT. LSU may be close but I think more of an argument could be made that they are several spots behind us than several spots ahead of us. Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the matter.

 

[BMF]

You make a fair point about us maybe dropping a few spots, but I don’t see that it’s anywhere near a 10 or more drop to #15. I also think your list is more wrong than right. Miami is nowhere near as good a job as UF. Ditto for Auburn and VT. The Miami job struggles to crack the top 20 and probably doesn’t, IMO. Aub & VT MIGHT land somewhere between 15-20, but nothing special. I agree with you about Texas, Bama & Ohio State being towards the top of the list. USC isn’t a premier job IMO. They would be top 20 but I think would struggle to reach top 10. Ditto for Oklahoma. Clemson’s on a good run (mainly due to Dabo being a great recruiter and a very good coach) but laid dormant for so long that I don’t think they’ve got enough history to be top 5, although they probably are top 10. TAM is definitely not a better job than UF. They weren’t much of anything prior to joining the SEC and while they’ve risen somewhat b/c of their conference affiliation, they fall in the same area as Aub and VT. LSU may be close but I think more of an argument could be made that they are several spots behind us than several spots ahead of us. Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the matter.

Well, honestly, ranking "the best jobs" is a pissing contest once you get outside the top 2 or 3. I was just randomly listing top 25 type schools (rankings in the polls, not jobs). Obviously a UF fan is going to say our job is better than "that school". But if you ask an Auburn, Clemson, or VT fan I bet they'd argue until their face is blue (I live in Virginia and I can tell you, VT fans support their team/program as much as we do or more). Once you get to #8-10, many other schools could argue they deserve to be there. It's like recruiting class rankings; I think once you get outside the top 5-8 classes, there isn't much difference in the #11 class vs. the #20 class.

I think we have the potential to be a top 5 job again. But we have a lot of work to do; we need to fix the facilities, which still have a ways to go (for example, Bama's weight room is 48% bigger than ours. How do you fix that easily?); we need get some stability w/ a winning coach; we need to fill the stadium again (too many empty seats to be a "top 5 job", imo); we need to start landing top 5 recruiting classes more often than not; we need to hire good/great assistant coaches; we need to beef up the support staff....

It looks like we now have an AD w/ a pair of balls, so that's a great start. Let's just hope he makes a great hire (and not a lazy hire, like a Mullen or Strong - and not that a "lazy hire" can't win here, but I don't think it would fire up the fan base much).

 

[BMF]

Pressure will be on new Florida coach to salvage what looked to be a top-10 recruiting class

http://gridironnow.com/pressure-new-florida-coach-salvage-top-10-recruiting-class/

There is little doubt Florida will be hurt in recruiting by the sudden departure of Jim McElwain and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the coaching position.

The question is how much.

You don’t need to go back far in Florida football history to remember what a midseason coaching decision can do to a recruiting class. Just think back to the 2014 season.

The Gators were coming off three consecutive top-10 recruiting classes under coach Will Muschamp, but that did not translate to the field and Muschamp was fired November 16, 2014.

As a result, Florida suffered decommitments from the 2015 recruiting class and missed out on a few highly rated recruits who most likely would have gone to Florida had Muschamp still been the coach.

When Muschamp was fired, the Gators had to deal with decommitments from four-star wide receiver Derrick Dillion, who ended up at LSU, and four-star duel-threat quarterback Sheriron Jones, who went to Tennessee (he since has transferred). There also was fallout in that some uncommitted players — five-star defensive end Byron Cowart and four-star linebacker Jeffrey Holland — signed with Auburn after Muschamp became the Tigers’ defensive coordinator less than a month after being fired at UF. Cowart was a bust and has transferred, but Holland is making a big impact this season as an edge rusher.

Jim McElwain did what he could to salvage Florida’s 2015 recruiting class by landing five-star prospects Martez Ivey and CeCe Jefferson along with four-star running back Jordan Scarlett. But Florida finished outside the top-20 because of the coaching turnover.

Florida faces a similar situation here. McElwain had assembled a top-10 recruiting class for the 2018 cycle, headlined by four-star quarterback Matt Corral. It will be up to the new coach to salvage what was almost certain to be a top-10 class. Athletic director Scott Stricklin said Sunday in the news conference officially announcing McElwain’s departure that he wanted to have a new coach in place before the early signing period begins December 20.

There is little doubt the change at coach will have an impact on Florida’s 2018 recruiting class. But new coaches can sign top-10 classes. For example, Auburn’s Gus Malzahn did it in 2013, Georgia’s Kirby Smart and USC’s Clay Helton did it in 2016 and LSU’s Ed Orgeron did so for the 2017 cycle.

 

[GatorInGeorgia]

Well, honestly, ranking "the best jobs" is a pissing contest once you get outside the top 2 or 3. I was just randomly listing top 25 type schools (rankings in the polls, not jobs). Obviously a UF fan is going to say our job is better than "that school". But if you ask an Auburn, Clemson, or VT fan I bet they'd argue until their face is blue (I live in Virginia and I can tell you, VT fans support their team/program as much as we do or more). Once you get to #8-10, many other schools could argue they deserve to be there. It's like recruiting class rankings; I think once you get outside the top 5-8 classes, there isn't much difference in the #11 class vs. the #20 class.

I think we have the potential to be a top 5 job again. But we have a lot of work to do; we need to fix the facilities, which still have a ways to go (for example, Bama's weight room is 48% bigger than ours. How do you fix that easily?); we need get some stability w/ a winning coach; we need to fill the stadium again (too many empty seats to be a "top 5 job", imo); we need to start landing top 5 recruiting classes more often than not; we need to hire good/great assistant coaches; we need to beef up the support staff....

It looks like we now have an AD w/ a pair of balls, so that's a great start. Let's just hope he makes a great hire (and not a lazy hire, like a Mullen or Strong - and not that a "lazy hire" can't win here, but I don't think it would fire up the fan base much).

All fair points.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

The right coach will be bringing in top 5 classes most years. We are Florida not USF.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

But Florida finished outside the top-20 because of the coaching turnover.

No, Butters classes were poor because he is a poor recruiter. Nothing else.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

No, Butters classes were poor because he is a poor recruiter. Nothing else.

 

[BMF]

From the Alabama page on SEC Country. I hope Copeland sticks....not just for him, but getting our name back into Pensacola. Seems Alabama gets their pick of kids from that area of OUR state:

Who do you think will be the next commit? Who are we likely to flip other than Emory Jones?
From @LijahB_3

I think 4-star cornerback Nadab Joseph will be the next to commit. He’s expected to make his decision by the end of the week.

Other than flipping 4-star quarterback Emory Jones away from Ohio State, I think the most likely flip candidates for Alabama are Florida wide receiver commit Jacob Copeland, Miami cornerback commit Jobe, BYU linebacker commit Brandon Kaho, Ohio State defensive commits Brenton Cox and Antwuan Jackson and Kentucky quarterback commit Jarren Williams, if Alabama misses out on Jones.