Florida’s signing day flips talk decisions

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Miami Booker T. Washington quarterback Treon Harris and Homestead South Dade receiver C.J. Worton were both expected to flip to the Gators officially Wednesday, taking away from the suspense typically seen when recruits switch schools on signing day.

Nonetheless, the former Florida State commits and 2013 state champions were important additions for UF. Harris provides some much-needed depth at QB, while Worton will help the Gators move in a new direction offensively under Kurt Roper.

They were also the finishing touches on a consensus top-1o class that earned an A grade from the Sun with a total of 24 members.

Harris and Worton spoke with the Miami Herald after announcing their decisions to attend Florida.

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55 COMMENTS

  1. After finishing the way we did last year & finish with the 6th best class is a hell of a job by our staff! We’re there some kids we wish we could have or should have gotten….always is…but u can’t get all of them! Just be happy to be a Gator & not a hater!

  3. Great incoming class, especially coupled with last year’s group. Addressed needs, bringing in playmakers in backfield and WR, three receiving tight end, six cornerbacks and a full house on each line. A long series of flips for a class that seemed fragile when Cook switched to Florida State. The visible turning point came a day later when Gerald Willis III announced for Florida over LSU. A good deal of success for Champ from recruiting Roper, Summers and Holtzer to signing Worten and Harris.

  8. With the terrible season we had I am pleased with the class. We had players jump ship and this class could have been elite if we won at least nine games but with that being said we honestly could not ha
    ve asked for better..win some games show put some points on the scoreboard and we will get the players we need.

  9. If the Gators get better play from the offensive line and quarterback, the receivers the Gators already have will look a lot better. Would have been nice to get at least one of the names you mentioned, but the Gators needed the help at other positions more.

  10. No no, I hear ya….I mean were would we be now without Kent Taylor, Omari Philips, AC Leonard, Mike Blakely, Jarvis McRoy, JaJuan Story, and Jeff Driskell. And just think of how Chris Dunkley, Gerald Christianson, Johnathan Dowling, Ian Silberman, Lynden Trail, Jordan Haden, Chris Martin, Edwin Herbert, John Brantley, and all the other “can’t miss” “TOP TALENT” paved the way for the success we have now. I’m still upset Nu’Keese Richardson chose UT over UF…I can’t believe we didn’t get him…the world almost came to an end. LOL…”the board”….”highest rated”….you don’t know what you are talking about. But you’re good for a laugh. Thanks for the laughs, we’ve all enjoyed it. Keep it coming, everyone loves a punch line.

  12. Islander, Maybe Driskel can be the answer at tight end, we’ll find out in the fourth game that he probably still can’t play quarterback. I hope the freshman quarterbacks are ready to play by then if Muschamp wants to save his job.

  13. Shariff have you ever said anything positive?! Rudolph will be a stud, IMO Lane will bust, Mckenzie wouldnt qualify, Lauderdale didnt want to put in the work in the classroom (he said it himself that UF wanted him to take 11 credits over the summer and thats why he picked ASU). We dont need those guys here.

  14. same with you Snowprint- always negative! Driskel and DeBose will thrive in the spread offense, he was never recruited nor has the skill set to be a pro style drop back passer. That is my ONLY gripe with CWM is that he tried to groom him into someone he’s not to fit his system instead of tweaking his system to his QB the way Meyer did with Leak

  16. I don’t understand this “depth at quarterback” talk. Have we not learned that when the Gators take 2 quality QBs in the same class, one eventually transfers. We should be much more concerned and dedicated towards getting 1 quality QB each year, or at least every-other-year. Have we already forgotten that last year the Gators were forced to play substandard QBs after Driskel went down because Brissett transferred? Remember Cam Newton? I know he was forced to leave after his legal run-ins, but please, he wasn’t going to stick around to back up Brantley, which was unfortunate because we could have used anyone other than Brantley.

