2013 Gator Commitment #12: QB Max Staver of Brentwood Academy, Brentwood TN

[Dreamliner]

The more I see the more I like. He's got mad skillz.

[scubadude007]

Originally Posted by PSGator66

That reciever would be a nice get too!!

EXACTLY!

Staver is the real deal at QB, hope he brings #8 with him, that dude's a play maker!

[UFOWNS]

That #8 is CJ Sanders and he's only a freshman in that film (c/o 2015). He already has offers from Stanford, MSU and Tennessee. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on and hopefully a pipeline to keep open

http://247sports.com/Player/CJ-Sanders-14833?pi=3809

[sbcg8r]

Staver needs about 2 years to be ready for SEC play, so this works out perfectly for us. We're gonna have some serious QB battles over the next several years.

[1984Gator]

Originally Posted by GATORAZ

4 star on ESPN has all the tools you want needs to work on mechanics stop worrying about stars CWM could care less about them

It's not this one player that concerns me, it is the 9 3 star players we have selected so far including the last 5 in a row. We have historically been able to recruit a more elite class of players at Florida. If Muschamp is a better talent evaluator than everyone else then I suppose we'll be OK but if not, our team will be less talented in future years. It seems odd that we chased away 4 and 5 star recruits so that we could add younger 3 star projects to the stable. We could still add another 10 players this year. I'm hoping we can close the deal on some of the best.....

[sbcg8r]

I guess we'll see..... At Auburn, Muschamp had some awesome defenses with mostly 3* guys. Several went to the NFL as well.

[deep_threat]

Originally Posted by 1984Gator

It's not this one player that concerns me, it is the 9 3 star players we have selected so far including the last 5 in a row. We have historically been able to recruit a more elite class of players at Florida. If Muschamp is a better talent evaluator than everyone else then I suppose we'll be OK but if not, our team will be less talented in future years. It seems odd that we chased away 4 and 5 star recruits so that we could add younger 3 star projects to the stable. We could still add another 10 players this year. I'm hoping we can close the deal on some of the best.....

I don't think you need to worry about stars. Check out all of the other elite programs in the country and you will see they are chock full of 3 star commitments. Its always been like that. We will obviously get our share of 4 and 5 stars, too. And btw Ivie was a 4 star

[wewagator]

One thing we must all understand is that these kids are evaluated by the coaches at the various camps, etc. This fall many of them, meaning Florida recruits, will probably move up one or maybe two levels. I believe Max Staver falls in this category....his skill level is really good for a three star.

[gatornib]

This argument about the irrelevance goes on and on. If you don't believe in stars, what do you believe in? The ability of Gator coaches to identify superior talent? That's more a religious belief than an empirically verifiable phenomenon.

A 3-star QB might be OK, but he might not too. The thing that troubles me was the line in the Gainesville Sun today:

"After missing on the nine out-of-state QBs they offered, Muschamp and offensive coordinator Brent Pease had Staver camp at Florida on June 9 and his impressive performance made him the top target at the position."

We missed out on nine QBs? Ugh.

Rivals has Max Staver as the 27th best pro-style QB. Rivals has a separate ranking of dual-threat QBs, and 12 of them have at least 4-stars. So that means according to Rivals, Staver is (at best) the 39th best ranked QB in the country. If you're happy being ranked 39th at the end of the season, then I guess that's OK.

Why didn't any of those other nine QBs that UF offered accept? Maybe they thought that with Driskel and Brissett in the mix, playing time would be hard to come by. I hope so. The inability to land top QB talent is worrisome though.

[Tr3yGator]

Originally Posted by 1984Gator

It's not this one player that concerns me, it is the 9 3 star players we have selected so far including the last 5 in a row. We have historically been able to recruit a more elite class of players at Florida. If Muschamp is a better talent evaluator than everyone else then I suppose we'll be OK but if not, our team will be less talented in future years. It seems odd that we chased away 4 and 5 star recruits so that we could add younger 3 star projects to the stable. We could still add another 10 players this year. I'm hoping we can close the deal on some of the best.....

Muschamp is building an elite class. Look at how many of these guys got invited to the opening. The recruiting services make plenty of mistakes especially this early in the process. A bunch of these guys will receive bumps once their senior seasons are over if they stay away from injury, especially Adam Lane and Hearns who were injured last season. Keanu Neal was under the radar when he committed but most of the services have caught up and ranked him accordingly. The only guys I think we shouldn't have taken as early are Hawkins, Dillard, Bell, and Lawson(Character concerns). But the rest of the class is solid to elite especially at positions of need. You won't find many 5 star guards/centers out there, and we needed them this cycle. Plus, I'm not sure what service you're using but they all have biases, I prefer ESPN because I think they give the right bias, Southeast > Cali > Texas. I think Rivals gives Lane, Staver, Outlaw, and maybe Hawkins that 4th star after their senior season.

