It’s Tennessee week, which is always an important time for UF football recruiting.
Every other year it produces one of Florida’s biggest recruiting weekends.
This season is an away game for the Gators, but it’s probably more significant from a recruiting standpoint than last year’s matchup at home.
Coming off the disappointing showing and lopsided loss at Alabama, Florida’s performance against the Vols has to be noticeably better (and good enough to win) for prospects to feel confident about where Muschamp has this program headed.
If UF plays poorly and loses again, the turnout by recruits for the LSU game might not be so great.
On to the questions!
How long until we see some commitments? — @vinnyg18
It’s been a while since Florida added a new member to its recruiting class. After gaining five verbal commitments during the summer in less than a month, the Gators haven’t landed a pledge in almost two months.
That being said, they haven’t missed on any recruits other than wide receiver George Campbell, who chose Florida State over UF and LSU on Sept. 5.
At this point in the 2015 cycle, most uncommitted prospects — especially the bigger names — will likely take their recruitments through the fall and decide after their senior seasons, any time from December until signing day on Feb. 4.
That time period is the heat of recruiting season, so the Gators still have a couple of months to impress kids with wins and gain some momentum.
If they aren’t picking up commitments before, during and/or after the All-American games in early January, that’s when Florida fans should start to worry.
With Will Muschamp’s seat getting hotter and hotter, what do you see the effect being on the overall recruiting class this year? — @Ayers2404
By the end of this season, Muschamp’s job security should be pretty black and white for recruits to see. The Gators will either have a good season and Muschamp gets off the hot seat, or Florida’s record will teeter at .500 throughout the year and Muschamp won’t survive 2014.
If Muschamp’s team does what it must for him to keep his job (team is more competitive, improves offensively and posts record of 7-4 or better, in my opinion), those requirements should be enough to alleviate the concerns from recruits about the coaching stability at UF.
If those things don’t happen and Muschamp loses his job, that will no doubt have an impact on recruiting. As much as fans would like for prospects to commit to schools instead of coaches, that just doesn’t happen like it should. Muschamp has said several times that recruiting is all about relationships, and some Florida commits and targets may lose interest in the school if Muschamp gets fired.
However, there’s also the possibility that a new coach could come in, bring excitement to the program and make a quick impression on recruits. Again, it’s all about relationships. Florida’s 2015 class would definitely take a hit without Muschamp as the head coach, but it could be salvaged with a home-run hire.
Has the LB board changed? How do we look there? — Iv0_Solis
There hasn’t been much shifting yet, but the potential for change is there.
As I wrote last week, Florida linebacker commits Jerome Baker and Adonis Thomas are planning to take visits (like they always have), and both still seem to be considering their No. 2 schools, Ohio State and Alabama, respectively. However, it would likely take a coaching change at UF for them to flip.
Te’Von Coney, Jeff Holland and Roquan Smith remain the top three targets left on the board, and all of them attended Friday Night Lights. Notre Dame appears to have a strong shot at Coney after his official visit to South Bend last month. The Gators are still in the driver’s seat for Holland, while they have a tough battle ahead of them with Georgia for Smith.
If Baker or Thomas end up elsewhere and Florida misses on one or more of its targets, another name to watch out for is Derrick Graham of Wauchula Hardee.
I was told in the summer that the coaches were very high on him, and he received an offer from Muschamp the day after camping at UF on June 9. He plans to officially visit Florida next weekend for the LSU game.
Do the Gators have a shot with Damien Harris? — DevinLamarr
They do, but it’s a slim one.
The five-star running back from Berea (Ky.) Madison Southern visited Florida on March 20 and plans to return for an official, but it will be difficult for UF to beat out Alabama and in-state Kentucky.
The Gators have their sights set on Clemson commit Ray-Ray McCloud III, Miami commit Dexter Williams and North Carolina running backs Nyheim Hines and Bryce Love. They might also make a run at former UM pledge Jordan Cronkrite, who attended Florida’s game against Kentucky.
I’ve noticed that UF has a lot of 3-star commits right now in spite of most of them having elite offer lists. Any chance of them moving up the rankings? — Jake
Yes, but they’ll have to perform this year as seniors.
Rivals is the only website that doesn’t have athlete Derrick Dillon as a four-star prospect. That should change in the near future.
Offensive linemen George Brown and Tyler Jordan are rated by most sites as three-star recruits but have one or two four-star ratings. You could possibly see them earn four-stars on every site.
I also think quarterback Sheriron Jones and linebacker Adonis Thomas, both consensus four-star prospects, will move up in overall rankings if they continue to play as well as they have been.
That’s all for this week! Be sure to leave your questions for the next mailbag in the comment section below.