  19. while i have been critical of muschamp, this recruiting class is very good. i wished we had gotten prince and jackson, but given just how awful we were last year, i am impressed with the talent we did get.

    for those who think # of stars a recruiting service gives to an athlete does not matter, rivals had percy harvin, tim tebow, brandon spikes all rated 5 stars. some of you may have heard of these athletes. will hill, carlos dunlap were 5 star, as were matt elam, dominick easily and sharrif floyd. and dante fowler..

    yes, sometimes 5 stars are busts, don’t pan out…but more often than not, they do pan out.

    i am pleased with the class, given all the problems we had last year.

    but i still want us to be in the top 3 best recruiting classes going forward. and that means more 5 star recruits, more 4 star recruits, and fewer 3 star recruits.

  21. Hey Islander, maybe a manners class would help you. Considering where a lot of these kids came from (which I assume you cannot relate to), to cast a judgment like that is really out of line (“Maybe an English class would benefit some of these new recruits before they go to a big university.”) Why even make a comment like that? We should be welcoming them, not throwing backhanded insults their way. God bless them for taking the risk to come here after the year we had last year and knowing Muschamp is on the hot seat. We have a great faculty and I trust them to assist them with their academics.

  22. @john

    I agree with you that recruiting stars do matter. However, class rankings, ehhhhh not so much. UF had a higher average player grade than both FSU and Tennessee. Its not the programs fault that they can only take 25 guys instead of 35 like Tennessee

  23. Islander is right. Why hide the truth? Im all for being positive but simply pointing out the obvious, and then being criticized for it, seems like some people prefer to put their head in the sand. What Islander said wasn’t out of line. It was just an obvious observation after watching a brutal interview.

  24. As for the “not being able to relate” comment I saw, its hard to imagine why some people bring up culture when someone simply makes an obvious point. No matter what culture you are from, you will need to learn to speak better than some of these players do if they want to be successful in the academic environment they are about to enter. Assuming someone else is “not able to relate”, without even knowing them, is extremely ignorant. Which is apparently what was being insinuated about Islander. It’s a little hypocritical in my opinion.

  25. Lol @ pacmans comment. It is true that some fans will never be happy. Someone would be complaining about the coaches using the rankings instead of their own evaluations to decide who their targets were. Some guy would be on here talking about how he knows how to evaluate talent and some other players were better than the top ranked ones. lol.

  27. To Zepgater – you are 100% correct. I will stop short of calling islander a racist. I am sure that he/she is simply ignorant of the ways of other levels of education and/or lower classes of family’s that make much less money on average than many in America. This is just how our country is – diverse. I was in the U.S. Army for over 14 years and I got along with all diverse groups. This world would be a better place if people would simply accept each other as they are. There are still many men and women that try to do that to each others partners. If you can’t except those for who they are – then you will go through life as a miserable and hateful individual. I think our latest class has a lot of potential and it may take a year or two to see the results. The stars next to a players name are as about as useful as the regular season rankings on NCAA men’s basketball teams. There is potential, but we must see how things work themselves out. Good coaching and training will help decide what star status needs to be put next to these players after they are given the chance to play. GO GATORS!!!

  30. @ PACMAN: I’d be upset if we signed the top 24 of the ESPN 300. For one thing, there are 4 RB’s and only 2 Olinemen, Wouldn’t meet our needs. For another, they wouldn’t all fit into our schemes. For a third, teams that have lazy coaches that recruit based on stars rather than players tend to underachieve.

  31. Yeah, Sharrif’s right! We should all give him the respect he’s earned. Like he said, “No QB is going to suddenly become a WR or TE.” Just not going to happen. Sincerely…Jordan Reed, TE for the Washington Redskins former QB turned TE for the University of Florida. Now, I don’t think we should convert Jeff to TE. That’s silly too, but certainly wouldn’t be the strangest thing that has happened at UF.

  32. Sea Hag you know whats up. It’s basic English. These kids don’t appreciate what a premier educational university UF is. Zepgator should respect the posting of islander when in this chatroom. I make it rain confetti. That’s whats up.

  34. @ Sea Hag and Islander, We all know that everyone is not as literate as you, EDUCATION is just LEARNING. They are attending an institution of higher learning, don’t just blame culture ADD the FLORIDA EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM as well. Obviously they were not taught too well, if it’s not up to par in your world. You should suggest to the coaching staff that they should not go after those athletes that can’t speak very well coming out of High school. We should let them all go to FSU, Clemson, Ga. and we only take the students that are well refined and elegant in speech. Do you think Stanford , Notre Dame, Vanderbilt have such players on their roster. They are kids, give them time to grow. GO GATORS!!!!

