- Sep 4, 2014
- 21,140
- 78,761
This was one of the more exciting NSDs in a while but let’s give all the info. Here are the recruits per year according to Rivals. I’ll break it down by 5,4, and 3 stars. 2022 is obviously still unfinished.
2022 Napier 1,4,4
2021 Mullen 1,11,9
2020 Mullen 2,15,7
2019 Mullen 1,14,10
2018 Mullen 0,14,4 (TRANSITION)
2017 Mac 0,15,7
2016 Mac 1,9,13
2015 Mac 2,5,11 (TRANSITION)
2014 Muschamp 1,12,11
2013 Muschamp 2,14,12
Everybody wants to bang Mullen on recruiting (his effort over the last 1.5 years has been garbage) but it wasn’t bad. Better than anybody over the last decade.
Mac’s classes were criminal.
Chump got a crap ton of 3*s.
The problem with Mullen is that, like basically every other aspect of the job, he could've been great if he'd cared. Not taking anything away from Napier's incredible start, but if yesterday taught us anything it's that UF still has brand power. As great as he is, he isn't doing that at Arkansas or Vtech in 4 days. Napier gets what Mullen and JM never did. Combine that brand with hard work, and the results will be amazing. They, instead, felt that they'd arrived and didn't have to put in the effort because "this is Florida". That gets you the occasional 4-5* just out of location. So it was all about the low-hanging fruit, like the 5* DE from georgia in 2016 who didn't even get a sniff from Richt, or kids that were going to UF regardless like CeCe Jefferson.
And yes, WM is constantly overblown as a recruiter. DBs and Bucks as far as the eye can see and a lot of fluff.