Last year, 1/2 (12) of the 24 recruits didn’t commit until after the season was over, including 8 of the Nation leading 9 flips. Muschamp has about 1/2 of the 2015 class (11) already, so things are going along about like usual. ESPN 20. UF – 11 — 0 – 7 – 4 – 0 — 6 ESPN Top 300’s, with plenty of time/room left for the later committing top quality 4-5 stars, so no-worries mates. (Rivals recruit ranking has turned into junk-male imo)
IF it were true that the W/L record is such a big deal, then how/why did Will do so well after the 4-8 season ended last year? Half (12) of the class came Dec-Feb, 8 of the 9 Nation leading flips, and 6 of the (imo) best recruits.
Consider; with UF UNRANKED and playing 6 Top 25 teams, 5 of those in the Top 15, what is a ‘reasonable’ W/L record according to the National Pollsters? (5-6 at best) So if they win 6 or more games, then UF will have exceeded the National expectations for 2014. Of course, what Gator fan is ever going to be ‘reasonable’ about the W/L record??? ;~))
I sense a lot of fans would rather Muschamp be fired no matter what than him turn this around and they are idiots. He is a heck of a recruiter and just needs to TOTALLY let go of the offense as does the Ol Ball Coach does with the defense.
Ken, if things turn around, do you honestly think he will let go of the offense??? He is only going to dig deeper because he thinks that he is the grease on the wheel, not the rust. His MICRO MANAGEMENT has us right where we are today. Pease may or may not have been as bad as our program (offense) appeared but he was the scape goat. Now enter an OFFENSIVE genius (so they say) in Roper – Have we seen ANY change in the way we play Offense? It’s better LINE play but that credit SHOULD go to SUMMER, which I hear no one giving him credit for (no sacks against BAMA). If this is the best Roper has then we are in real trouble. I believe Champ wants to run, run, run and occasionally allow some passing by Roper. because he is affraid of the exposure of JD. This is just my uneducated opinion, nothing else. GOGATORS!!!!
you mentioned, worst case scenario if will is gone and they brought in a “home run hire”….could you please speculate who you think would fill that bill??
how bout Gus Mulzan…I heard auburn wasn’t a great city to live in…
Last year’s recruiting class came about because the Gators had an 11 win season before and the injuries that occred were used as an excuse why the Gators were a bad team, along with a poor offensive scheme. This year has seen the hiring of a new offensive coordinator and a healthy Gator team. If Florida loses to Tennessee, the possibility of only winning four games again is higher than winning even seven. The recruits presently committed will be hard to hold on to and getting new ones that are highly ranked will be difficult. The bet hope at salvaging a class if Muschamp is fired is if the new coach brings some players with him. I don’t see howw Muschamp survives losing to Tennessee, regardless of when the ax actually falls.
I saw no mention of Javarious Davis, someone that was pledged to North Carolina but is now ripe for the taking. I thought the reason he changed hi mind was to say yes to UF. Is he hesitating too?
Recruits are going to wait to see how the rest of the year plays out. Many stayed the course last year because of Roper coming on and were misled to believe we were going to have a high flying and exciting offense. It could still happen if Will would finally decide to let Roper do what he was hired to do.
I think UF does have an exciting offense.
Creek Gator I never said he will turn the O over to Roper; just that he needs to. His problem is he appears to want to be Saban and he is not.
I believe the offense is in Roper’s hands. It looks like the previous versions because our guys were recruited and molded for the now regrettable “downhill running game” style of offense Muschamp extolled. So Roper has guys who can run hard between the tackles. As soon as Jake McGee went down the spread lost it’s wings with only ONE top level receiver in the O, and Alabama just covered him up. Even so, our guys have only been in a spread three games. It’s drastically different for them. They’re very likely going to improve and maybe a lot. Not sure anything but experience can really fix our secondary but I won’t be surprised to see this Gator team put things together a bit on offense.
Several of the “experts” have reviewed our offense and found that it is, indeed, Roper’s offense. They said that the offense is exactly what Roper ran at Duke, with the exception of the tempo. The tempo was faster at Duke, but, the players had several years in his system. Now, I did have an issue with Roper saying that he was told to run the ball, after a certain point in the Bamer game. I believe that had more to do with Jeff’s performance than anything.
