Kenny Sharpless

This year’s version of Signing Day produced a lot of mixed emotions amongst the Gator Nation. There were some great catches as well as some losses to some bitter rivals. I try to focus on the positives but some the recruits lost this year stung really bad, worse however, was the way in which the Gators lost commitments. The two big Signing Day switches involving Nu’keese Richardson and Marsalis Teague were a bit different in my opinion however. Marsalis I feel had more reason to switch and was something I could have seen coming. When a college choice sets in for a kid his age it can be scary and the distance factor seemed to have a profound effect on him. His state school came calling and in the end that was enough to sway him to the Volunteers.

Nu’keese Richardson’s story is more complicated however. As a fan it is hard enough for us to understand how anyone who ever thought of playing for the Gators could fathom ever suiting up for Tennessee, but when you factor in that he is from the state of Florida it is even more unimaginable. On top of that it appears as if he has known Lane Kiffin for no longer than a week, but all of the sudden is prepared to sign the next four years of his life away to him and Tennessee. This is frustrating to us fans but maybe Nu’keese really did see some things at UT that blew him away and I wish him well there (except for one Saturday every September for the next 4 years). My only complaint with Richardson’s situation is the way it was handled and Coach Kiffins behavior following the switch. There have been reports that Richardson was instructed to keep his switch a secret and Kiffin is ruffling more feathers in the SEC by accusing Coach Meyer of recruiting violations. Kiffin has no respect and apparently no knowledge of what the UF-UT rivalry or lack thereof has been like lately.

Other than these two potholes the rest of Signing Day was smooth for the Gators. We got a stud linebacker in 5-Star recruit Jelani Jenkins from suburban Washington D.C.. He is young for his age (only 16) but has a frame that should fill out quite nicely. That leaves us with an excellent linebacking class with him and Jon Bostic who is already on campus. Another highlight was getting Andre Debose. We needed a dynamic playmaker after the departure of Percy Harvin and even though Debose does not seem to like the comparisons to Harvin, they are unavoidable. His versatility and speed are perfect for our offense and it was good to hold off FSU for his signature. I thought overall though small on numbers our class covered most of our needs. We have 5 superb offensive linemen which we needed after the departure of our two starting tackles. On the other side of the ball Gary Brown is another stud defensive tackle and here’s hoping his freshman season turns out better than our past two stud recruits, Omar Hunter and Torrey Davis’ freshman seasons. An often overlooked recruit is Jordan Reed the quarterback out of Connecticut but he is an important recruit because it would simply not be ideal to head into the season with Tebow and Brantley as our only two quarterbacks. Simultaneously Reed has experienced players ahead of him so that he has time to sit, develop, and learn.

Perhaps we did not get another top-5 ranked recruiting class, but I feel that this year’s recruiting effort was just as effective as the past couple of years relative to what was needed. As fans we have a tendency to want to get every 5 star possible, and it is easy to forget that we have 8 starters returning on offense and our whole two-deep returning for the defense. This year’s class accomplished it’s goal which was simply to make sure we have depth not so much for this year as for 2 years from now and on. We have a couple of players that hopefully will have immediate impacts, and we all know how Urban loves to stick athletic freshman on special teams. So overall, it was another great day in Gator Nation, and as always it is great to be a Florida Gator.