[deep_threat]

Gatornib, its because elite quarterbacks don't want to come here with Jeff and Jacoby being only sophomores, and knowing that next year the staff will probably pursue a high profile quarterback. Staver just helps for depth reasons. An elite quarterback doesn't want to go to a school where he is just a depth filler. We'll get one next year

[GATORAZ]

Originally Posted by 1984Gator

It's not this one player that concerns me, it is the 9 3 star players we have selected so far including the last 5 in a row. We have historically been able to recruit a more elite class of players at Florida. If Muschamp is a better talent evaluator than everyone else then I suppose we'll be OK but if not, our team will be less talented in future years. It seems odd that we chased away 4 and 5 star recruits so that we could add younger 3 star projects to the stable. We could still add another 10 players this year. I'm hoping we can close the deal on some of the best.....

matters what service you are using ESPN has all our guys as 4 stars. Have you watched these guys tapes? Do you think these recruiting services know more about football than CWM? Do these recruiting services rank guys on there grades and SAT scores? What players are you concerned about? We will have one of the highest ranking classes come February even though it doesnt matter

[Nicho]

Originally Posted by gatornib

Rivals has Max Staver as the 27th best pro-style QB. Rivals has a separate ranking of dual-threat QBs, and 12 of them have at least 4-stars. So that means according to Rivals, Staver is (at best) the 39th best ranked QB in the country. If you're happy being ranked 39th at the end of the season, then I guess that's OK.

I'm not sure this analysis holds very much water at all. For one thing, if you must rely on the recruiting sites to validate our class, you really ought to use the overall class ranking: #3 at the time of this post. I'd be happy being ranked #3 at the end of the season.

Also, you should know from watching the most recent BCS title game that an elite caliber QB is not essential to winning a national title. AJ McCarron, Jarrett Lee, Jordan Jefferson... I don't see any first or even second round draft picks in that group, do you?

Finally, one major reason a lot of our recruits are below 4 stars right now is how early in the cycle we are accepting commitments from them. In the past, the bulk of kids would commit sometime during their senior season, when recruiting sites have had enough time to do a comprehensive evaluation of prospects and rank them against one another. Quite a few of our recruits were under the radar until the moment they pledged to UF, but you can rest assured that many of them will be gaining stars as NSD draws closer.

[Ahab]

I wouldn't bank on committed players moving up the rankings much. Recruiting services typically favor uncommitted prospects since that boosts their traffic.

[MiracleMax]

I didn't think his release was all that smooth. Looks a bit like he's shot putting the ball. I question how much zing he's able to get on long throws that have to get to the receiver before the SEC DB gets there.

[DieAGator]

His size is great- 6'6", 235. He should have excellent field vision, durability and confidence. I'd like to see a QB ranked top 30 but we will see how the season plays out. He obviously wasn't our first choice but could turn out to be a great pick up.

[elrongator]

I disagree with the position that we have landed five kids in a row that hold only three star rankings. This is flat out inaccurate.
I agree with the concept of some of them moving up in rankings over the span of their senior years based on their being injured as juniors.
As far as the Qb position is concerned I remember a kid named Kerwin Bell out of a town called Mayo that nobody ranked anywhere coming in and getting the job done here.
I also remember guys called Bobby Sablehouse and Brock Berlin being all world five star can't miss studs flopping worse than the box office for Green Lantern.
We are ranked consensus top 5 as a team by the recognized services now.
I'm cool with that.

[wewagator]

I really like the comment that Nicho made that players are committing earlier and as a result have lower star ratings than if they waited to commit during their senior year.

We all know about how highly rated Tim Tebow and even Chris Leak were when they committed. How highly rated were Florida quarterback greats Kerwin Bell, Wayne Peace, Doug Johnson, Rex Grossman, and even Steve Spurrier?

[Ahab]

Originally Posted by MiracleMax

I didn't think his release was all that smooth. Looks a bit like he's shot putting the ball. I question how much zing he's able to get on long throws that have to get to the receiver before the SEC DB gets there.

ESPN Insider has a detailed scouting report on him that raves about his arm strength. Says he needs to work on his foot work and ball handling technique but overall they're very high on him. Have him as a 4 star.

[Gatorules]

Originally Posted by wewagator

I really like the comment that Nicho made that players are committing earlier and as a result have lower star ratings than if they waited to commit during their senior year.

We all know about how highly rated Tim Tebow and even Chris Leak were when they committed. How highly rated were Florida quarterback greats Kerwin Bell, Wayne Peace, Doug Johnson, Rex Grossman, and even Steve Spurrier?

I'm pretty sure Peace, Johnson and Spurrier were rated pretty high.