I’m amazed at the excuses made for why the offense is still bad. Now a guy, who never wasn’t even a starter and never caught a pass at UF, Jake McGee, is listed as an integral piece of the offense since he was injured. Why was he important since he was just a backup and had not done anything on the field at Florida? The same claptrap was said about Andre Debose when he was injured last year. The only reason for such none unfounded speculation can only be that some of you actually believe the nonsense the coaches and sychophants of the program, like Dooley and Andreu, tell you in the preseason. I think we can see now that Andre Debose is still a bad receiver and his absence last year was meaningless. Now it’s said that the guys were recruited for a “downhill running game” and you can’t expect them to adapt. I thought the excitement was about a quarterback who was finally going to shine because of the spread? It’s not the system or the players being recruited for this or that. Even Kurt Roper said, if any of you had been listening, that it doesn’t matter what system is used, a good player will perform well, regardless. It’s time to quit making excuse for the players. It’s noyt the coaches or the system that are the reason for receivers not being able to catch, defensive backs being unable to cover, or a quarterback being unable to be accurate. The plain and simple fact is that Florida is not filled with talented player. I don’t care what they did in high school, how many ‘stars’ they have, or their nicknames like “wrecking ball” or “freakazoid.” Sooner or later it comes down to the player, we’ll see tomorrow if Florida has any good ones. Let’s see some deeds on Saturday, enough with the words.
It has been said many, many times. You recruit and coach up players to play and excel in whatever system you run. Apparaently there is a disconnect with the current head coach. He is clueless on offense and now his defense looks horrid. We have heard “we will fix it” multiple times. Maybe Foley needs to admit his mistake and fix it…….
Aux2-I too have reservatons about the ofense but I’m willing to give it one more week to see if this bye week made any difference at all. If they come out and show some semblance of an offense-some semblance of a once proud championship caliber team-some sense of pride-then I’ll look to bigger and better things in the future. But if they come out, stink it up, have bad defense, and look completely lost as they did against Bama then the season will be a disaster. I’m truly TRULY hoping that the offense comes up with some jet sweeps, tight end crossing routes, and an occasional reverse for good measure. It seems that the offense is limiting itself based on Driskel’s non ability to throw the ball. Run him then!!! He seems scared to run and when he does run he doesn’t run with any conviction. Let’s get at it this weekend guys-we’re ALL puling for you!! GO GATORS!!!
A lot of our commentators on these various boards, perhaps a majority who post comments, long ago wrote off the coach, the quarterback and an entire of guys who work as hard as any other teams, who came to UF with high commitment and zeal. What I’ve noticed is that the same seven or eight say the same things over and over. Nothing new, no thoughtful analysis, just their outpouring of venom. It’s more about what’s inside them than about Muschamp, Driskel and these a Gators. They remind me of a lynching party in old tv westerns. They would prefer this team fail so Muschamp and the QB can suffer in Gator infamy than see these guys find success. Not me. I’m Gator all the way and I never stop hoping.
I just can’t agree that Muschamp is an “excellent” recruiter. He is not. The reason the Gators are probably the 11th or 12th best team in the SEC this year is that we quite literally have the 11th or 12th best talent. Even those wearing Orange and Blue glasses can see the Gators just don’t pass an eye test – we look average. His supposed strength is defense and we are in fact rated 13th in the SEC in Total Defense. An admitted weakness, the offense has no stars statistically and features a 4th year Junior QB who is 107th in the country in Passing Efficiency. I love the Gators and I love every single player that has signed on to be a Gator, but the talent is either not there in the first place or is being so poorly coached it’s not developed.
Muschamp is an average recruiter and is learning to be a good head coach (hope he will). Any coach of Florida big three can have a good recruiting class. Tradition + location alone can do that. If he is a great recruiter, then he must be a real bad coach. Don’t let the injury excuse keep fooling you. Georgia Southern had the same, if not worth, injury issue last year.
So in summary:
Muschamp can’t recruit or coach. He’s a clueless micro-manager that want’s to be Saban but his coaching toolbox is mostly empty.
Everyone from Elite 11 Dilfer to the recruiting services, to Roper are all clueless idiots to have judged Driskel a Top QB-DT. He is a total loss/bust, but at least he graduated last Spring so he can move on now and forget about ever being a part of UF/football.
TE Jake McGee was Va’s leading receiver, but that was just a sham to get him into UF grad school.
WR/KR Debose was never been repeatedly injured, he’s just bad, and he can’t return kicks either.
UF has been forced to already use 3 different OL’s in it’s first 3 games, but there have been no injuries.
Everybody is healthy and will be ready to go for the Tenn game, except for those 3 Fr that are out for the season of course, and the WR with the broken hand who might be back eventually. Oh yeah, and the DT with the blown knee, and, and, oh never mind…
Fire Foley – Fire Muschamp and his entire coaching staff – Rescind all of the loser player’s ships – And most importantly, find some loyal/positive Gator fans to fill the stadium on game days. That Is All…..
