Just How Talented is Florida?

Neil Shulman

Think about the way Urban Meyer’s recruits blossomed after receiving proper coaching.

Check out his 2006 class. Brandon Spikes, Percy Harvin, Jermaine Cunningham, Brandon James, Riley Cooper, David Nelson and of course, Tim Tebow.

They’re all playing in the NFL, and aside from James and Tebow (at least for now) they all have starting roles.

Then look at his 2007 class, which may actually be better: Joe Haden, Ahmad Black, Chris Rainey, Aaron Hernandez, Carlos Dunlap, and of course, Cam Newton.

Look at how they’ve done so far.

They also had Dan Mullen and Charlie Strong to coach them up.

I mean, they were coached by Missisippi State and Louisville’s head coaches.

This is the point: no matter how much Urban was or was not himself in 2010, he still recruited better than anybody else- maybe even better than Saban. His 2010 class was ranked top in the nation by far.

The Gators are talented.

Come on, say otherwise.

Urban’s recruiting never fell off.

I’ll keep hitting on that.

The Gators are PACKED with talent.

I keep seeing message boards and even ESPN blogs questioning our talent level. That’s sad, because weren’t those same ESPN writers the ones raving about our phenomonal recruiting class?

Here’s the new point I’ll make.

We’ve got a whole new coaching staff, as you know. But look at last year’s staff.

Addazio, Chuck Heater, Scott Loeffler… all now coaches at Temple.

Florida sucked last year because they had SEC talent, and a midmajor coaching staff.

You need both to get success.

And Florida’s got… a former Texas, LSU and Auburn DC, and maybe the best offensive mind in the nation in Charlie Weis.

So if Brantley & company light it up for 50 a game… well, would it really be surprising?

18 thoughts on “Just How Talented is Florida?”

  1. We definately have talent. Charlie Weis said it himself that this is the most talent and speed he has ever coached. We also had two Heisman trophy winners among those names as well and that is pretty much all that needs to be said about that.

  2. Well in all fairness I’m going to wait till the Tennessee game to see how all of our potential talent comes together, because right now its all potential though its a high level of potential, I just hope it all gels together because without the players coming together all the talent in the world won’t win many games

  4. I feel like we’ve been down this road before – SEC talent and a mid major coaching staff.

    It’s as if you forget that Meyer came from Utah and Bowling Green, both mid majors.

    He didn’t just materialize out of nowhere and land at Florida with his staff.

    Also, we don’t know Florida is packed with talent. It is packed with kids who had good star ratings coming out of High School.

    Sam Bradford was a 3 star recruit coming out of High School.

    He was the 12th rated QB.

    He was ranked behind such names as

    Matthew Stafford
    Mitch Mustain
    Isiah Williams
    Josh Freeman
    Pat Devlin
    Kevin Riley
    Neil Caudle
    Chris Smelley
    Zach Frazer
    Tyler Lyon
    Greg McElroy

    The jury is out on Stafford. He certainly looks the part. Freeman is a freak. However, the rest didn’t really pan out so well and they had good coaching.

    Sam Bradford wasn’t even ranked in the top 250. Yet, he went on to become the #1 overall pick, had a damn good rookie year with ZERO talent running the field and has begun the turnaround of the Rams, looking like a 15 year Peyton Manning type of foundation.

    Here are the top 30 of 06 and how many really lived up to it ? 2006 was an exceptional year and lots of players became mega stars but this list has lots who flopped, and lots where the best players were rated way below flops.

    James Aldridge
    Allen Bradford
    C.J. Gable
    Brandon Graham
    Percy Harvin
    Vidal Hazelton
    Carl Johnson
    Stafon Johnson
    Eddie Jones
    Reshad Jones
    Sergio Kindle
    Taylor Mays
    Gerald McCoy
    Mitch Mustain
    Myron Rolle
    Robert Rose
    Ricky Sapp
    Stephen Schilling
    Andre Smith
    Brandon Spikes
    C.J. Spiller
    Matthew Stafford
    Tim Tebow
    A.J. Wallace
    Brandon Warren
    Chris Wells
    Al Woods
    Sam Young
    Jason Adjepong
    Earl Alexander

    Now let’s look at 2007 and see how many panned out. I consider dismissals due to infractions flops.

    Tray Allen
    Marvin Austin
    Arrelious Benn
    Eric Berry
    Curtis Brown
    Jimmy Clausen
    Chris Culliver
    Torrey Davis
    Noel Devine
    Chris Donald
    Carlos Dunlap
    Chris Galippo
    Everson Griffen
    Ronald Johnson
    Dwight Jones
    Chad Jones
    Ryan Mallett
    Ben Martin
    Joe McKnight
    Ryan Miller
    Cameron Newton
    Kristofer O’Dowd
    Josh Oglesby
    Tyrod Taylor
    Terrance Toliver
    Marc Tyler
    Donovan Warren
    James Wilson
    Martez Wilson
    Manny Abreu

  11. For the record, he is a huge Miami Dolphins fan and hates Saban for Miami. It just so happens he’s at Bama so the Bama rippage is peripheral.

  12. I loved his joke about all the tornadoes and God hating Saban comedy wise it was perfect but it did make me cringe a bit since it was so soon after it happened

  15. Neil?
    [quote]if Brantley & company light it up[/quote]
    Dude, that’s one BIG IF:p

  16. [quote]if Brantley & company light it up for 50 a game[/quote]

    Really Neil? I hope you are right but I would not bet the farm:o

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