Who ruled Florida in football recruiting for June? The answer might surprise you.
The college football recruiting trail was blazing hot in June matching the rising mercury, and while there were some ups and downs over the past 30 days, overall the Gators hung tough as the dog days of summer continue to roll in.
One of new head coach Billy Napier’s biggest goals in turning around a struggling Florida football program is to dominate the recruiting scene within his school’s home state. Despite the recent decommitment from one three-star Sunshine State prospect, seven of the Gators’ current eight commits hail from the Sunshine State. However, the Orange and Blue were not the overall winners on their home turf last month.
According to Jon Santucci and Chris Boyle over at the Gainesville Sun, it was the Ohio State Buckeyes who lured the most top prospects from the Gators’ own backyard in their recent ranking of the 10 schools that fared the best on the recruiting trail in the nation’s southern-most state. Here is how they justified their No. 1 pick.
If it feels like Florida boundaries should be redrawn to add Columbus, there’s a good reason. Ohio State has dominated the state this cycle with six commitments. The Buckeyes put an exclamation point on an already loaded class with the top two receivers in the state (and maybe the nation) in Tate and Inniss. Anything the Buckeyes do in Florida between now and December will just be showing off.
While a northern school coming in and carpetbagging talent from the south is enough to get any Gator fan’s blood boiling, Florida did rank second on the list (keeping in mind that this was published before the recent decommitment news).
Billy Napier and his staff had a great close to the month, picking up commitments from defensive lineman Gavin Hill, cornerback Sharif Denson, edge rusher Isaiah Nixon and offensive lineman Tommy Kinsler in an eight-day period. The Gators now have eight players committed from Florida and, from what we’re hearing, are doing a great job building relationships around the state.
Florida is followed by the Miami Hurricanes at No. 3, with the South Carolina Gamecocks, Clemson Tigers, Pitt Panthers, Michigan State Spartans, Cincinnati Bearcats, Rutgers Scarlet Knights and Maryland Terrapins trailing behind, respectively. The Alabama Crimson Tide, Oklahoma Sooners, Tennesee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies and UCF Knights all earned honorable mentions on the list.
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