  36. Thanks for that Ed. Too funny Sean.

    To Sea Hag, I don’t believe I took too far of a jump there because if Islander could relate, do you really think he would have made that statement? I seriously doubt it. He probably would have said something like ” I use to speak like that and I really studied hard and it was tough to rise above my surroundings but I did it and you can too and it has really helped me”. But it was very insulting and backhanded. We recruit to find the best players for the Florida Gators, not the best speakers while offering them a free education.
    So here is my message to all the recruits, which I know some read these messages, “Thank you for choosing the University of Florida. We appreciate the decision you made and no matter what background you have, no matter how well you speak or anything else that may separate you from others or the majority, you are welcome here and appreciated. If you read things on some message boards that offend you, I hope you consider the source and rise above it.”

  40. @ Zepgator

    You are again making assumptions, which is just as bad as anything Islander did. Maybe he grew up in a low income and just didnt speak like that. Not everyone who grows up in a low income area speaks on a 6th grade level.

  42. Sea, I don’t believe that was an appropriate thing to say by Islander – even if it is true. Many times in life you think something but don’t say it, it’s just not considerate. I don’t like political correctness either (everyone should get a trophy, don’t say God in the Pledge, etc.). I hate it! I don’t think that is the issue here. You obviously think it is and the comment was fine – I don’t. I also don’t think I was wrong in my assumptions – you think I was. I don’t think intentionally saying a condescending statement like that is as bad as making an assumption. I feel okay with what I said – but I’m surprised you feel that was a justified appropriate comment by Islander. It was mean and direct. People are different, especially in this case. For that, I sign off.

  43. @ Zepgator

    We will simply have to agree to disagree then. I do not think his comments were mean as much as they were meant to address a growing problem in our country. I think being silent about it is a cop out just like blaming it on culture. We are all different but pronunciation and sentence structure is taught the same whether you go to school in Beverly Hills, Liberty City, or Appalachia. Some people reject these teachings and therefore open themselves up to criticism in my opinion, especially when they are on camera. This should be more about football and less about society anyways so you are welcome to your opinion and Ill leave it at that.

  44. SHARIFF, we brought in 5 WR’s last year, so WR wasn’t as big a impact need this year, and when you look at CJ Worton over the higher-ranked Lane, UF got the better WR because Worton played the same competition and had much better receicing, ypc, and scoring than Lane against the same competition and won his class state title. Then we got Sousa who is really a seriously good receiver and three pass-catching style TE’s.

    We’re not hurting at WR going into 2014.

  48. i want the gators to compete for a national championship, and soon.
    but this class, while good, was not great.
    we lost out on adoree jackson and on prince(who went to maryland).
    both were 5 stars.. we also lost out on outstanding athletes who opted for fsu rather than us.
    if you don’t think # of stars on an athlete matters, remember carlos dunlap, percy harvin, brandon spikes, tim tebow, will hill, dominick easley, sharrif floyd, dante fowler, were all 5 star athletes. you may have heard of a couple of them. we need more 5 star, 4 star, and fewer 3 star athletes.
    bleacherreport analyst for sec programs says the gators failed to get an outstanding class on the offensive side of the ball.

    alabama, fsu, even tennessee, got the better of us on recruiting.
    i want mushchamp to succeed, but we need to be in the top 3 recruiting classes.
    gators have to recruit better, and muschamp must allow his offensive coordinator to implement the system the coordinator thinks best.

  49. Re: Number of stars a recruit has coming in – Value of that metric, if any, is as an indicator of raw talent. How that pans out after 2,3 or 4 years depends mostly upon player development, with a hefty dose of luck in avoiding injury. Just look at what Missouri and Michigan State did in 2013 with a bunch of “3 star” recruits. It takes coaching people, so we will see….

  50. @ John, Most people aknowledge the *Star system for it’s indication of what most “experts”think the value (skill level) an athlete has, keep in mind they are only going to designate so many 5*’s. “Even Tennessee got the better us”, Tennessee had about 32 or more scholly to offer. The proof of the greatness, goodness or lack there of will be determined by the individual athletes that did decide on UF, not by those that decided on Maryland or USC. My personal opinion is that Prince was the digger lost of the two due to need for the class, we have GREAT players at D-backs, wide receives and special teams where Jackson would have contributed. THIS was a VERY GOOD class, I don’t care what RIVALS had to say. GO GATORS!!!!

