After a full year in Gainesville, Dan Mullen and his coaching staff have put together a rather impressive recruiting class for the Florida Gators.
Dan Mullen might have put the Florida Gators right back on the map in his first season as the head coach down in Gainesville. With the success that Mullen had this past season and the success that he’s having on the recruiting trail, things look good for the Gators right now.
Scott Stricklin and Florida hired Mullen away from Mississippi State in hopes of rebuilding the once proud program. After a 10-3 season that was capped off with a 41-15 Peach Bowl win over Michigan, Florida has now put together what is currently the No. 11 ranked recruiting class in the country thanks to Mullen’s recruiting efforts.
This class features nine early enrollees and a dozen other players that signed with the Gators back in December, so not too much is really expected to change with signing day. UF currently has 23 players either enrolled, signed, or committed to this class.
And it appears to be a pretty good one.
The Florida Gators are looking to reinforce their offensive line with this class.
One huge point of emphasis for this recruiting class for Mullen and his coaching staff appears to be on the offensive line. Four of those nine early enrollees are offensive linemen and there’s a total of seven offensive linemen in this class.
All of them appear to be pretty talented players who could certainly make a difference in Mullen’s offense.
There’s a total of four four-star offensive linemen in this group for the Gators. Both Michael Tarquin and William Harrod are four-star offensive tackles while Deyavie Hammond and Wardrick Wilson are both four-star offensive guards.
Nay’Quan Wright and Keon Zipperer also should be able to help Dan Mullen’s offense.
Dan Mullen wants to improve his offense and to do that, he’ll need to improve more than just his offensive line. Mullen’s Florida Gators will need some more weapons to create a more dynamic passing attack. Nay’Quan Wright and Keon Zipperer should be able to do just that.
Wright and Zipperer are two of the key skill position players in the 2019 Florida Gators recruiting class. Wright is a running back, but he’s a smaller, quicker back who would be explosive in the open field once he got the ball in his hands. Ziperrer is a bigger bodied tight end at 6-2 and 240 pounds who appears capable of being a mismatch when it comes to blocking and then also catching passes.
Although neither of these players are wide receivers, both should be able to help with Florida’s passing attack.
Let’s take a look at the entire 2019 Florida Gators recruiting class, courtesy of 247 Sports:
The Florida Gators are more than just a few spots behind their rival the Georgia Bulldogs as UGA currently sits at No. 2 in 247’s recruiting ranking. Still, all things considered, Florida fans are likely thrilled with how this class came together.
But more than that, how this class fits into the narrative of how quickly this program rebuild is going for this coaching staff is going to skew how people view this class. Mullen jumped right out of the gate with a 10-win season and then pulled together an impressive recruiting class. That’s an impressive start to Mullen’s tenure in Gainesville.
If Mullen intends to start competing for championships with the Gators though, he’ll need to start pulling some better classes into Gainesville though. This is a really good class for his first full recruiting cycle after a 10-win season, but there will be raised expectations for this team both on the field and on the recruiting trail moving forward.