PS – Oh yeah, and forget about recruiting altogether, because what a player does in HS it totally irrelevant.
You can just go randomly through the general student body population and pick out 100 to make up the new & improved Gator football team….
da-muddler – I love your post! “So in summary” here’s what I agree with:
1.) “Muschamp can’t recruit or coach. He’s a clueless micro-manager that wants to be Saban, but his coaching toolbox is mostly empty” – clueless is harsh – he knows defense, but his record is his record and it’s not as good as Zooker who we ran off. To Be fair – discipline seems to be a strong suit.
2.) “Everyone from Elite 11 Dilfer to the recruiting services to Roper are all clueless idiots to have judged Driskel a Top QB-DT. He is a total loss/bust, but at least he graduated last Spring so he can move on now and forget about ever being a part of UF/football” – Jeff was fairly rated coming out of H.S., but for whatever reason he just isn’t producing anything remotely approaching good QB play. He is a nice, smart kid from a good family who has earned a degree from UF – all terrific positives and a son to be proud of – just not an SEC level QB. Again, numbers don’t lie and 107th out of 123 is not very good.
3.) “TE Jake McGee was Va.’s leading receiver, but that was just a sham to get him into UF grad school” – you are just being sarcastic here – we all wanted Jake to succeed and he unfortunately had a season ending injury.
4.) “WR/KR Debose was never been repeatedly injured, he’s just bad, and he can’t return kicks either” – Andre has been hurt a lot, but…he hasn’t done much in 6 years of being a Gator – he’s a great kick returner, but an average WR. Another great kid from all reports too! Happy he’s a Gator!
5.) “UF has been forced to already use 3 different OL’s in it’s first 3 games, but there have been no injuries” – of course there are injuries – it’s part of football. Actually the OL deserves a lot of praise and a huge round of applause for Mike Summers who’s done a great job. Incidentally, UT’s OL this year has 5 new starters and somehow they are managing.
6.) “Everybody is healthy and will be ready to go for the Tenn game, except for those 3 Fr. that are out for the season of course, and the WR with the broken hand who might be back eventually. Oh yeah, and the DT with the blown knee, and, and, oh never mind…” – everybody has injuries – it’s not an excuse. At least not this year.
7.) “Fire Foley – Fire Muschamp and his entire coaching staff – Rescind all of the loser player’s ships – And most importantly, find some loyal/positive Gator fans to fill the stadium on game days. That Is All…..” – Foley is the best AD in the country – not firing him. Will will make an excellent coach at a mid-major – he should be let go following another year of mediocrity – you do know we are paying him in excess of $3M to coach us right? No other coaches need to be replaced and of course you were kidding – no kids need to lose scholarships. As for the fans – I gave up my season tickets a couple of years ago – it’s truly not worth the cost and time and effort to watch this bad of a product so now I watch the Gators on TV – and when enough people do that, the school loses money and that will seal Will’s fate. Empty seats are not a job saver.
8.) “PS – Oh yeah, and forget about recruiting altogether, because what a player does in HS it totally irrelevant. You can just go randomly through the general student body population and pick out 100 to make up the new & improved Gator football team…” – nope, recruiting is the lifeblood of the program. Ask yourself a question – if you were a H.S. stud and you watched that Alabama game would there be any question which school, which program you wanted to be part of? To make matters worse, the dreaded Noles are on a roll – another easy call if you’re just looking at the state of the football programs – news flash – they’re way better and were an easy call last year for the kids that ending up flipping to FSU.
We need a new direction for the Gators and it can’t come soon enough for me. A loss this weekend to the Vols will leave Will’s legacy as he kept the Kentucky streak alive and we didn’t have many off field issues. Surely we can do better than this at Florida which was recently voted the #1 job in college football.
Realistically, based on performances so far, a Florida appears no better than last year. Off a miserable manhandling by Alabama, our Gators have their backs to a wall. Meanwhile, coming off a close loss at Georgia, the Vols are brimming with confidence. Honestly, it doesn’t look good for our guys. Lose this one and it may not take another blow for the wheels to come off this program. However, we can pull hard for these Gators to figure it out enough on offense to get it done. Hope so.
Saturday is thenew beginning for the march to ATLANTA..Gators will beat tenn, mo, lsu, sc and most important of all, we are going to totally ruin dumbo fisher and the seimenhole nation. thats all I got to say about that…
GO GATORS….
Iforgot them ball lickers from ga. They are going down also.
Happy new year to my fellow gator fans celebrating.