  52. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1954876-sec-football-hits-and-misses-from-sec-2014-recruiting-classes/page/3

    bleacherreport does not think this was such a great class.

    look, i am a gator, and want us to win natl championship, but recruiting a bunch of 3 star athletes won’t get it done, when alabama, fsu, even tennesee, are out-recruiting us.

    some say the # of stars assigned to a recruit does not matter…5 star, 3 star, same difference.

    really?

    carlos dunlap, percy harvin, brandon spikes, tim tebow, dominick easley, matt elam, sharrif floyd, dante fowler, were all 5 stars.

    it does matter and it matters alot.

    muschamp got only one 5 star this time.

    if we’re ever again going to compete for the natl title, let alone the sec championship, we have to get more 5 star athletes, even more 4 star athletes, and fewer 3 star athletes.

    we got a majority of 3 star athletes this recruiting cycle.

    that is not going to cut it.

  54. Will’s last 3 ESPN Classes have ranked 4-2-6 = #4 Average
    Those 3 classes have had a total of 41 ESPN Top 300’s.

    The #6 2014 class has 3 recruits ranked as 5 stars, by one service
    or another. IF they are so correct, unbiased and professional, then
    why do the classes and the individual ranking vary so much???
    I’d give the 2014 class an A for filling the critical ‘team’ needs.

    While you’re busy touting the 5 Star recruits, keep this in mind.
    There is an equally long list of 5 Star bombs, like Olmstead
    and Sablehause, just to name a couple. While Louis Oliver and
    Chris Doering were both un-recruited walk-ons.

    On a related note: Donnell Harvey was a super athlete 5 star, but
    was also as dumb as a rock and gone after his freshman season.
    Local HS Scottie Wilbekin was a 2-3 star. Jacob Kurtz was just
    watching practice from the stands, then a team manager, and now
    a playing walk-on. While the 4 star PF/C xfer from SCa has never
    made it onto the floor as a Gator yet. Lots of variables…

    Spurrier concentrated on the F&G offense and let his DC and ST’s
    coaches do their jobs. Muschamp needs to do the same thing in
    reverse imoho, IF he wants to be successful and keep his job.
    IF not, I could see Kerwin Bell down the road in a few years…. ;~))

  55. Internal politics in the recruiting services can change their ratings imo. Rivals seems to me to be showing favoritism to FSU, while denigrating the UF classes of the past 2-3 years. Rivals is also
    lazy on keeping upwith the changes in a HS players vital stats, height/weight etc. That is why I’m mostly using ESPN’s rankings, while still monitoring theother services on an infrequent basis.
    =================================
    5. Tn — 35 – 0 *****, 18 ****, 14 ***
    – 11 on the ESPN Top 300 List
    6. UF — 24 – 1*****, 16 ****, 7 ***
    – 13 on the ESPN Top 300 List
    Sorry, but I’d not trade our ‘needs filling’ class for theirs.
    =================================
    Best 2014 Recruits on paper – best rankings, by one
    service or another:
    #2 QB-DT Grier
    #2 OT David Sharpe
    #2 DE Gerald Willis III
    #2 DT Thomas Holley
    #3 QB-DT Harris
    #3 CB Jalen Tabor
    Every one of those has 5 Star potential. However, until they
    play at/for UF, their potential and our hopes is all they have.
    =====================
    The Best 3 Star sleepers in this class imo:
    DE/Ath Taven Bryan (fathers a retired Navy Seal)
    SAK Deiondre Porter QB/WR/RB/CB
    OG Drew Sarvary (#16 OT ESPN + #30 OT Rivals = Politics)
    WR Ryan Sousa (#47 WR ESPN + #64 WR Rivals = BS)
    IMOHO, Sousa has Doering type potential.

    Will’s late add:
    A 5 Star #2 Kicker Jorge Powell (preferred walk-on flip from PSU)
    The 5 Stars are from a Kicker rating service, not ESPN or rivals.