About That Signing Class

I’m going to leave the particulars about individual players and positions to Scully, but if any of the Gator faithful are alarmed about the relative “poor” rating of the newest signing class at 10th per Rivals I have one word – relax.

At Florida we have an embarrassment of riches in everything lately (2 BCS titles in 3 years being among the most), and to even consider a 10th ranking in recruiting sub-par is somewhat absurd. However the 2009 Gator signing class is, by many metrics, the nation’s best.

For pure quality of talent we are number one according to the same Rival’s service that ranks us 10th. The top ten schools by average “star” rating per Rivals are -

1 Florida 3.94
2 USC 3.89
3 Texas 3.85
4 Georgia 3.83
5 Alabama 3.81
6 LSU 3.79
7 Ohio State 3.76
8 Florida State 3.62
9 Miami 3.6
10 Michigan 3.59

Once again the SEC pulls in a solid crop of top talent, with 4 of the top 10 schools coming from the conference. Likewise the state of Florida’s “Big 3” schools continue to haul in talent. Notably, when organized by average “star” rating 10 of the 12 SEC schools are in Rival’s top 25.

And while Alabama pulled in the first ranking by Rivals normal rating method, they did so mostly of the strength of numbers with a class that had 27 total commitments. Florida, who it must be noted needed very few signees (with 22 deep returning on defense), had only 16 commitments in a class that still ranked 10th, or 11 players fewer than the Tide.. In fact when you look at sheer numbers the fact Florida was ranked 10th overall is amazing, as Florida had the fewest recruits of any school ranked in the top 36.

When you consider that a very good player has a “4 star” ranking in Rivals the fact that Florida averaged 4 stars is pretty remarkable.

We didn’t need many players, but the ones we did sign are top quality talent. Our opponents shouldn’t take much comfort in the 10th overall ranking.