Recruiting A deep dive into Florida’s recruiting compared to current national powers

Slevin

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You're not going to either. Clewiston's QB was awful. Hell, that entire team was lucky to win the 2 games they did. It is very easy for a guy like Weston, is he doesn't camp, to get overlooked. Now, he may be terrible. But, I can see the reason's for his lower ranking. Mullen loves him.
Yeah Mullen loves the kid and his ability. We are all going to have to wait to see on that one. Seider really wanted him too.

He was once a 4 star but obviously dropped because he chose not to camp.
 

Sec14Gator

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found out this morning than Jalon Jones didn't camp at all his sophomore and junior seasons. He only camped a little bit his senior year. That is the reason for his lower ranking

I've was really high on Jalon Jones after watching his limited throws from his junior year. I recently watched his senior tape and it was concerning from a fundamentals standpoint. He stands flat footed in the pocket A LOT, with his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage and the ball at his belt. It's an odd set up. On a lot of plays, only when he is flushed or just about to throw does he turn his body and shoulders and get the ball near throwing position. Fortunately, these seem very fixable and more habits than ingrained mechanics, compared to Tebow's throwing motion, for instance. But, it seemed he'll need work here for a while before he's ready and I thought there was a chance he'd come in and challenge day one (even with Mullen rarely playing freshman).

I'm still most intrigued to hear how he looks during off-season workouts with just the players and in spring practice. As athletic as he is, and having a larger frame than EJ, I'm hoping he gets the pocket mechanics down quickly to at least push those in front of him.
 

Great White Buffalo

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I know some of you seemed to not be impressed with yesterday’s haul, so I decided to dive a little deeper into the overall roster talent and the 180 flip since Mullen arrived in Gainesville. This is original content, and I typed this on my lagging iPhone so bare with me if there’s grammatical errors (it’s all Siri’s fault)
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Good post, and keep pumping.

th
 

CaribGator

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Nice break down on blue-chip ratios. However, I want to play a bit of devil’s advocate.

Let me start by saying he has completely turned around recruiting at UF and rebuilt our brand within a year. He’s done it through social media and through immense player development on the field. He’s also done it by rebuilding relationships with schools and coaches in Florida.

Now that being said – to your point regarding Clemson comparisons.

#1 - Clemson does not have the recruiting backyard that Florida has. They do not have a pool of players to recruit from like Florida and they do not have the homegrown advantage we do. Dabo - Who the majority of us mocked about a decade ago has been thoroughly impressive with the way he has built the Clemson program.

#2 - They pick the right 5* athletes. They run recruiting the way I would like Florida to run recruiting. Stack up on 4*s all across the board – and focus on athletes with speed. And then go out and hand-pick your five stars. They come into Florida and look for players that fit their system and bring extreme skill and speed. It started with CJ Spiller and hasn’t stopped since.

#3 - They are focusing on 5* QBs. If you want to win at the highest level. Whether that is CFB or the NFL - You need an elite signal caller. They’ve gotten two 5* QBs that have led them to national championships. Our two championship runs were with 5* QBs. I don’t think we get one for 2020 - but I hope we find one for 2021.

#4 - There is so much ego with five star players. I think when you focus only on the ratings and trying to bring those kids in it creates all types of problems in the locker room. We saw this with Florida toward the end. We’re seeing this with Georgia now. The only program that has ever been able to manage that is Bama. Saban is similar to Phil Jackson. Just like Phil Jackson was able to manage all those egos with the LA Lakers, Saban is able to do the same thing with Bama. Saban is not the greatest game day coach but he just has so much talent that it pretty much makes any weakness in that area negligible. No other program has been able to do what Bama has. The weight of it has eventually crushed the program. You need to be very selective with your 5* athletes.

SO - We are on the right track. He has done a great job of refreshing our brand.

BUT - The key to getting back to where we rightfully belong is by winning again in our backyard. Reclaiming the state of Florida. Currently the 2020 class looks really good in that regard. If we win the state of Florida in recruiting and if we find an elite signal caller, we will be in the hunt for championships every single year. Under Meyer we brought in about half of the top 20 state of Florida recruits every year. We need to get back to that.

This deserves special recognition. I hope all of you that read this and didn’t give it a like, go back and give it one now.

Mullens is pushing all the right buttons. With the clowns in free fall, and the cocaines in disarray, we should get the cream of the crop in Florida, blue chipper ratio will be great and as J pointed out, get that 5* QB that will bring home the championships. The 2020’s will be dominated by the Gators.

Go Gators
 

Minister of Information

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I know some of you seemed to not be impressed with yesterday’s haul, so I decided to dive a little deeper into the overall roster talent and the 180 flip since Mullen arrived in Gainesville. This is original content, and I typed this on my lagging iPhone so bare with me if there’s grammatical errors (it’s all Siri’s fault)

Let’s first take a look at Bamas 2019 recruiting class

Alabama:

12 top 100 recruits
12 recruits in the top 100-300 range
3 outside the top 300, only one unranked and that’s a kicker (their kickers always suck so I’m going to say this kid also sucks so suck it Saban)

This is the gold standard in recruiting. We all know this. Nobody has truly been able to 1. Recruit at this level while also 2. Evaluate and take kids that fit your brand/scheme/culture the way they do. Hardly ever do they have a high end bust which means they aren’t just star gazing. In reality, this isn’t a level we will be able to hit or at least consistently hit.

Let’s take a look at Clemson’s class:

Clemson signed 29 players, and still ended up two spots behind Florida’s class of 25 players.

