National Signing Day
It’s National Signing Day and, according to which recruiting service you believe, the Gators are somewhere in the top 10 heading into the day.
Rivals sees the Top Ten this way (with point total) –
1 Notre Dame 2,744
2 Alabama 2,689
3 Florida 2,570
4 Oklahoma 2,422
5 Georgia 2,388
6 Miami 2,298
7 Florida State 2,203
8 Ohio State 2,167
9 LSU 2,065
10 Michigan 2,037
Interestingly USC comes in at 11.
Scout.com has the following Top Ten (with number of commits, conference and point total) –
1. Alabama 29 SEC 4585.
2. Notre Dame 22 I-A Ind 4421
3. Georgia 24 SEC 4275
4. Miami (Fl) 29 ACC 4106
5. LSU 25 SEC 3865
6. Florida State 26 ACC 3819
7. UCLA 23 Pac-10 3811
8. Florida 22 SEC 3736.
9. Ohio State 18 Big Ten 3704
10. Oklahoma 21 Big 12 3691
USC falls all the way to 17th in the Scout rankings.
As we have mentioned before, Florida is likely to have a smaller than average class due to fewer scholarships available. (The Gators signed 27 recruits in both 2007 and 2006). Thus far the quality of the Florida class has been stellar, with 4 “5 Star” recruits according to either the Rivals or Scout.
The “big one” remaining is the possible commitment of the nation’s top receiver in Julio Jones of Foley, Alabama. Scout seems to predict he will commit to Alabama, but if UF can land Jones the day will be an unqualified success. He plans on announcing his decision live on ESPNU at 11:30.
We will update then.
UPDATE: (1:36 PM)
As expected Jones signed with Alabama, but Florida did pick up a nice receiver in TJ Lawrence of Lakeland.
The day has been a bit disappointing for the Gators, with de-commitments from Ricky Barnum and Ramon Buchanan. According to Rivals, the overall team winner appears to be between Alabama and Notre Dame, with the Gators "out of the running". However a class anywhere in the top 5 with the existing talent base can only be considered outstanding.
Mentioned in Austin Murphy's book 
4 comments:
I'm ok with losing both of those guys. We are stacked at safety and even though you can never have too many o-line guys, we don't need anyone who doesn't absolutely be here. Good luck to Barnum and Buchanon. Its too bad neither of you will be receiving a ring next year in the O-Dome!
We finished in the top 5 again; Meyer addressed critical roster needs in this year's class and in spite of Barnum and Buchanan bailing we've continued to stockpile talent.
In 2009 we'll need to address bringing in another top-calibre QB to succeed Tebow as he'll be a senior that year; I have no doubt that Meyer will bring in another quality player who's the right fit for our team.
So much for all the hype about Zook the Babbling Idiot being a "master recruiter"; for two years straight Meyer has swept the Zooker under the rug - and I couldn't be happier.
GO GATORS!!!!!!
Meyer and crew have done a great job recruiting, although we didn't end up addressing our need for RBs. We were in the mix for 2 of the top 3 RBs and couldn't land either. We do have Emmanuel Moody coming in, but some added depth would have been nice. Hopefully, some of the D-line guys we brought in will be studs and ready to contribute right away. If we can get some pressure on QBs this year, the holes in our secondary will shrink astronomically.
http://ftftc.wordpress.com
Andrew, we'll have a new RB coach in who hopefully can get more productivity out of the players we currently have on our roster. Meyer may not have focused on that one position this year as there were other areas that needed to be built up, especially on defense, but in 2009 this along with a QB to eventually succeed Tebow will be musts in the smaller class we'll be bringing in due to availability of scholarships - and that being said Meyer and staff will be going after quality players to fill these slots.
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