Though there are still impact players in the transfer portal even into the middle of August the bulk of transfer portal activity has been completed and the Gators came away with a six-man transfer class. This consisted of Walter Clayton (Iona), EJ Jarvis (Yale), Micah Handlogten (Marshall), Tyrese Samuel (Seton Hall), Zyon Pullin (UC Riverside), and Julian Rishwain (San Francisco).
This is a group projected to have a huge instant impact while also having a number of multi-year players that could contribute for seasons to come.
Now that most team’s transfer classes are complete we can start to see where Florida’s class ranks among the teams nationally they are trying to compete with. There are a number of analytic tools and recruiting services that rank transfer classes, and today we’ll take a look at the top three that are considered to be the most reputable to see where they have the Gators stacking up.
Before we begin it’s important to note that evaluating transfer classes analytically is an art form that is in its infancy–with even the top recruiting tools only in their first or second year of trying to accurately gauge the quality of classes. Feel free to take anything you see from a transfer class ranking with a grain of salt, or even several. There are some noticeable differences from tool to tool, particularly when it comes to the quality or quantity comparison. As you will see some rankings value the total number of capable players brought in, while others rank smaller classes of better players more highly. With that being said, let’s get into it.
247 Sports is the first ranking system we’ll look at.
They have the Gators sporting the 12th ranked transfer class in the country with three four-star players (Clayton, Handlogten, and Pullin), two three-star players (Jarvis and Samuel), and one unranked (Julian Rishwain, who missed much of last season due to injury). This is fourth in the SEC with Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss ranking ahead of them. Most of the teams ahead of Florida in the rankings have exclusively four-star graded players which is likely the reason the Gators sit just outside the top-10.
Next, we’ll look at On3.
On3 has the Gators with the 5th ranked class in the country, a considerable jump up from 247. A quick look at their rankings and you can start to see why–On3 very much values quantity. Their number one ranked class is West Virginia who has seven incoming players, none of which are necessarily considered stars, and their number two class in Penn State with nine incoming players (again, none really considered to be studs) so it’s clear that On3’s algorithm is going to tilt towards volume. On the other hand, there are still a lot of teams that brought in 5+ transfers and the Gators are ahead of most of them–so clearly the metric still thinks Florida brought in some of the best talent in the country.
For some added information, On3 had the Gators losing one four-star player (Kowacie Reeves) and four three-stars (Trey Bonham, CJ Felder, Niels Lane, and Jason Jitoboh) meaning they were fairly high on Florida’s outgoing players.
Finally, we have Evan Miya. Evan Miya is very different from the first two information sources we have looked at. 247 Sports and On3 are recruiting services, but Evan Miya is an analytics tool that has in-depth features to evaluate the impact of players on their teams.
According to Evan Miya, the Gators have the number one transfer class in the country.
This might come as a bit of a shock, but Evan Miya is extremely high on the players Florida ended up landing–particularly Walter Clayton who the tool has as the 9th best player that transferred this season. The tool was also extremely high on Micah Handlogten, likely due to the fact his finishing numbers, rebounding rates, and block rates all were sky high which would play well into any analytical model. Evan Miya is surprisingly lower than consensus on the impacts of Tyrese Samuel and EJ Jarvis, but it’s so high on Clayton, Handlogten, and also Pullin that the Gators still ended up with the top-rated class.
With the three top tools for evaluating portal classes having the Gators 12th, 5th, and 1st, it’s clear that there is talent on this roster and there will be high expectations entering the 2023-24 season.