According to last year's composite talent ranking on 247, UF was 2nd in the East with 6 5*s and 50 4*s. Tennessee was next with 3 5*s and 26 4*s. No team in the East has more "roster talent" than UF other than Georgia.
We still got some quality talent in that class, Marshall, Collier, Sapp, Scooby Williams, Black, Borders, Elksnis, Boone and Watson. Some of them are developing quite well. Best of all, everyone qualified. I'll give Mullen credit for identifying talent but he was out of his league when it came to closing on elite prospects.
Blue-Chip Ratio 2022: The 15 teams who can actually win a national title Please delete if I'm not allowed to link to 247. Bud Elliot has an interesting blue chip ratio metric and UF is 10th in the nation there. We are easily 2nd in the east in talent.
You are allowed and IMO, they are the most reliable site for in-depth info on college football recruiting. I especially like their analysts.
I saw that too, and we certainly are not where we want to be. But there is no way that KY, SC, or UT are demonstratably more talented than we are - or that taking that kind of back-handed slap from a rival coach to heart is a particularly good idea. The assertion that we'd be even lower that 4th best in the west is total BS as well.
Have you considered the fact that KY had both significantly better coaching and a superior team culture might be important factors in both of those outcomes? Throw in about a zillion bone-headed penalties just for laughs, PLUS the worst P5 DC in recent memory, and I think you can probably answer your own rhetorical question without much trouble.
Well, lets look at the last 3 years....a timeframe where some of the kids would still be around 2019- UF outgains and wins in Lexington 2020- UF wins by 24 points and outgains UK by 200 yards 2021- UF loses by 7 in Lexington, outgains UK by 160 yards but blows it w penalties/special team screwups/miscues (none "talent" related) That's how I would make the argument, and would feel pretty comfortable with it. IF there was equal talent UK fans should be pretty upset with Stoops coaching
We need to focus on the TALENT on the Team this Year and the Coaching Team that we have in place. Should be a significant improvement across the board!
We were 7th in the team talent composite while Tennessee was 19th and Kentucky was 31st. The high school talent gap was huge between UF and those two schools. Any perceived talent deficiency relative to those teams had nothing to do with recruiting. Fourth in the SEC is just laughable. All of Missou, USCe, Tenn, and Kentucky had huge talent deficiencies to fill. The talent differential problem is with Georgia, not any other schools in the SEC East.
Taking NOTHING away from coach Stoops, I like UK football (do not mistake that with UK basketball please), he has done a terrific job at UK and deserves every possible accolade. Having said that UK better enjoy the recent couple of wins. This year they may have another shot, but I see another LONGGGG streak of futility ahead for cat football when it comes to playing the mighty Gators!
Who knows what our talent is, but coaching could go a long way to making up for deficiencies. If that's not true, how did our top 10 roster(nationally) get destroyed last season?
That's all true and we had our chance. But that was early in the season and their conditioning improved. Our game was a snapshot, not a trend. It would have been great to capitalize when we had the chance. That game was electric.