3 top 100 recruits
9 players in the 100-300 range
17 kids in the 300-1000 range. Quite a lot actually are below the top 500.

This is kind of an outlier class for Clemon. Clearly not their best. Let’s look at the class that’s going to lead them to another title, the ‘18 class:

5 5 stars
7 top 100 recruits (this includes the 5 stars)
5 in the 100-300 range
5 in the 300-900 range

This is the group that success for Clemson will be based on over the next 2-3 years. This class already won a national title led by Ross and Lawrence. Sandwiching an amazing class like this with classes like 2019 will be what Florida needs to do to contend for national titles on a yearly basis.

I’m not even going to get into Georgias recruiting because it’s evident to me Kirby star gazes with little evaluation, hoping to override his mediocre coaching with an abundance of high level talent. He’s recruited quite a few guys that don’t fit their style offensively, a mish mash of players that realize this once they get to campus hence the high level of transfers. And on top of that they haven’t won anything.

Butters destroyed Florida’s talent and depth by at one point having 20 more 3 stars than we did 4 and 5 stars combined. With Mullen having 1 1/2 classes, we are officially over the 50% blue chip ratio for our roster at a healthy 54%.

Now, let’s take a look at Florida’s 2019 class

9th overall (8th on rivals)
5 top 100 recruits (I count Diwun Black because he’s still 45th overall on 247, was a borderline 5 star who would be a consensus five star if he didn’t quit for a year. Not going to punish us for something that doesn’t include suspension or injury.)
8 players in the 100-300 range
12 players from 300-800

blue chip ratio is the key here and a solid mix of top 100 and guys in the 100-300 range.

Florida’s 2019 class finished with a blue chip ratio of 68% on the composite. Pushing the programs blue chip percentage above .500 for the first time since at least 2015 (probably even earlier than that. The team composite doesn’t go further back).

When Mullen first arrived, Florida had 51 3 star recruits and only 28 blue chippers. I can’t stress how impressive this recruiting turn around has been, because I know some see the lack of 5 stars and immediately rage quit on caring about the depth of the overall turn around

Mullens two year haul has produced 9 top 100 players, 15 players in the 100-300 range, and only 15 3 stars. Compared to Clemson’s 10 top 100 recruits, 14 in the 100-300 range, and 20 3 stars.

A two year average and we have signed the exact same amount of top 300 players as Clemson, and 1 less top 100 player. They’ve signed 6 5 stars though. And that’ll be key to pay attention to down the line.

I think in 2020 we have a real shot to sign 3-4 five stars and even a high blue chip percentage than we did in 2019. Overall, recruiting has transformed the talent level of Florida ten fold since Mullens arrival and its only going to get better from here.

Add on: developing and coaching is obviously incredibly important as well, and I believe we have one of the best coaches in college football. The continued roster flip and a coach who develops his offensive talent with the best of them, constantly challenging the brightest defensive minds in football, will yield us multiple titles in the short future.

From your lips to God's ears.
 

Minister of Information

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Our problem is the 2 schools recruiting at a crazy level now are the same 2 we have to overcome to start winning SEC Championships again. It will be hard to beat Georgia consistently to win the East most years until that gap is lessened some with top 5 type classes.

Negative ghostrider. UGA is our biitch and they know it. Next year we start the streak. The streak that finally flips the series.
 

Swamp Donkey

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You're not going to either. Clewiston's QB was awful. Hell, that entire team was lucky to win the 2 games they did. It is very easy for a guy like Weston, is he doesn't camp, to get overlooked. Now, he may be terrible. But, I can see the reason's for his lower ranking. Mullen loves him.
The next Latroy Pittman.

But lets get rill... it doesnt much matter who is out there getting the 2-4 touches a game at WR.
 
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JDW

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As always Slevin delivers...very good in depth analysis appreciate the info
 

SaltGator

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Slevin, nice post and all your posts in the recruiting thread have been great as well. Thank you!
 

Frozen Gator

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Our problem is the 2 schools recruiting at a crazy level now are the same 2 we have to overcome to start winning SEC Championships again. It will be hard to beat Georgia consistently to win the East most years until that gap is lessened some with top 5 type classes.
When has it ever been easy in the SEC. Usually there are more than two teams to compete with. Auburn, aTm, LSU are in the mix too. We have climbed the mountain twice and overcome Bama. We have the school, the State and the coach to do it again. Kirby is starstruck as well as a bad game manager. He's blown it twice, he'll do it again.
 

UFHealthGator

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Yeah Mullen loves the kid and his ability. We are all going to have to wait to see on that one. Seider really wanted him too.

He was once a 4 star but obviously dropped because he chose not to camp.

Didn't Doering also claim he would be a 5 star if he camped? Too many people seem to think he was underrated, not just one. Don't care for the whole "diamonds in the rough" kinda recruits, but this one maybe an exception. Lets see.
 

Ancient Reptile

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Our problem is the 2 schools recruiting at a crazy level now are the same 2 we have to overcome to start winning SEC Championships again. It will be hard to beat Georgia consistently to win the East most years until that gap is lessened some with top 5 type classes.
Nah, we will beat the dwags next year if we get our O-LINE squared away.
 

Minister of Information

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I hope you are right but its not going to be easy to do regularly until we are recruiting top 5 level.

UGA, where talent goes to die. We don't have to surpass them on paper, we just need to be able to compete and they're in trouble. Something is wrong with them, like an inherent character defect. They are natural born losers, just like Fast Eddie Felson before he wised up.
 

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