Recruiting 2019 Early Signing Day Thread 12/19

maheo30 said:

Very rarely does a guy sign with a program he decommitted from. I can't think of a guy in regards to Florida. Did Matt Elam decommit and then sign with us?

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Pretty sure Chauncey Gardner did.

G8RNGA said:

There’s always one smart a$$.

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... a 5* smart ass. I've studied his background

Swamp Donkey said:

Is that you, Butters?

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Hell I had to like that one.

Sec14Gator said:

Pretty sure Chauncey Gardner did.

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Trey Sanders with Bama

Swamp Donkey said:

There were recruiting magazines and rankings back then too, but they just weren't well known. Beano Cook had one, and basically made every ND recruit a blue chip.

Mac Brown, Bob Davie, and Ray Goof were famous for their February Championships.

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I read them. And then all the pre-season mags.
Kindler, gentler days. [ignorance is bliss]

Swamp Donkey said:

I though he really said 3 or 4 Heismans. Maybe it was 2 or 3.

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Well it was Beano, so you may be right.

jdh5484 said:

I read them. And then all the pre-season mags.
Kindler, gentler days. [ignorance is bliss]

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Bob Davie is the HC at UNM (out here where the deer and antelope play; but not football). He signed 16 on ESD, 8 JUCO and not 3,4 or 5 star recruits. Now that's a class that will reap dividends in the future.

Sec14Gator said:

Wow is right. The evidence that recruiting stars and rankings is highly important and not “stupid sh&t” is pretty irrefutable, but every once in a while we still get posts like yours. My analogies were to things that are now obvious, despite historically not being so (not comparing import). You helped solidify my point by still arguing against something now obvious and very well established.

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Yup, not sure how Spurrier won all those SEC Championships and a National Championship without the internet and knowing how to find the four and five star kids. Or how anyone survived in college football and won championships before rankings of kids came out.

Another reason why Seider was so important...muck connections

Swamp Donkey said:

Spurrier signed blue chip kids all day long.

I don't know where this fantasy came from that SOS didn't land talented kids. Some of you are insane.

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Well, how in the world was he able to do that without Rivals, 247Sports, and knowing which kids had more than 3 stars at the position he was looking for? :mindblown:

It really is. It truly is like something out of the old south.

Swamp Donkey said:

Spurrier signed blue chip kids all day long.

I don't know where this fantasy came from that SOS didn't land talented kids. Some of you are insane. We sent recruits to Army AA game, had most of our kids on the HS allstar game they used to have.

What he did do was stayed in state mostly. He liked the kids who played against the best competition. We had several flops from the out of state "#1 QB in the nation" types (Sabelhaus and Olmstead, a WR named Shipp).

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Yep. Take for example the 92 class that won 4 straight SEC championships and a national championship.

Blogger of Intent: Class of 1992: The Foundation for a National Championship

Class of 1992: The Foundation for a National Championship

This is the third installment in our running anthology of posts looking back at past recruiting classes for the Florida Gators. Today's entry highlights the Class of 1992.

After falling behind the Seminoles and the Hurricanes in the recruiting wars, the Gators made a loud statement when Steve Spurrier announced a 25-man signing class on Feb. 6, 1992. A group that was considered the consensus-No. 1 group in the country included the following:

David Barnard, Line (6-3, 280), Miami (Miami Senior)
Jim Bates, Jr., Back (6-2, 215), Sevierville, Tenn. (Sevier County)
Johnie Church, Back (6-3, 218), Fort Myers (Cypress Lake)
Cameron Davis, Line (6-4, 230), Lauderhill (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Tony Davis, Back (5-11, 190), Chipley
Dexter Daniels, Back (6-2, 225), Valdosta, Ga. (Valdosta)
Bart Edmiston, Kicker (5-10, 170), Pensacola (Washington)
Jerome Evans, Back (6-2, 222), Arcadia (DeSoto County)
McDonald Ferguson, Line, (6-2, 245), Miami (North Miami)
Reggie Green, Line (6-7, 297), Bradenton (Southeast)
Demetric Jackson, Back (6-1, 180), Lake City (Columbia)
Eric Kresser, Quarterback (6-3, 200), Palm Beach Gardens
Antone Lott, Back, (5-10, 180), Jacksonville (Raines)
Jeff Mitchell, Line (6-4, 240), Clearwater (Countryside)
Dwayne Mobley, Back (6-0, 215), Brooksville (Hernando)
Shawn Nunn, Back (6-3, 230), Ocala (Vanguard)
Jason Odom, Line (6-6, 283), Bartow
Nick Quintana, Line (6-4, 290), Miami (Senior)
Shea Showers, Back (5-11, 170), Alachua (Santa Fe)
Kenny Times, Back (6-1, 218), Winter Park (Lake Howell)
Andre Washington, Back (6-1, 215), Jacksonville (Ribault/Georgia/Florida C.C.)
Shawn Wilson, Back (6-1, 180), Virginia Beach (Bayside)
Lawrence Wright, Back (6-2, 195), Miami (North Miami/Valley Forge)
Danny Wuerffel, Quarterback (6-3, 193), Fort Walton Beach
Donnie Young, Line (6-3, 260), Venice

