The college football recruiting trajectory was blazing hot in June in keeping with the rising mercury, and while there have been some ups and downs over the past 30 days, the Gators generally remained tough as the dog days of summer continued to roll in.
One of the new head coach Billy NapierHis biggest goals in turning around a struggling Florida football program is to dominate the recruiting scene in his school’s home state. In spite of the recent release from a three-star project in Sunshine State, seven of the current eight Gators missions come from the Sunshine State. However, the Orange and Blue were not the overall winners on their own grounds last month.
According to Jon Santucci and Chris Boyle at the Gainesville Sun, it was the… Ohio State Buckeyes who in their recent ranking of the 10 schools who did best on the recruitment path in the southernmost state of the country. Here’s how they justified their number 1 pick.
If it feels like Florida’s borders need to be redrawn to add Columbus, there’s a good reason for it. The state of Ohio has dominated the state this cycle with six pledges. The Buckeyes are putting an exclamation point on an already loaded class with the top two receivers in the state (and perhaps the nation) at Tate and Inniss. Anything the Buckeyes do in Florida between now and December will just show off.
While a northern school coming in and talent for carpet bags from the south is enough to make any Gator fan’s blood boil, Florida was second on the list (keeping in mind this was published before the recent news about the liberation).
Billy Napier and his staff had a great end to the month taking on defensive lineman commitments Gavin Hillcorner back Sharif Densonedge rusher Isaiah Nixon and offensive lineman Tommy Kinsler in a period of eight days. The Gators now have eight players from Florida and, from what we hear, they are doing a great job building relationships around the state.
Florida is followed by the Miami Hurricanes at number 3, with the South Carolina Gamecocks, Clemson TigersPitt Panthers, Michigan State SpartansCincinnati Bearcats, Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Maryland Terrapins in the back, respectively. The Alabama Crimson Tide† Oklahoma Sooners† Tennessee Volunteers† Texas A&M Aggies and UCF Knights all earned honorable mentions on the list.
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