College football

Florida coaches make up lost time

Urban Meyer's staff used a nationwide net to quickly build a top recruiting class.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published February 3, 2005

GAINESVILLE - For a man operating on just two hours of sleep, Urban Meyer appeared to be well-rested Wednesday evening.

And happy too.

When national signing day came to a close, the consensus among recruiting experts was that Meyer and his staff overachieved considering they had just 31/2 weeks on the job.

Bolstered by the last-minute signing of several big-name recruits, including Pensacola Washington linebacker Jon Demps, the Gators finished with a class that was ranked No. 11 by Scout.com and No. 14 by rivals100.com.

"Florida definitely made some major steps forward throughout the recruiting process the past couple of weeks," said Jeremy Crabtree, national recruiting analyst for rivals100.com. "They closed strong. Getting Jon Demps (Wednesday) was a nice, nice pickup for them. I honestly can't wait to see what Urban Meyer and his staff do when they have a full year to go out there and recruit. It's just amazing to see how quickly they made some ground up and closed. I can't wait to see what they do next year."

Demps is considered among the top linebackers in the nation and was recruited by FSU, Auburn and Miami. It took a 2 a.m. phone call to finally seal the deal with Demps. Florida signed five linebackers, which fills an important need.

"At the end of the day they have to be pretty happy," said Jamie Newberg, national recruiting analyst for Scout.com. "They got their four linebackers. It's not about the rankings, it's about filling needs and that was a critical need for them with only four (currently on scholarship). They are bringing in four, and they are solid. They got their quarterback, a running back and a plethora of receivers and they got secondary help. One red flag or negative is they got no defensive linemen. ... They probably wanted to sign two or three defensive linemen, but these are different circumstances. They had one coach from the old staff (Charlie Strong) pulling double duty for coach Meyer and bringing in a new staff that was completely different. I never remember a team in the top 10 having a brand new staff, and they are sitting right at 10. They did land a lot of big-name kids."

Meyer was hired in December but didn't officially take over until Jan. 3, the day after he coached his former school, Utah, in the Fiesta Bowl. After a sluggish start, Florida rallied, picking up 18, including one local player - Lakewood receiver Louis Murphy. Among those signed, nine are ranked in the Top 25 of their position by rivals100.com, including five in the Top 10 by rivals100.com and Scout.com.

Since arriving in Gainesville, Meyer hasn't spent much time on campus. With so little time and practically no relationship with most of the recruits the former coaching staff had been wooing, Meyer was forced to recruit nationwide. Florida signed athletes from Georgia, New York, Virginia, Texas and California. He said next year the Gators will focus on Florida, Texas and California. He relied on current Florida players, staff and the university "to sell itself," but his staff, particularly Doc Holliday, was instrumental. Holliday recruited South Florida as an assistant at North Carolina State.

"To say we signed (18) players in this short of a time period, I think our guys did an outstanding job," he said.

Meyer said the true value of this recruiting class will be determined in three years, but his gut feeling is good.

"This is an excellent class," he said. "The 11th-hour turn of a kid like Demps, Avery Atkins jumping in and having Josh Portis on campus, there are some excellent football players coming to Florida. ... And it's not just filler, they are quality players. ... If you had told me we'd sign 17 or 18 players of this caliber back in December, I would have said I don't know if we can do that."

[Last modified February 3, 2005, 01:08:13]