– Allen Wallace declared this group the top-ranked recruiting class in the country, while Max Emfinger named the Gators “co-champions” with LSU.

– Dexter Daniels earned 1991 USA Today Defensive Player of the Year honors. To date, Daniels remains the only player to win that award and sign with Florida.

– 22 of the 25 members of this signing class were from inside the state of Florida (88%)

– Times did not qualify in 1992 and had to defer his enrollment to the following year.

– Florida closed out with 14 of the state's consensus top-50 recruits, while FSU came in a close second with 13. Miami landed eight. It was a dominant year inside the state borders for the Big Three. Clemson and Michigan were the only out-of-state programs to land more than one top-50 prospect from Florida, but both were only able to grab two.

Biggest Hits: Making a list of who didn't pan out in this class is considerably easier. Wuerffel was the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner. Bates, Daniels, Green, Lott, Odom, Wright and Young all picked up All-SEC honors during their stay in Gainesville as well. In total, this class produced a total of six NFL Draft picks.

It should be noted that Reggie Green had a fine career in Gainesville, despite dealing with knee issues that prevented him from a likely 10-year career at the pro level.

Biggest Misses: Quintana flunked out of UF after the fall semester of '92, and did not return to the squad. A highly-decorated player coming in, a knee injury kept Wilson from contributing at UF.

Andre Washington, who had previously pulled an eleventh-hour switcheroo in 1990 and elected to sign with Georgia instead to Florida, ended up signing with UF as a part of the 1992 class. He left Georgia after his freshman season and transferred to Florida Community College in Jacksonville. However, the long-awaited debut of Washington never took place at UF, as he failed to earn his A.A. Degree and was not able to enroll at Florida.

Tony Davis was never able to make a significant presence in the offensive backfield. After threatening to leave midway through his freshman season, he would eventually be expelled from school in the fall of 1994.

The ones who got away: Even with as good as Florida's offensive line haul was in 1992, the Gators nearly made it that-much-better with the presence of future NFL Hall-of-Famer Jonathan Ogden. The 6-foot-8, 340-pound behemoth from St. Albans School in Washington D.C. was also a highly-regarded shot-putter at the prep level. His short list included the Gators and Notre Dame, but Ogden eventually signed with UCLA.

Aside from that one, there weren't many misses. Although Dexter Daniels had a solid career in Gainesville, he was actually overshadowed in the long run by prep rival Randall Godfrey, who played at Lowndes High School in Valdosta and ended up at Georgia. Godfrey went on to play 12 years in the NFL.

Florida State signed a very good class as well. Although not quite on the level of Florida's, it was rated as a consensus top-five group, led by WR/KR Tamerick Vanover and OL Marcus Long, both named first team All-America by the USA Today. QB Danny Kannell, OL Todd Fordham, P Sean Liss, LB Todd Rebol, DT Connell Spain as well as the Crockett brothers – FB Zack and LB Henri – were major contributors for the 'Noles as well.

SEC recruiting co-champ LSU's crop included highly-regarded TE David LaFleur and WR Eddie Kennison, a pair of first-round NFL draft picks. Two-time All-SEC DE Gabe Northern was also a part of the 1992 class for the Tigers. Otherwise, it was a mostly forgettable group.

Tom Lemming, speaking on National Signing Day in 1992, would do an excellent job looking into the crystal ball many years into the future with this quote:

The SEC is so far ahead of everybody else in the nation,” Lemming said at the time. “It's phenomenal.”

Wise words, to be sure.

Swamp Donkey said:

Cool story. He still sits out a year. Walkon next year after Twiggy Blackman gets destroyed?

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He’s gonna play the racism card over that baseball player calling him the N word and get a free transfer...