After a rough year down in Gainesville, it is officially the Dan Mullen era of Florida Gators football. Here is how his first recruiting class turned out.
2017 went all sorts of wrong for the Florida Gators down on the gridiron. After seeing former head coach Jim McElwain win the SEC East in his first two years with the team, he was fired mid-season amid controversy. Florida had Randy Shannon as the interim, but the Gators were unable to go bowling this past season.
Fortunately for Gator Nation, Florida was able to land a top-tier head coaching candidate in the form of former Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen. He spent the previous nine seasons in Starkville, where he turned an SEC doormat into an eight-win program. This will be Mullen’s second stint in Gainesville, as he had been Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator a few regimes ago.
Mullen hasn’t been the greatest recruiter but has a great knack for turning three-star players into NFL prospects. If you want proof, just take a look at some of the names dominating in the NFL with Mississippi State roots. Mullen should do just fine in the Sunshine State with the Gators.
Though it will be a transitional year for the Gators in terms of recruitment, Florida hasn’t exactly cratered due to the coaching change. According to 247Sports, Florida has the No. 18 class in the country and the No. 5 class in the SEC heading into national signing day.
The Gators have only 16 total commits, but nine of them are four-stars and the other seven are three stars. Eight of those recruits have enrolled early. Here is the Gators’ 2018 college football recruiting class.
2018 Florida Gators football recruiting class
Five of the eight early enrollees at Florida are four-star recruits. The most notable enrollee has to be dual-threat quarterback Emory Jones out of Franklin, Georgia. Jones is the No. 5 quarterback in his class, the No. 11 player from Georgia and the No. 85 player nationally. Given that this is a new regime and Florida is currently horrible at quarterback, there is a decent to good chance Jones will play as a true freshman, especially since he enrolled early.
Five of Florida’s commitments have signed their national letters of intent. Tight end Kyle Pitts of Warminster, Pennsylvania and outside linebacker David Reese of Vero Beach, Florida headline that group as four-stars. It’ll be interesting to see how a former tight end himself in Mullen uses Pitts as a freshman. Given that defensive coordinator Todd Grantham loves to send pressure out of the 3-4, Reese could get some early action as well.
Florida’s best commit is just that, a commit in four-star offensive tackle Richard Gouraige of Tampa. Gouraige is the No. 7 offensive tackle prospect, the No. 18 player in Florida and the No. 81 player nationally. Overall, Florida has three top-100 recruits in Gouraige, Jones and hard commit wide receiver Justin Watkins from Clermont, Florida.
Overall, Florida’s recruiting class isn’t deep, but that was expected given the coaching change. Ideally, we’d like to see the flagship university for the Sunshine State dominate recruiting, but this will take time. Then again, Florida State is undergoing a coaching change as well, but that has allowed Miami to clean up.
Florida has a decent shot to add two more top-100 players on national signing day. If they can nab five-star offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere of Tampa or wide receiver Jacob Copeland from Pensacola, Florida, this Gators recruiting class could potentially crack the top 15.
Next: National Signing Day: Predictions for top 25 uncommitted recruits
It’s pretty impressive how solid this recruiting class looks given the change of guard with the coaching staff. Mullen and Grantham have deep SEC recruiting roots but will need to re-familiarize themselves with the Florida high schools. This class looks insanely better than the first class McElwain signed in 2015 replacing Will Muschamp. Mullen could have the Gators football program humming in no time.
Grade: B+