2026 Gators Recruiting Thread

People blame the media. But the real culprit is us. We only trust media that tells us what we want to hear. It's biased when we don't like it. Certainly true for sports homers.

 

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

 

As it applies to sports I can agree with your take.

 

Its always biased.

 

Every roster has to make financial decisions as the rister starts to fill. All teams prioritize certain podi of need and it's constantly changing.

 

Kruel and Ford = a bunch of TFL.

 

Get back to me when the probability is greater than 90%. Until then one is just spitting in the wind to see if anyone is listening.

 

I like where our class is at this point. Early July, 15 commits, 15-16ish rating on most services, average 247 composite player rating of 91.00 and most of the teams ahead of us have 20+ commits. We are also rated #1 or top 2-3 on several blue chippers set to announce soon.

I think there’s a good chance we’ll be in the top ten by the start of fall camp.

 

I'm not even sure that we will be in the top 10 even if we finish strong, but there will be a jumble of 13 teams that will have that top talent spread among them and there won't be as strong of a case for 3 to 5 teams to be way ahead of the others. We are kind of seeing that parity shift with NIL, where there are some with a lot more money to spend, but some others will pile a lot of cash to one particular player that doesn't allow Bama, Georgia, and OSU (and now TX and Oregon) to run away with a roster stacked up and down with top 100 players. Top evaluation for key depth is going to be prized for all teams moving ahead just like it always has been for those not in the top 5 of recruiting.

 

I get your point and basically agree. Top ten is a historical feel good breakpoint but there’s definitely more parity now and finishing in the top 12-13 teams is the deal, for sure, with the compression at the top. We’ll be there for sure, IMHO.

 

GatorStu1, I'm going to write your "dislike" off as inexperience in following recruiting. Sixty percent confidence in a likely commit,in July, no less, is almost meaningless. Do I want to see this young man sign with UF? Absolutely, but seriously, how about waiting to issue a crystal ball notice until something more decided has occurred.

 

Do be aware though that some of these commitments have been known by these reporters putting in crystal balls for days or weeks, and they are just allowing the kid to have his announcement be a special moment. Other crystal balls are best estimates in this day of shifting NIL, e.g. Guervil was probably going to TX until we lost out on Cleveland, and the writer who picked Carey for us prefaced that it was on a confluence of details that pointed to us, but then Georgia loosened the purse strings to grab him after losing some battles to Miami. So not all picks are the same ,but some are pretty clear cut.

 

60% could be a very solid commitment in a kids head with a not so attractive bag.

 

Georgia has 27 and one 5* and bama has 16 and 4 5* and expected to add a fifth? The more things change, the more they stay the same. We have gotten a couple 5* guys lately but those top 100 guys ate still highly concentrated at pretty much tge same teams with a couple more with the finances that dont have to worry about being brought down by whoever decides who can cheat or not.

 

If the coaches get exactly what our recruiting ranking says we are, we are 8-4 and miss the playoffs? Am i wrong? Even if we go 10-2, looks to me like we have the the second tier round to start and have a good chance as any to win that game. If the top four teams actually get the buys they deserve, its pretty close to an automatic loss in the second round for whoever that may be. Theres always the outlier thing but the final four teams will have a very familiar lineup every year as long as they all buy the top 100 players and every else plays with the leftovers. Having 3-4 of those guys is nice but having 25 of them is an almost insurmountable advantage. Kirby is " in the talent acquisition business." Hes not a total mastermind, but a solid coach with a talent advantage.

 

It was talent and coaching. Now we got the talent but the coaching still has to prove itself. They’ve made changes that have clearly improved. Hopefully we see some breakthrough this year.

 

We have the talent? Sure, we are better than when Napier got here by far but do we have anywhere near the talent of the top five rosters?
Texas, Alabama and Georgia to me are far superior to the next ones in line. They all three had crappy quarterbacks last year or it would've been a different playoff.