The best Florida football recruit this century won a pair of national titles.
Florida football has won two national titles this century thanks in large part to great recruiting.
The Florida Gators have been a college football blue-blood for the better part of the last three decades. Once Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier returned as their head coach in the early 1990s, that was when the program really started to take off. Florida won its first national title in 1996 and added two more under Urban Meyer in 2006 and 2008.
Though the six-year run for Meyer in Gainesville is best known for coinciding with the greatest player in program history in left-handed quarterback Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner from Jacksonville was not the most prized recruit in recent Gator football history. That honor belongs to “Mr. Everything”, Percy Harvin.
Harvin was a five-star recruit from Virginia Beach, Virginia in the 2006 recruiting class. He was the No. 1 player from Virginia that year, the No. 1 wide receiver in his class and the No. 2 overall player, according to the 247Sports Composite behind only offensive guard prospect Andre Smith from Birmingham, Alabama, who went on to star for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
The Landstown High School standout had a 0.9990 rating by 247Sports, which has Harvin with the No. 39 all-time ranking in their system. He had five official offers: Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan and USC. Florida wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales was his primary recruiter. Harvin remains the lone five-star recruit he has ever netted any team he has ever worked for.
Harvin first committed to the Gators on Dec. 19, 2005. He signed his National Letter of Intent on Feb. 1, 2006, and enrolled on the Gainesville campus later that summer. Tebow and offensive guard prospect Carl Johnson from Durham, North Carolina were the two other five-stars to be part of Florida’s 2006 recruiting class with Harvin.
The best Florida football recruit this century won a pair of national titles playing for Urban Meyer, but it’s probably not the player you’re thinking of.
While at Florida, Harvin won a pair of national titles under Meyer. The Gators defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes in the 2007 BCS National Championship game. In 13 games for the Gators, Harvin had 75 touches for 855 yards and five touchdowns. He was named the SEC Championship Game MVP in the win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Harvin also was named SEC Freshman of the Year.
In 2007, Harvin was named First-Team All-SEC as an all-purpose player and Second-Team All-SEC as a wide receiver. Tebow won the Heisman that year, as Harvin had 142 touches for 1,622 yards and 10 total touchdowns. He also earned a First-Team All-American nod as a wide receiver by The Sporting News.
As a junior in 2008, Harvin won his second national championship, as the Gators defeated the Oklahoma Sooners in the 2009 BCS National Championship game. Harvin was named First-Team All-SEC as a wide receiver and as an all-purpose player. He was named a First-Team All-American as an all-purpose player in what was his final college career.
Harvin left Gainesville after his junior year with 327 total touches for 3,781 yards and 32 total touchdowns. He would be the No. 22 overall pick by the Minnesota Vikings in the 2009 NFL Draft. Harvin spent four seasons in Minneapolis, was named NFL Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowler in 2009. However, he never was able to achieve the great heights set out for him professionally.
Harvin battled injuries throughout his eight-year NFL career. He only played in all 16 games once, which came in 2011, the last season he’d appear in more than nine regular-season ball games. Harvin was traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2013. Despite only playing in one regular-season game, he was key in helping the Seahawks defeat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 47.
He would play with the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills before being out of the league after the 2016 NFL season. Harvin announced his retirement for the second time in 2017. He finished his eight-year NFL career with 9,080 all-purpose yards on 646 total touches for 32 combined touchdowns.
Though Tebow was more accomplished, Harvin was the better recruit and held his own in college.
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