Gator Country

Florida’s recruiting Class of 2009 can be summed up very simply: The Gators got quality over quantity. For many recruiting followers, things were boring heading into January and then heated up in a hurry. The Gators put together a class of 16 prospects, eight of whom were part of the ESPNU 150. While some will surely lament some of the losses Florida suffered late in the process, this is still a great class.

(Rather than breaking this up in several parts, we’re going to post it as one piece (at nearly 10,000 words!) for the sake of continuity… Franz Beard’s Football Insider will be up next followed by his usual Basketball Confidentials...)

Today, we will look at some of the stories that happened behind the scenes that for (obvious) reasons we couldn’t share until now. With contributions from Cody Jones, Ryan Moss, Brett Williams and a number of other sources, we now bring to you our Post-NSD (National Signing Day) Briefing Room.

QUARTERBACK

Signed with Florida: Jordan Reed, 6-3, 230, New London, Conn. (New London), No. 140 on ESPNU 150.

The misses: Aaron Murray, 6-0, 198, Tampa, Fla. (Plant), No. 13 ESPNU 150, signed with Georgia; Denard Robinson, 6-0, 179, Deerfield Beach, Fla. (Deerfield Beach), No. 101 on ESPNU 150, signed with Michigan.

Notes: Florida targeted one player at the quarterback position for the 2009 class, and got their man in Jordan Reed, who attended the same high school as Allan Chaney, a forward on the Gator basketball team. At 6-3 and 225 pounds, Reed is a Nate Davis (Ball State) clone who is a great fit in the spread despite his thick frame. Davis is surprisingly athletic for his size, not afraid to lay a hit, and throws the ball surprisingly well. I think Reed could surprise some people in Gainesville, I really do. After impressing a number of people in attendance at Friday Night Lights, Reed won a de facto battle for an offer with Indiana QB Morgan Newton (who signed with Kentucky) and quickly jumped on an offer extended by Urban Meyer.

Now, I know there was a lot of conjecture on the recruitment of Denard Robinson, and what he would have done at Florida. Denard would have had the opportunity to play quarterback first had he signed with the Gators. However, most everyone in attendance at Friday Night Lights saw that Denard looked like a natural when he slid over to receiver for a portion of the drills. The writing was on the wall that it was just a matter of time before Denard ended up at wide receiver. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Denard isn’t a very accurate passer. He can sling it with the best of them, but he can definitely be off-target at times. Add to the fact he is just 6-0 at best, and I think it’s clear his future is at wide receiver. How soon he figures that out while he freezes his tail off in Ann Arbor should be interesting to see.

There are all sorts of stories out there in regards to Denard Robinson and his recruitment. One that landed on my desk is that “outside forces” had a lot to do with Robinson and his teammate Adrian Witty landing at Michigan (these would be the same “outside forces” which kept Florida away from Miramar star Eugene Smith throughout the process as well).

There also was some talk that Art Taylor, the (now former) Deerfield Beach head coach and the infamous “philosophical differences” that he had with school principal Jon Marlow, could have been the result of something in regards to Denard’s recruitment. It certainly wasn’t performance on the field that did the head ball coach in, as Taylor led Deerfield to a 29-9 record and three playoff appearances in his three seasons as the Bucks head coach. Regardless of all the stories going around in South Florida, the fact remains that Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez hit Florida very hard in the 2009 class and came away with a nice little haul from the Sunshine State. Whether or not Robinson turns out to be his next Pat White remains to be seen, however.

One other tidbit I can share on Robinson now is a story that Jason Pughe shared with me from his experience at Friday Night Lights. While Denard was on the field throwing and starting to get warmed up, Dan Mullen spotted one of his prime targets on the recruiting trail for 2009 (Mullen and Gonzales were the primary recruiters for Robinson), and immediately called Robinson out. “Hey, there’s the guy who never calls me back!” were the words that Mullen greeted Robinson with as he jogged out onto the field. Denard just kind of laughed and shook the greeting off. It’s the kind of thing you don’t think much about when it happens, but now after everything is over, with Robinson at Michigan now, it is the sort of thing that makes you look back on this moment, and wonder if the tea leaves weren’t sort of reading away from Florida all along.

The last quarterback to really talk about on the board is Tampa Plant signalcaller Aaron Murray. Long believed to be a Florida lean, Murray first caught the eye of Florida coaches with a performance at a football camp heading into his freshman year of high school (which was Urban Meyer’s first year on the staff at UF). We all know what Murray did once he took over as quarterback for the Panthers. Murray took a couple of unofficial visits to Georgia, and was simply wowed by what the Bulldogs had to offer. There really wasn’t a whole lot the Gators could do there. While Murray had camped at Florida for several summers and certainly had the attention of the Gator coaching staff, Athens simply felt like home to him, and there wasn’t a lot Florida could do to overcome that.

One other thing I wanted to share on Murray: He certainly was a big part of the Georgia recruiting efforts this year. Surely, he had a lot to do with both Marlon Brown and Austin Long ending up ‘Dawgs on Signing Day. However, his recruiting efforts in Florida didn’t fare so well. One player he immediately tried to start recruiting after committing to Georgia last April was Andre Debose. Murray gave Debose a call soon after making his verbal, and Debose was kind of confused as to who Murray was, basically saying “Who?” Murray told Debose to check out his highlights on Rivals.com to get a feel for how the quarterback can play. Debose, always a mercurial and sort of reserved type, seemed to be put off by the whole deal. If anything Murray hurt UGA’s recruiting efforts with Debose more than he helped them.

In the end, with Jordan Reed in the fold this year (and Trey Burton already committed to Florida for next year) and Johnny Brantley backing up a returning Tim Tebow, the Gators look to be in good shape at the position for the foreseeable future.

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