MILLER REPORT: Where we stand now

We have discussed where the Florida Gator football program stands as it pertains to current talent on the roster before the 2015 incoming recruiting class. Let us take a look at where the program stands now that all of the LOI’s have come in. This piece was delayed while one last LOI found its way to Gainesville. What I’m hearing is that Scotty had just a little too much Irish whiskey and his hands became unsteady on the transporter controls causing one letter to float around in space as a thousand particles before finally reassembling in coach McElwain’s hands. But, now that think has dried on the 2015 signing class, we can truly evaluate what Jim has to work with in his first season as the Gator’s head coach.

The most critical area of need in this recruiting class was on offense, especially offensive line. The Gators also desperately needed some skill position playmakers. They got both. Florida signed six offensive linemen including 5 star prospect Martez Ivey out of Apopka. This haul added to the number of linemen in last year’s class should mean that the numbers are now to the level you would like. It will be important for some new names to emerge as dependable contributors along the line but there are certainly enough candidates at this point. Tyler Jordan will be a personal favorite of mine for being willing to pull the trigger early in the process and then recruiting relentlessly for the Gators the remainder of the cycle. Fred Johnson will be interesting to watch develop as he is a massive 6’8” and has room to add probably thirty pounds or more of muscle in the weight room. While there is still concern over the depth of experienced players going into 2015, by 2016 this should be a team strength.

As for skill position players on offense, it was important for the Gators to add some depth to what appeared to be a talented but thin running back corp. I must admit that I am not real sure what to expect from Kelvin Taylor at this point as he has shown flashes of brilliance and then stretches where he disappears. I am hopeful that the new staff and offense will suit him better than the previous one. I also think that Adam Lane has big upside and may well flourish in Jim McElwain’s offense. With the incoming class the Gators add two 4 star potentially elite backs in Jordan Scarlett and Jordan Cronkite. Both have the skill set to become great additions to the offense. In my opinion, Scarlett should have been a 5 star prospect and I think the rest of the country will see that as early as 2015.

I would like to have seen at least one more potential playmaker at wide receiver in this class but it was not to be.  Antonio Callaway out of Miami joins Kalif Jackson as the only two true WRs in this class. It will be important that some of the highly touted recruits from previous classes still on the roster make that jump to the next level and this will be an area of importance in the 2016 class. Callaway has future star written all over him. D’Anfernee McGriff is listed as an “athlete” but I think he may well end up at receiver in college. He appears to have good hands in his highlight film and would be a tall strong receiver capable of fighting for the ball in the corner of the end zone or muscling his way for a first down on a screen pass.  Those three added to current group of receives should provide enough talent to revive the long ailing Gator offense.

As nice as it would have been to bring in a quarterback in this class it is not hard to understand why recruits were reluctant to come to a team that already boasted to highly touted freshmen. This is another position that must be address in the next recruiting cycle.

Defensively, this recruiting class was both awesome and disappointing.  Florida signed five defensive linemen and though CeCe Jefferson is the only elite prospect of the five the others appear to be solid additions as well. Personally, I think Jabari Zuniga may be the steal of the class. I have watched his film and Zuniga seems to instinctively know where the ball is going on every play. This is a talent a player either has or does not have. You cannot coach it or overstate its value. CeCe should add immediate depth to the line beginning this season. His addition alone made this defensive class a success.

However, for the second straight season, the Gators desperately needed to add linebackers and fell drastically short of that need. Rayshad Jackson was the single true LB signee and that quite frankly will not cut it. Florida can ill afford any injuries to the linebacker unit in 2015 and MUST load up at this position in the next class or face dire consequences. It is hard to fathom why a top rated linebacker or two were not chomping at the bit to take advantage of early playing time at Florida.

While this class was also thin on defensive backs, the roster is so stacked here that it just was not a position of need this year. It will probably be a priority for the next class due to the amount of current players that are talented enough to leave early.  It is unlikely that anyone signing with this class in the secondary was going to have an impact for the Gators during the upcoming season. There is just too much talent already on the team including what I believe to be the best cornerback duo in the country in Vernon Hargreaves III and Jalen Tabor.

I know that I did not mention every signee by name but I was really not aiming for a class breakdown here. There have been enough of those already. The real purpose here was to get a feel for what the Gator Nation should expect in the short term. While I have maintained that Jim McElwain inherited a much more balanced and talented team than some believe I was very skeptical about where this class was heading. The previous staff turned over an extremely small list of commits for the incoming staff to build upon. What the staff did in the final few weeks of the recruiting cycle was nothing short of miraculous and I believe it provides the foundation for a strong steady climb back to relevance for the Gators instead of the roller coaster ride that a barren signing class this season may well have caused.

If you have read all three of these pieces you should have deduced that I am quite optimistic about the immediate future of this program. I do not see Florida as a contender for one the four playoff spots in 2015 but I do believe they could well contend for the SEC East this season. There is every reason to believe that McElwain and his staff will land a spectacular class in 2016 if the Gators field a quality team this year. I see no evidence that this will not be a program contending for the playoffs in the very near future.