If Muschamp is fired, all the coaches should be fired. You don’t saddle a new coach with holdovers from the old regime. If he ants to hire them, fine. Sometimes it happens, but it’s a good idea to have the new coach holding everyone’s resignation, he can choose to accept it or not. I know it doesn’t happen that way always, like FSU still has holdovers from Bobby Bowden. But since he was the one who hired Fisher, he had a little more leverage. By the way, for all of you who insist the next guy must be a head coach, FSU is doing alright with a guy that was an assistant. You just have to choose the right one.
This being a recruiting blog, IMO the reason we have dried up on recruits is that they are seeing what I believe to be the main problem with the Gators: lack of good coaching. So often, it is not how many stars a recruit has after their name, but how they perform on the field. And, how they perform on the field is strongly related to how they are coached up.
How did Boise State all of a sudden become so good? It sure isn’t that they have tons of 4 and 5-star recruits. Same thing with TCU. It is always about the coaching those recruits get.
I believe that there are good coaches on the Gator staff, but Muschamp is not one of them. He is the main problem with the team’s performance, IMO.
I can sum it up in one sentence: does this team / program seem to be progressing in what is now the 4th year under Muschamp? ‘Nuff said.
Happy new year to my fellow Gator fans celebrating Jewish Holidays.
happy and healthy new year to all of you celebrating the holidays
Zack, does there appear to be any inclination by the staff to recruit any of the QBs, skill players or DL from here in Pensacola? The next three years should yield a lot of D-1 talent (again). Alabama, Mississippi State and Mizzou have all hauled in pretty good loads recently. Let me/us know what you find. Thanks. Go Gators!
Who will be the next head coach recruit? I cast my vote for the prodigal son — the one who “coaches ’em up.” You know who I’m talkin’ ’bout!!!
I always like to keep it real instead of live in fantasy land like the rest of Gator fan. Muschamp = fired….As much as some of you want that you might as well forget about recruiting unless they get rid of him RIGHT NOW. Then they could get someone in here that could help salvage this class. The only problem is finding someone in the middle of the season…..Jon Gruden
Dear GH, good debate so far.
1) “he knows defense, but his record is his record and it’s not as good as Zooker who we ran off.”
How many times did Ron go 11-1 in a season and be named SEC CoY by his fellow coaches?
2) “for whatever reason he just isn’t producing anything remotely approaching good QB play”
3 OC’s, 3 OL coaches, 4-5 WR coaches, inconsistency and injuries to the OL, and constant (5-6 more in Tn game) receiver drops and/or wrong routes run have nothing to do with Jeff’s performance.
4) Andre has missed 2 full seasons, rs-rsSr 3L, and parts of the other 3. He has done the UF BEST EVER as a KO return man, 1,500+ yards, with 2,135 Total yards overall. Many have done less.
5) “Actually the OL deserves a lot of praise and a huge round of applause for Mike Summers who’s done a great job. Incidentally, UT’s OL this year has 5 new starters and somehow they are managing.”
Sorry, but the OL has been very inconsistent. A great play, then looking lost (screen door) yet again.
Watch in stop action play by play and you’ll see what I mean. Tn ran for how many behind their OL? And how many sacks did they give up to the Gator D? Oh, I see what you mean… lol
6) Excuses are what the opponents fans do. I just gave a portion of the actual injury list, REASONS. ;~)
7) My sarcastic response to what I consider bs from others, mostly rivals. Will stays for at least 1 more year imo.
8) “if you were a H.S. stud and you watched that Alabama game would there be any question which school, which program you wanted to be part of?”
That’s the usual shallow take of the casual fan alright, ignoring the MANY factors in why the come here.
Anyone that chooses to go to Clown-U deserves the kind of criminole future that they get from it. Kind of like sleeping around and getting VD imo. Will flipped DE Dante Fowler ***** from FSU, and 2 others including Harris in last years class on NSD, but lets just overlook that, okay? But hey smart guy, name the HBC that’s both available and wants the UF job.
==============
2014 UF is 3-1, 2-1 SEC and still in the race for Hotlanta: Doom, despair, pain and ag-go-knee….
As recently as 2012: UF 37 – 26 @ FSUcks & little jimmy wisher. Last 10 years: UF 7 – 3 FSUcks
Only the ignorant and/or rival idiots judge a recruiting class before NSD. Going by Will’s previous 3 classes (4-2-6) I’d say that he’s already one of the best ever recruiters in UF history, and certainly for his first 3 years as a HBC. That said, with only 1/2 of a class committed so far, ESPN has UF at #20 already, with 6 ESPN Top 300 recruits. Get a grip….
Zach,
Don’t you think your headline: “Harris has recruits excited” needs to come down under the circumstances?
Just sayin’
Best
Doug